Getting your bird to eat healthy foods

[jriley]

Yet another request for help, everyone. Thanks for being patient with a newbie!

I guess I've been spoiled. I've had a number of pet birds over my lifetime and have never really had any issues until my Tucuman Amazon came to live with us. The latest thing I've started to obsess over with him is his diet.

He was a breeder bird and was on Roudybush pellets mixed with a bit of seed and nutriberries when I got him this past January. I've tried to expand his diet and have had mixed success. I have a hard time finding Roudybush in our area, so have tried to convert him to Zupreem. He'll eat it when I give it to him from my hand, but ignores it in the bowl in his cage even when it's left there all day. I tried Exact rainbow with even less results. He doesn't eat much of the Roudybush, either, which I still keep available to him at all times.

He absolutely loves nutriberries and I give him five of the staple diet berries in the morning before I go to work and he demolishes them in minutes. When I get home (4 pm), I give him an avi-cake and a few of the fruity nutriberries (he loves the ones with raisins and the tropical ones). I have a seed mix that has pellets, pasta pieces, veggies, and dried fruits that I get from Drs. Foster and Smith that he likes to pick the fruit out of, he mostly ignores the seeds.

I keep trying to give him fresh foods. His cage is next to the dining room table, so every time I eat I offer him something from my plate (avoiding, of course, the dangerous foods). He will take bread, chips, and pizza crust but everything else is thrown to the floor. I've given him mini corn cobs (fresh, not dried) and he ignores them. I try cooked veggies and he rejects them. I bought the Beak Appetit bean/pasta mix and he rejected that after days of offering it again and again. He will eat grapes and apples and sometimes a piece of banana. He won't eat strawberries or citrus or melon. He'll drink out of my cup and anything I have in my cup he will try-orange juice, water, water with a bit of lemon juice-and he is always very excited about drinking from my cup. If I put him on the dining room table while we're eating, he will scoot around and gurgle at everyone, but doesn't appear the least bit interested in our plates. Every other bird I've had has insisted on sharing what the family is eating and if you eat it or pretend to eat it they will devour it, but he doesn't take the bait.

He has constant access to pellets. I keep both the Roudybush and the Zupreem in separate bowls in his cage and that is the only food he has access to during the day while I'm at work. I offer him fresh foods on his playtop after work because I don't have the time to clean up a fresh food mess before work and don't want to leave fresh food sitting in his cage for hours. Could it be that he's just not hungry enough by late afternoon to be up for trying something new? I feel okay about his health since he does eat a mostly pelleted diet (sure doesn't seem like he eats much for a bird his size, though) and he isn't remotely thin (probably a touch too plump), but I sure would like to see him eat a more varied diet.

Has anyone had success getting a picky eater to expand his/her diet? I'd love to hear suggestions. I can't bear to think of him not having any food in his cage all day while I'm gone (I'm terrible about that, all my pets have constant access to dry food, I'm convinced they'll starve if they have set mealtimes). I do offer him fresh food in the mornings from the table with no better luck than in the afternoon.

Thanks in advance,
Julie Riley

[bb100]

My Amazon rehome was a seed junkie. I tried the mixing in slowly approach but I wised up to his tactics (he'd steal nuts from my CAG's area). Anyway, after speaking with my vet & realizing he was really overweight, the best approach I found was leaving very little for him to eat during the day, no treats at all and than offering him a very big cooked veggie/bean/rice meal at night.

It didn't take my Amazon long to figure out the evening meal was the only thing he was going to get. Sound's like tough love but after years of being on a seed only diet in his previous home my vet & I agreed to make the hard switch.

My Amazon now eats anything but he still steals food and is only slightly pudgie ie I can finally see his legs.

[Ginich]

Read this:

Wait till you see who I picked up at the FWCAS meeting last night!


and the Gini's BIRDIEBREAD story-maybe I can help....
Ginich's BirdieBread

[Wiggi]

It´s not necessary for a bigger parrot to have constant access to food, so I would feed twice a day and perhaps give some snacks between the meals. I would feed a lot of different fruits and veggies in different shapes (chopped, bigger pieces etc.). Since your parrot is an amazon, it´s important to feed foods that contain a lot of vitamin A (papaya, pepper, sweet potatoe, mango, carrots). It may take some time, but eventually he´ll eat. It´s good to keep an eye on his weight so he doesn´t loose to much during the switch period (no more than 10%).

What is nutriberries? It sounds like something not so healthy. If it´s not, I wouldn´t serve it at all, or at least in very small amounts. In my opinion, fresh food is always preferable to all those "complete, natural foods" and much cheaper.

[Pepper's Pa]

Julie, I read the frustration in your post over not being able to expand the variety of foods your new Amazon is eating. If you've only had him since January, he is still new to your environment and I wouldn't give up on offering new foods.
If his base diet was Roudybush pellets, I'd try to make sure that you keep that food in his diet. You say that Roudybush is not available in your area, but if you’re already ordering from Drs. Foster and Smith, they have it available on their site for purchase. The Roudybush you leave in his cage during the day is a healthy food source for him.
Not knowing any of the background on this Amazon other than that he was a breeder, it's hard to make specific suggestions.
One suggestion would be to work on the normal feeding behavior of most birds. Most birds are very hungry in the morning. Remove all food from his cage when you cover him in the evening. Try offering the new, healthy and fresh foods as soon as you uncover him in the morning. Be sure to provide the food in his usual food bowl. An increased appetite will often stimulate a reluctant eater to try a new food. Before leaving for work, remove the fresh foods and give him his Nutri-Berries and Roudybush.
Often, foods that a parrot needs to forage to find are of more interest and often eaten. Here’s a link to a great reference: http://onafricanwings.com/Parrot%20E...ity%20Book.pdf Go to page 26 and begin reading from there.
For more ideas on foods and feeding, visit the food and feeding page on Pepper’s Web Site. There may be ideas there that you can immediately use with your Amazon. Here’s a link to the page: http://home.earthlink.net/~senegalpa...irds/Food.html
Since he has been a breeder, he may not associate people as flock members. This may be the reason he has no interest in the food on your plates when he’s placed on your table.
Just keep providing him with the opportunities to try new foods. Remember how you prepare the food may have a huge effect on how he accepts it. Pepper loves to eat raw carrots cut into sticks. He won’t eat carrots cut into circles or any carrot that’s cooked. He gobbles down lightly steamed broccoli, but won’t eat it raw. How the food is prepared and offered may make a big difference.
Part of your problem may be that he has a “sweet beak”. He likes foods high in sugar such as grapes and apples.
I would continue to provide him with the opportunities to improve the variety in his diet. I had foods I’d offer Pepper and he’d ignore them for many months. Now he eats them regularly.
Good luck with your Amazon.
Keith


Wiggi, “What is nutriberries? It sounds like something not so healthy.” Nutri-Berries are a healthy food source that may be used as a regular diet or as a supplemental treat. Here’s a link to information on Nutri-Berries: http://www.lafeber.com/products/nutri.aspx

[jriley]

Thanks for the suggestions. I loved that pdf parrot book! I saved it to look at at length later. Great ideas for toys and play areas. I've been trying to think of how to get him comfortable around the house and there were some good ideas there. I will definitely try your idea for freezing the food ahead so that it is quick to feed him fresh in the mornings. Maybe he won't yell so loud in the a.m. if he's busy eating goodies while I get ready for work. Thanks again for all the great advice.