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Post by andreas on Jan 14, 2009 20:46:40 GMT
I'm curious as to how you introduced new food to your birds.
I have some birds that I purchased from pet shop and they are seedoholic, and I want for their long term health to introduce them to fresh food, pellets and also my prize-winning, great smelling egg food (or at least I think so.. my birds clearly don't agree).
I'm sure many of you had a similar problem and had just as many ways of resolving it.
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Post by Scully on Jan 15, 2009 3:57:26 GMT
and also my prize-winning, great smelling egg food (or at least I think so.. my birds clearly don't agree). sounds as thought we should all try it! Do you want to convert them to pellets, and what birds are they? Lasy year i took on Hahns macaw, and at one point she went right off fresh foods, and became a bit of a sunflower junkie. I bought two types of pellets, and slowly found out which ones she was eating. I started off just adding a few to her seed mix, but kept one bowl available full of pellets. I also pretended to eat them myself, and when i saw her eating them she got alot of praise from me. It took about 6 -7 weeks to convert her, slowly adding more and more pellets instead of seed mix. I also kept trying allsorts of fresh food, and sprouted her sunflower seeds. I thought of colour, size of what i was giving her, and how. The one thing she still was eaing a bit of was apple, so i did keep the apple in most days. I sat down with a plate of food with her, and pretended to share it as well. For the first time i started cooking for my birds, and found that went down well, the base of what i make for them is vegetables, even my little guys (budgies) enjoy that. I was also giving her pure fruit juice, as it was another way to get some goodness into her. Cranberry, orange, etc. I just tried everything, i could think of and slowly she started eat things again. I have a conure that is a real little piggy, and whatever i make up for him in he mornings, he will eat most of it. I put thier cages together so she could see when i gave them thier breakfast , him tucking in. If its little birds, once one or two start eating , normally the others will follow. My Kaks in the avairy who eat quite well, incouraged the budgies. Seeds and nuts etc i put into thier forage boxes, or toys. Keep trying.. it will happen This link is great, and will give you ideas what to try, and what the value and nutrition of the different foods have www.holisticbirds.com/pages/foodpp1002.htm
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Post by andreas on Jan 15, 2009 12:25:00 GMT
Thank you very much for the link and that is a beautiful looking conure!
The birds I have are the following: turquoisine parakeets and zebra finches. I have an indoor aviary and by the time I'll be finished populating it, I am counting on having some linoelated parakeets, perhaps some splendid and various type of finches (seed eaters).
I don't want to convert them completely to pellets, but would like this to be their main food, together with fresh fruit and vegetables. With seed and sprouted seeds only 3 times a week.
I know a lot about nutrition for humans and although, I'm not an avian vet, my instinct tells me that an all seed diet is not beneficial for captive birds. I can see why a free Zebra finch would eat mainly seeds, but these would not be easily available and the bird would have to fly over long distances to secure a meal. In this case seeds that contain lots of fat make perfect aviation fuel for birds. But birds in cages or aviary, do not fly that far, but more importantly have constant supply of food. If this food is too rich they will end up being too fat.
What I want to achieve is a diet that keeps them healthy, with lots of variety so keeping them interested in food, and the occasional treat. For this to be the case I need to get them interested in all the greens, egg food and cooked food I provide them with.
I have been thinking of offering them the new food mixed with the old food, in the morning and only offer that for the first 5 hours. I have almost converted them to my egg food that way. After that give them their seeds. Do you think this method has potential for success?
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