reducing food--as training method

[Exitos872]

Dear lord
Read what im writing. My food says in cage all day...he finishes his food perfectly at 5. And no he doesnt thow it everywhere yes I monoter his food intake closely. You are so dramatic its funny. My bird is by no means hungry ever. Believe me hes a sun conure. If he doeant have what he waants you know it. Hes a very well ajusted sun as he does not sceeam bite or any other trait ive seen. He gets 25 roudybush medium pellets. Thats a lot go look . Its almost hard to beleave he can eat that in a 8 hour period but he does. And 26 pellets there is 1 extra always sometimes 2 but rarely. My bird is also out for the rest of the day when I get home and choses to barley eat after training. Im actualy done here I think I dont have to wxplain myself to anyone. I take extremely good care of my birds.

[Wolf]

Indeed, you do not need to explain yourself to either us or anyone else for that matter. But please stop to consider that the reason that we are asking and commenting in this manner is that we too care deeply about your birds welfare, it is the reason that we are here and willing to spend our time to research these birds and share all that we learn, both from research and from our personal experiences.
I know that I am not trying to imply anything bad, but I am trying to assure myself that you are giving your bird adequate food for its needs and this is the only way that I can accomplish this as you are my only eyes and ears into your birds life. Please try to understand that in most of the cases that we come across,, where people are feeding their birds in the manner that you have described that their birds are hungry. You may well be providing an adequate amount of food, and I have no reason to think that you would knowingly not give your bird enough. But, there should be no harm done by trying to find out and be sure of this, If I did not express my concern and try to find out for sure and made the claim that I care about these birds, Well I would then be a self proclaimed liar.

[liz]

lol you crack me up

I use what I have learned over the years to explain things.
I used to work for a farm supply company. More than one farmer told me that they cut back on their barn cats food to make them hunt rats. I informed them that a cat not only hunts for food but also play and if they were well fed they would catch more rats. They tried it. It worked. Underfed animals are weak and always have food on their minds. Well fed have energy enough to even waste on play. The farmers were also amazed at how loving and playful they were.

This is no laughing matter.

[Pajarita]

Indeed it's not a laughing matter but I know you only posted that to 'get back at me' because you did not like what I posted. I don't take offense, comments like yours simply slide off my skin so, don't worry because I don't hold it against you. But it worries me that you don't even consider that the possibility that we might be right and you might be wrong. Especially since it involves the health and wellbeing of your bird! Personally, I have 22 years of experience caring for parrots (and not one or two for a few months like you but hundreds of them) and thousands and thousands of hours of research and if anybody told me that I might be harming my birds, I would certainly look into it. Your bird hasn't reached adulthood yet so weight is not even an issue yet. At his age, he should have two kinds of food, one of them soft, always available to him until he is one year old and you are, literally, counting the pellets you give him even though he is, by any standard, underweight. Have you considered that you could be creating an eating disorder in him? Parrots do get them, you know.

[Wolf]

I know that you are trying to do what is right by your parrot and I also know that it is not an easy job and to make matters even more difficult for you, what we think of as the best keeps changing based on more and more information becoming available to us.
I freely admit to not liking pellets for birds and I don't use them for mine. I am also aware that at this time I am in the minority on this topic, but if you don't mind too much would you please read the article in the following link and tell me what you think about it, please.

http://www.africangreys.com/articles/nu ... ellets.htm

[Exitos872]

I am not very experienced with birds but from what I've read I have to agree that your bird should be dropping some of its food. Also if your a fan of michaels you will see that he recommends that the bird should have a little left over after its done eating. This insures that the bird has enough to eat. Just give him some extra. The cost is negligable so why not?

this is true if your taking food away after an hour... i am not if i had there would probably be about 20 left over pellets

[Exitos872]

Indeed it's not a laughing matter but I know you only posted that to 'get back at me' because you did not like what I posted. I don't take offense, comments like yours simply slide off my skin so, don't worry because I don't hold it against you. But it worries me that you don't even consider that the possibility that we might be right and you might be wrong. Especially since it involves the health and wellbeing of your bird! Personally, I have 22 years of experience caring for parrots (and not one or two for a few months like you but hundreds of them) and thousands and thousands of hours of research and if anybody told me that I might be harming my birds, I would certainly look into it. Your bird hasn't reached adulthood yet so weight is not even an issue yet. At his age, he should have two kinds of food, one of them soft, always available to him until he is one year old and you are, literally, counting the pellets you give him even though he is, by any standard, underweight. Have you considered that you could be creating an eating disorder in him? Parrots do get them, you know.

Not trying to "get back " at anyone. Never questioned your knowledge about anything. I just think your over the top and make some extremest judgments of people about some things.

[Exitos872]

lol you crack me up

I use what I have learned over the years to explain things.
I used to work for a farm supply company. More than one farmer told me that they cut back on their barn cats food to make them hunt rats. I informed them that a cat not only hunts for food but also play and if they were well fed they would catch more rats. They tried it. It worked. Underfed animals are weak and always have food on their minds. Well fed have energy enough to even waste on play. The farmers were also amazed at how loving and playful they were.

This is no laughing matter.

get over yourself

[Exitos872]

I know that you are trying to do what is right by your parrot and I also know that it is not an easy job and to make matters even more difficult for you, what we think of as the best keeps changing based on more and more information becoming available to us.
I freely admit to not liking pellets for birds and I don't use them for mine. I am also aware that at this time I am in the minority on this topic, but if you don't mind too much would you please read the article in the following link and tell me what you think about it, please.

http://www.africangreys.com/articles/nu ... ellets.htm

Good read. I mean i know if i had a perfect sun conure menu that Niko would eat all the time and finish all his vegies, id Totally agree. but chances are he wouldn't. He does get offered fruits and veggies daily, also gets vitamin supplements in his water. I just think routybush is a great base diet. I aslo think that even though not a necessity yet because hes young Its a good idea to get in good eating habits. Its amazing to me that you can be the only person on this forum to be informative without being a drama queen.

[liz]

I am not very experienced with birds but from what I've read I have to agree that your bird should be dropping some of its food. Also if your a fan of michaels you will see that he recommends that the bird should have a little left over after its done eating. This insures that the bird has enough to eat. Just give him some extra. The cost is negligable so why not?

this is true if your taking food away after an hour... i am not if i had there would probably be about 20 left over pellets

This would be like if your kid had crumbs on the floor after eating a meal then you would give him less next time to ensure that next time he will be more careful and get it in his mouth and also save you from having to sweep.

My Amazons throw empty almond shells on the floor and drop some of the food they are holding while perched on the top of their cage. My cockatiels don't do it deliberately but they really get into their food. I gave them chopped up raw broccoli yesterday. Maggie loved it. She had it all over her.

That is why brooms and dust pans were invented.