New Member + new Blue Headed Pionus!

[Wolf]

I feed all of my birds gloop and fresh produce in the mornings and leave it for them all day long without changing it out. Yes the produce starts looking all wilted, but it is still good. The gloop also seems to hold up for the day and I have not had any health issues with any of them from budgies and parrotlets to Greys and Amazons.
I can't say why she has not picked up on another way of calling for you except that maybe no one realized that they could teach her this. I would not be giving her seeds or pellets or any other high protein foods until dinner time, if she is out of other food then I would give her more of them. Other than calling you for lack of food she is calling you because she wants attention. They are flock animals and highly social, they need and crave your presence and attention just as much as food and water.

[Pajarita]

Same here: gloop and raw produce for breakfast and all day picking and a measured portion of a good quality seed mix for dinner (with nuts for the larger species). And, please, NO eggs! They are not only high in protein and fat, they are also loaded with bad cholesterol something that the natural diet of parrots never has so nature did not give their bodies a mechanism to get rid of it

As to her stopping her screams and picking up human language... well, it takes a long time for anything to happen with parrots but she might never talk or even make funny noises. There is a percentage of parrots that never pick these up....

[flappybird]

I'm having a hard time figuring out how gloop is different than chop...I'm still trying to find this gloop for dummies recipe on the forum but haven't come across it yet.

One of you mentioned that you preferred gloop to chop in a previous post because chop was too wet, but the one I made is holding together really well and not mushy/wet/nasty. More crumbly than anything. I'm also trying to figure out if she gets all the ingredients. I can't really tell because she never eats anything completely enough that it disappears from the plate. I do know that she aims for sweet potatoes, squash, beans, and sometimes carrots, but I can't tell if she's getting any of everything else in there.

As for talking, a talking parrot has never really been my goal or concern but it would be nice for communication, even if it's just whistles.

I took Luna outside today and misted her for a while in full sun. She doesn't appear to love or hate the misting, but doesn't really move much or open her wings or anything while it's happening. Her previous owner said she misted her sometimes with the hose in her cage outside but it doesn't seem like something she is familiar with or is looking for. I want her to like showers because I feel like her feathers need it. The ones under her wings and on legs always look kind of weird, a lot of white down stuff, and the ones on her leg are long and poky and not ever really smooth. I wish she had opened her wings during the shower.

I'm home with her alone for the first time today since I got her (she's had two alone days with my boyfriend- who by the way is definitely the object of her clucking hormonal displays), and one day with both of us. She's napping in her cage now after our excursion outside.

[Wolf]

Well I see that you found the Gloop for dummies topic. The very first thing is that it is based on whole grains which the chops don't always have and it is a cooked food and that means that it will hold up longer than a chop will and still be good.
right now there is very little that will seem familiar to her as you have only been together a few days and everything is new and scary to her.

[Pajarita]

If she wasn't 'carrying on' under the shower, she wasn't liking it. When birds like it, they turn around, open their wings, separate their feathers, cluck, etc. I had a zon and have another one now that would put the tips of their wings together in front of them, as if they were praying - the cutest, cutest thing!

Wolf is correct, chop is usually just raw veggies and fruits finely chopped which, after a couple of hours would start releasing a lot of water making it mushy -which my birds do NOT like. Gloop is half cooked whole grains and pulses and half blanched veggies so it 'holds' 200 times better than chop (it never gets watery, not even after hours and hours). Mash is like chop only everything is almost pureed -and, again, my birds don't like it. The other difference is that people use chop or mash as THE source of veggies, fruits and greens while I give them gloop as well as raw produce which I prefer to present in larger portions like whole leaves and either whole fruits and veggies (blueberries, blackberries, grape tomatoes, etc) or in chunks (almost everything else). It seems a more natural way of feeding to me...

[flappybird]

If she wasn't 'carrying on' under the shower, she wasn't liking it. When birds like it, they turn around, open their wings, separate their feathers, cluck, etc. I had a zon and have another one now that would put the tips of their wings together in front of them, as if they were praying - the cutest, cutest thing!

Wolf is correct, chop is usually just raw veggies and fruits finely chopped which, after a couple of hours would start releasing a lot of water making it mushy -which my birds do NOT like. Gloop is half cooked whole grains and pulses and half blanched veggies so it 'holds' 200 times better than chop (it never gets watery, not even after hours and hours). Mash is like chop only everything is almost pureed -and, again, my birds don't like it. The other difference is that people use chop or mash as THE source of veggies, fruits and greens while I give them gloop as well as raw produce which I prefer to present in larger portions like whole leaves and either whole fruits and veggies (blueberries, blackberries, grape tomatoes, etc) or in chunks (almost everything else). It seems a more natural way of feeding to me...

Oh, the chop I've been reading about is supposed to have tons of whole grains and other "dry" ingredients that help soak up moisture. I also don't put any fruits in it so it doesn't get soggy and gross. I will also supplement with fresh fruits and veggies. The chop I made doesn't have enough whole grains, mostly because it was my first time and it was last minute shopping. So maybe I guess what I'll be making is more "gloop" then "chop" haha!

Luna spent the whole day with Michael (boyfriend) again today because he had the day off, I'm pretty sure she's starting to prefer him, which breaks my heart a little bit but it's okay because it's wayyyyy better than an aggressive or territorial bird. They hung out outside, in the kitchen, on the couch. Apparently she likes some R.E.M. but not the Decemberists... she's also reportedly more active and less nervous. Hopping around the couch a lot instead of sitting still and trying to launch herself at his slice of pizza (which she did not get any of). He just left to run an errand and she jumped off her food dish which is on the windowsill and starting running back and forth trying to look at him. What a sweetie.

Her first vet appointment is Wednesday, I only made one because she is new to me and will be new to the vet, and according to her previous owner has no history of illness and hasn't gotten sick while she's had her. Which made it sound like she hasn't been to the vet in three years.

[flappybird]

Oh! I've decided to just quit giving her the seed mix, except for a small amount in a travel cage that she hangs out on top of but hardly ever goes in because it's new. The seeds are motivation. I hope to use them later for training. It's been two days of this so far and she has not starved herself at all, just gorged on everything else I gave her. In place of the seeds I left a VERY small amount of pellets in her (normally seed) bowl so she would have consistent food through out the day. The first day she picked out all the banana shaped zupreem ones, so today I gave her mostly roudybush and barely any zupreem and she ate almost all of them. Or at least tried, because it's all powder and crumbs leftover this evening. She's eating her second serving of chop/gloop now.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to when or how I should start training? I've tried one target training session so far, but she is VERY confused and just scared of the stick. She can't figure out that it means treats, even with a clicker and immediate treats for just reaching for it when it's an inch from her face. Not really sure how to proceed.

[Wolf]

I don't know how much of the pellets she is eating if it is all powder and crumbs it could be very little so you need a gram scale to weight the pellets before she gets them and then when you take it out so that you can know how much she is eating. I don't like pellets and feed a seed mix for their dinner and remove it when they go to sleep. You do need to control the amount of protein in their diet but they still do need some protein especially if this is a young parrot that is not yet an adult, they need it to build strong muscles and bones just like every other living animal.

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=227
This link should help you with target or clicker training.

[flappybird]

I still plan on giving her some seeds, I just don't want her to learn to eat less of other better foods in favor of her seed mix. She's 10.. does that count as not adult? I think I read that average age for BH Pionus is somewhere around 30. Plus, she also gets proteins from greens and beans/legumes!

I will check out that link. Thanks

[Wolf]

She is an adult.