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Food Management For Training

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Food Management For Training

Postby Electic » Fri Feb 22, 2013 9:03 pm

How do you manage your parrots food so they are performing well during training sessions?

I recently began to let my birds forage throughout the day, but this lets them stay somewhat full throughout the day, so training sessions have gone down a bit.

I was just wondering, how do you manage foraging/breakfast/dinner and training and keeping them motivated if they are only food motivated.
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Re: Food Management For Training

Postby marie83 » Sat Feb 23, 2013 6:21 am

You need to first work out how much food your bird needs to maintain a good weight- and yes sorry this means weighing everything ( all food and bird) and it does take some time to establish.

Then I break the whole days allowence into sections, believe me with small birds this is really hard because the portions are so tiny anyway.
-morning feed
-foraging
-evening feed
-treats

Some people dont believe the foraging is necessary if the parrots are earning treats from training but I believe its still an important activity for them, it just takes a little more work when working it into a food management scheme. I still monitor exactly what they are eating with no worse an accuracy level than anyone else, my birds dont go hungry because the foraging toys get emptied into their evening meal if they havent got everything out of them themselves and they are still willing to train with a high success rate.
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Re: Food Management For Training

Postby Pralina » Wed Mar 06, 2013 10:31 pm

weighing weighing weighing everything is the key! ;) your bird, every meal, every day!!! :thumbsup:
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Re: Food Management For Training

Postby Wayne361 » Thu Mar 07, 2013 7:43 pm

As mentioned above, make sure you are feeding proper amounts based on birds baseline weight. To answer your question specifically, I train before bird's evening/bedtime meal thus ensuring bird is motivated in accepting treats. Never free feed (if you do) as per weight/health issues and training motivation. On another note, keep training sessions short so motivation/attention stays at a high level.

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Re: Food Management For Training

Postby KC Cameron » Mon Dec 02, 2013 11:05 pm

I eat different amounts on different days. Sometimes it is due to activity, sometime I have no idea . . . it is my belief that this is the same with most animals.

Allowing a parrot to eat anytime it wants will insure it is never very hungry, and can, with some birds, lead to weight issues and hormone issues. It will also make some less "eager to please" for training. I have also found mixing goodies in the pellet diet makes treats less enticing too. If you plan not to train your bird, I'm sure they appreciate the change in the monotonous diet - but those goodies are gold when training.

I have found that feeding them twice a day for 20 minutes works well for me and my U2 and GW. I am not sure how good it is for smaller birds. During training they get treats - and with me 2 hours a day of training is not unusual at all. Sometime I don't take the bowl out in 20 minutes, but I know how much they eat now, so it makes little difference since I only put in a limited amount.

I train them before feeding them, but not necessarily immediately before. This is so they are hungry, thus more motivated to train, but if they don't want to train, they aren't immediately rewarded with a meal.

The first meal is pellets (currently Harrisons), and the second is whatever we are eating for dinner plus a few pellets. We eat a lot of veggies (tonight 6 types of veggies and two fruits) so that is what they get.

Anyway, it is hard to tell if your parrot friend is losing or gaining weight, especially if they are small, so a scale is necessary. I wouldn't allow them to lose more than 10% w/o consulting an avian vet. Parrots do not act sick unless they are in bad shape. This is because as a prey animal, the sick, weak and young are hunted first.

With my GW and U2, due to their size, I can keep track of them by feeling their craw and breast bone. There craw tells me how much food is left, and their breast bone tells me if they are near their target weight. Still, a scale is necessary.

As an overweight human, I have found that a reduction in my diet does not mean weight loss. My body adjusts to the few calories by being more efficient. I am eating 1/3 of what I was eating a year ago with no weight loss. I figure it is that way with birds - to a degree. Birds have much higher metabolisms, so they need a lot more food for their weight. Still it is my experience, that they become more efficient in burning the calories when they come off a "graze as you want buffet" to a lighter fare. My experience is limited, and any advise you take should be taken with a grain of salt.
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Re: Food Management For Training

Postby Dbeguy » Mon Dec 16, 2013 1:03 pm

A thought just occured to me. If you perhaps wanted to "spread out" foraging or delay them feeding, could you freeze it? put the food out and let it slowly thaw over several hours?
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Re: Food Management For Training

Postby Graeme » Wed Dec 18, 2013 5:29 am

I only train my sunnie Bailey in the morning. Right after he has had his big poop we begin training, he is alert, a little hungry and raring to go and really eager to have some fun.

I feed him pallets in the morning and a selection of fruit and veg in the evening, he gets small treats throughout the day and for training treats he gets sunflower seeds. The training sessions are roughly 30 min if he is ok and concentrating I will extend it to an hour.

I managed to weigh him this morning for the first time, he is 120 grams. Just like ourselves and my dog, I don't weigh his food, I believe he will eat what he feels is sufficient, just as long as he is getting a proper diet. He is also flighted and gets lots of exercise throughout the day flying around the house, once I have him harness trained he will be able to spend some time outside flying and running around.

The morning sessions are best, he has a lot more interest and is more alert, We did try training before the evening meal, but with all the activity throughout the day, it seemed like he was just to buggered to concentrate properly.

Hope it helps :)
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Re: Food Management For Training

Postby Dbeguy » Thu Dec 19, 2013 1:32 pm

Graeme wrote:The morning sessions are best, he has a lot more interest and is more alert, We did try training before the evening meal, but with all the activity throughout the day, it seemed like he was just to buggered to concentrate properly.
Hope it helps :)


Some of us are really horrible morning people. I guess that all changes when you get a >>> :gray:
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