Hello from a new owner to lscc and new to forums

[Wolf]

Actually many of us do not use the quick gloop recipe that uses the Kashi 7 grain pilaf, most of us purchase the whole grains that we use separately from either the supermarket and/ or the health foods stores or even order them from online. It is not important to use exactly the same grains found in the Kashi, what is important is that you use a variety of whole grains to make this food. I know that the ingredients in mine vary in accordance with what is available in my area when I but the ingredients as does the selection of vegetables that are included in it.
A comment of the covering of your bird at night, if I may. If I were in the situation that you describe with your bird I would cover my birds after it got dark so that I could use my lights until I was ready to go to bed myself and then uncover them. In this manner I would not have to get up before dawn to uncover them. Please disregard this if I misread and the bird would still remain in a darkened room when my lights came on.
It sounds that you are doing well, just be patient and allow your bird to acclimate to any changes that you make in their environment as they are not the best at coping with such changes and it does create stress for them.

[Pajarita]

Yes, I was going to make the same comment as Wolf, the bird cannot be exposed to artificial lights after sunset or before dawn, it needs to go to sleep as night falls naturally and continue all night long so, if you need to use the room where he is in, make sure you cover his cage entirely with a black-out material and that no light shines inside -keeping sounds to a minimum is also good as they would keep him up at night. Now, I know from personal experience, what a pain in the neck this is so I can well understand if you have a negative reaction to this advice. We never have people over in the evening when the days get short because I have birds both in the living and dining room and boy is this inconvenient! But, unfortunately, it's the only way you can keep a parrot healthy in captivity. What most people do is have two cages, one for during the day and one for sleeping in a room where they will be no human traffic. What they do is put the parrot in it when they turn off the overhead lights and give it its dinner and let it eat and roost in peace until it goes to sleep naturally. In the morning (and because the cage is not covered), the bird would wake up with dawn and the human would go 'pick it up' early in the morning (not later than one hour after dawn) to put it in its day cage and serve it breakfast. The birds get used to the routine and gladly go into the sleeping cage to get their dinner and sleep.

As to the Kashi recipe, I put it there because it's fast and easy but I don't use Kashi. I use wheat kernels, kamut, hulled barley, oat groats, black (Japonica) and red (Weehani) rice mixed with small white beans, a bit of flax and a bit of sesame seed, and the veggies (corn, carrots, peas, chopped green beans, cubed butternut squash, sweet potatoes in chunks, chopped broccoli, blue kale, artichoke hearts).

You are doing VERY well! You, obviously, have the bird's best interest at heart, have an open mind and are willing to adjust your lifestyle to its needs and that's what makes a good parrot keeper and a happy parrot.

[Harpmaker]

I use the Kashi 7-grain pilaf because with just one small bird I need a relatively small amount of grains per batch. I add steel-cut oats, cooked brown rice, a little flax seed,and whatever other whole grains I have available, along with the rinsed canned white beans and the mixed veggies. I freeze it in ice trays, then give Corsair a thawed "ice cube" per day with her fresh produce. It's never the same from batch to batch even with the Kashi base. I still don't have a local source for the pilaf, but Amazon has it.