Hi, Sherri and WOW thank you so very much for your offer to receive me in your home and serve me meals in bed! It sounds like heaven to me [I only get a cup of tea in bed in the early am for my birthday and Mother's Day -and that only if my husband is not working that day
] but, unfortunately for me, I won't be able to visit you. I hardly ever go anywhere because of the animals -mostly because of the birds. I am going back home for a visit in February and even though there will be a family reunion, my husband will be staying behind to care for my 'babies'.
Anywho, let's go back to the subject at hand. Solar light schedule: I am afraid it means that there should be complete darkness for the bird once night falls naturally after dusk. Birds are the most light-dependent of all animals - so much so that, for them, light is like a nutrient. Nature made it so that even when they are asleep [eyes closed], their body is still registering whether they are exposed to light or not because they not only have photoreceptors cells in their eyes [like humans and all mammals have] but also deep in their brain with cranial bones so very thin that light actually goes through them reaching the brain inside [isn't that the coolest thing?!]. And even very low light makes a difference [there are myriad studies done on wild birds, chickens, etc that tell us this] so, after night falls and the bird is fast asleep in its cage, you would need to cover the cage completely [making sure that no light whatsoever is sneaking in there] UNLESS you put a sleeping cage in a room where no people are going to be going in and out all the time. I have birds that live cage-free in their own room and they don't even get the venetians drawn on their windows but that's because their room is at the back of the house with a second window on the side that faces another house so there are no street lamps or any other type of light shining into their room. The birds that live in cages in the living and dining room get both the venetians drawn AND their cages covered with black out materials PLUS no light is allowed in these two rooms [I even have black out curtains on the opening to the kitchen] and no noise [my husband always mumbles about not being able to speak in his own house because of the birds
]. Of course, this means no company after dusk and, in the winter, that means 3:30 pm but I've been doing this for a long time and everybody who knows me has made peace with this years and years ago [my family and friends think I am crazy but, as my kids say: "A good kind of crazy"
]. And tell Larry TV is 100% out because screens [TV, tablet, etc] give out blue light that inhibits melatonin production -and contrary to popular belief, although melatonin main effect is the hormoanl one on sleep patterns [it's called 'the hormone of darkness'], it's also an antioxidant, regulates blood pressure and it's directly related to the immune system function -especially in birds!
Diet: Please do not give your birds the fruity pellets. They are, by far, the worst of the bad. I've done research on parrots natural diets, dietary ecology, nutrition and their physiology for over 20 years and have reached the conclusion a long time ago that pellets are not and never will be the best dietary option for them [my birds eat gloop and raw produce for breakfast and seeds/nuts for dinner]. I can elaborate on this, if you wish, but, to make a long story short: they are waaaay too dry [parrots diet is 85-95% water and are not hardwired to drink a lot or during the day -I can explain in more detail, if you wish], have inferior ingredients [animal feed grade], soy [cheapest source of protein but with goitrogenic and estrogenic elements], man-made vitamins [not efficient] and, the ones you are feeding have artificial colors, flavors AND SUGAR!!!!!! And sugar is the worst thing about them because parrots never consume sucrose in the wild -so much so that they don't even have taste receptors for sweet so, if they cannot taste it, why is the manufacturer adding it to their food? Could it be for its addictive properties? I personally know of four macaws that suffer from diabetes [a disease that exists ONLY in captive birds] and three of them were fed the fruity pellets - you do the math.
As to getting a parrot to eat produce... well, I have to tell you that I don't have trouble with this but then I have been doing this for a long time and have tweaked things here and there as the years have gone by. And, most of all, I have patience and don't worry much over them not eating every single little thing I put out for them because experience has shown me that, eventually, they will end up eating a good diet. The trick is what I call the 'tweaks' but which, in reality, are the diet I offer them [VERY similar to their natural diets in terms of nutritional parameters], the schedule [same as they would in the wild] and their natural intelligence and hard-wired ability to imitate actions. I give them their raw produce while I am cleaning their cages which happens about one hour after they are let out [6:30 am this time of the year] and most of them like to start eating it outside their cages [I always eat fruit with them and, sometimes, a bit of the veggie], then I give them their gloop about an hour after that and put them back into their cages for about half an hour [they are so used to this that I have a few that would fly to their cage and go in on their own when I tell them to do this because their food is being served -and I have one that questions me if I am late
]. They only get one single treat at mid-afternoon when I put them back in their cages. I turn off the overhead lights when the sun is halfway down to the horizon and feed them dinner a bit later [this time of the year, I turn off the lights at 4 pm and feed them dinner at 4:30]. Their dinner is a measured amount of a good quality seed mix [budgie for the budgies, plets and small conures -cockatiel for all the others] but the larger birds get mostly nuts [human grade and toasted]. For example, Linus Too [he is an LSC] gets about 1/4 level measuring cup of ABBA 1600C with half a walnut, an almond and a pistachio [the nuts themselves vary from one week to the next so it could be filberts, pecans, brazil nuts, cashews and even an actual peanut -human grade and roasted- on occasion]. They also get two daily dosages of a mutivitamin/mineral supplement twice a week [so, in reality, they get 2/7 of the recommended weekly dose] - this is because they only really need it for D3 and whatever little lack there could be in their dietary nutritional intake [but the hens that lay get extra D3 - I do not breed them but I do strive for them to have a life as natural as possible so I get them mates and allow them to nest, lay and even incubate only no babies come out because I either switch the real eggs with plastic ones or hard-boil them. This way, they are happy because they are allowed to act on what their bodies are asking them to do and I am happy because I am not contributing to the terrible overpopulation problem we have.
Cage: yes, please keep him in his cage for a few days while he gets used to things. Allowing them to have free rein from day one seems the kind thing to do but, in reality, it can be pretty overwhelming and counterproductive because change stresses them out and staying in their known, familiar cage makes them feel 'protected' from the new humans and household. And don't think that because he is not biting as much, he is on his way to being always good because although I did not want to scare you on my first posting, I was actually quite concerned about a bird that is actually attacking on his honeymoon period [the flying out to a shoulder just to bite is an attack, not a 'normal' biting]. Birds are ALWAYS on their very best behavior during the honeymoon so a bird that attacks a couple of days into it, it's a VERY aggressive bird. Mind you, not that the behavior cannot be corrected. It can. I can assure you this. And I know because I've had several birds like him. But you do need to go slow and keep in mind that this is a learned behavior on his part [parrots are not hard-wired for aggression because they are not predators or evolved to live in a hierarchical society] and that correcting it is going to imply not only turning the 'clock' back [he needs to 'unlearn' the behavior] but also to prevent as much as possible any recurrence of it [because you don't want him to continue thinking that this is something 'done' in your house but you also don't want to 'punish' him by putting him in his cage when he does it because he will resent it as, after all, this behavior was not his first choice but something that humans who did not know how to deal properly with a parrot taught him].