Rainbow, Myrtle & Cockatiels

[liz]

Another egg in the middle of the floor this morning. I wonder if these kids know they are in Florida.
Light on at 8 am and feed then light off at 5 pm and fed some budgie seed. I give them about a pint of gloop in the morning and they don't eat it all. Then I give them 1/3 c of seed at night and they don't eat it all.

Rambo complains that I don't give him enough evening food. He eats it all in a couple minute. You have me scared of what to feed them. He is always anxious when I bring in a new plate and runs right to it even though he does not eat all his morning food.

[Wolf]

You might do a little research into the food that your cockatiels are eating and reduce the amount of those foods containing vitamin E and reduce the amount of light to a maximum of 10 hours as they apparently need 10 to 12 hours of light to breed and the require more vitamin E as well for breeding. This information came from Avian Web.

[Pajarita]

You are doing fine. Don't worry about the egg, it just takes time, Liz. They don't stop producing sexual hormones from one day to the next and, even when they finally stop, the hormones need to dissipate from their blood stream and none of these things happen overnight even if conditions become ideal.

Has Rambo has had a bile acid test lately, Liz? I don't like the fact that he is so hungry and taking into consideration his species, his age and the diet he has been getting, I would make sure that his liver is doing OK...

[liz]

Rambo was used to having free choice of peanuts, almonds and seed. Before me he also had jelly beans and cheese curls. You caught me on the free choice. Now he gets 2 almonds under his gloop for breakfast and half an English walnut with 2 little unsalted pretzels. He gets a lot of fruit and veg but does not eat all of that.

I think he is missing his free choice. I just don't know what else I can give him that is good for him.

[Wolf]

Is Rambo eating all of his seed from dinner?

[liz]

No, he does not want the budgie seed. He is basically eating his nut and pretzels.

[Wolf]

I don't know, Liz. I don't think much of pretzels as dinner, I think of them more as a treat type of food. Do you think that if you went to a larger size of seed mix that he might eat them better? How is his weight holding? perhaps giving him more gloop with his small seed mix might help, but I don't know.
It might not be much of a help but I wonder if he could see some of the other birds eating while he is also eating might serve to encourage him. They do watch each other and copy what the others are doing to some degree and food time is a social event for them. You know how that is, no one likes to eat alone.

[Pajarita]

Liz, what grains are you using for your gloop? Because I know you said he did not like it but all birds like gloop for the simple reason that they all like seeds and grains. Only thing is, some of them don't like the little grains/seeds and others don't like strong-tasting ones (a number of my birds don't like rye, for example) so it's just a matter of tweaking the recipe and timing the meals correctly until they get used to eating it. Try lightly cooking kamut, wheat kernels and black lentils, mix them with a bit of safflower seed and see what happens.

But, Liz, I don't mean to put you on the spot but every time I ask you about a bile acids test for him, you don't reply and he needs one. He is an amazon (very prone to fatty liver diseases), 30 years old (OLD for a pet parrot), he has been eating a real bad diet (seeds, peanuts, pretzels, jelly beans, etc) for a loooong time and you've mentioned his 'hunger'... all things that are very worrisome. You need to know exactly what you are dealing with and the only way to do it is by his getting a complete physical. I know that you don't like to leave your house but you are going to have to bite the bullet and do it or get one of your children to take him to an avian vet.

[liz]

It has been a long time since he has had blood work.

Old parrots like old people are set in their ways. I hide his almonds under the gloop and the only gloop he gets is what gets in his mouth while he was digging.

Pretzels are hollow filler but I don't know how to fill him up. He is used to parrot seed and peanuts or almonds. To cut back on the protein I give him half a walnut and his pretzels.

He is stubborn. He has lost weight. Should I buy some parrot seed and take the peanuts and sunflower out.

I don't think he is sick. A sick bird does not play and he always plays after a feeding.

[liz]

I don't know what is wrong but I keep loosing my posts.

Yesterday I bought parrot seed and took out the peanuts before I gave it to them. Rambo squealed with joy and Myrtle just said "mmmmmmm". They were happy campers. The last time they had it it was free choice. How much should I feed them? I give my cockatiels 3/4 of a cup of seed for all of them an there are leftovers. Gimpy won't come out of his cage so I give him a teaspoon of seed and it seems to be enough. I leave there gloop in and they pick through it until I change it for see so they don't eat that much seed.