Rainbow, Myrtle & Cockatiels

[liz]

Sunset beams through their window and stays bright until 7:30. That is why I close the curtain. I turn out their sunshine light at 5 so without the regular light it is dark.

So what do I do about so much sun coming in at that time?

What is wrong with the diet I have them on?

I am knocking myself out trying to be the best human I can and give my babies the best care that they deserve. I put their dry grain in snack size zipper bags a month at a time to make sure if something happens to me my babies will still be fed right. They get their grain and fruit and veg for breakfast. Myrtle gets one almond and Rambo gets 2 with the breakfast.

For supper I give the cockatiels a full cup of budgie seed. Phoenix and Lola have been eating supper with Gimpy so I have increased his to 1/3 cup. I would rather throw out what they don't eat than to let one go hungry.
I premeasure and put in snack bags: 1/2 walnut, tablespoon of parrot seed without the peanuts and 2 miniature pretzels without salt. Rambo and Myrtle get one baggie each for supper.

I am coming close to the time to beat my head against the wall. I only want the best for them and you say I am not getting it right.

What can I do more?

[Wolf]

Take a minute or two and relax, Liz. Consider that clock time is for humans and only serves as a reference for scheduling our events to what the birds require, the birds do not care so much about clock time and their bodies do not function by clock time at all.
It makes no difference whether the clock says it is 5:30pm or 6:30 pm when dusk begins, it is the period of dusk itself that is important to the functioning of their body. You don't need to close the curtain in the evening until it is dark outside as once dusk begins it lasts until dark. It is a good thing to turn off the full spectrum lights about an hour or so before the beginning of dusk as the full spectrum light replicates the light intensity of the sun at noon at the equator. It is the light that occurs during the periods of twilight one at dawn and the other at dusk the adjusts the birds biological clock to be in tune with the seasons.

[liz]

I was concerned that the sun shines bright throu that windo for hours after their supper. if you say it is okay then I will leave it alone. I only covered the window when tweet broke the rules.

what am I doing wrong with food. Rambo does not like the restriction. myrtle adds to her diet by begging.

I am sure r and m miss their play patio. chuck will help me set it up. that spoiled horse knocked me down and I sprained my wrist.

[Wolf]

Diet is much harder for me to explain and I must admit that it is an area that I am still researching quite heavily. The reason for this is that there are so many different points of view concerning diet and very few of these points of view support each other and none of the differing diets have been fed over a long enough of a time period to provide a solid base of information as to how healthy they are for the bird over the long term. However, this was one of the reasons that I chose to go with feeding my birds gloop. So far the home made foods consisting of a variety of whole grains, fruits and vegetables and some legumes seem to be the foods that have the longest and most consistent amount of information showing their health benefits to the bird. Even then there are several of these diets and none of them are the same. The healthiest of these home made diets fall into the mash, chop and cooked foods type of diets and they all have their own set of difficulties in the areas of longevity, preference of the bird for eating them and so on. Due to all of the considerations involved as well as with trying to provide some consistency in my shopping for the birds I have personally elected to feed a gloop based diet which along with some fresh produce is what I feed my birds in the morning and for all day foraging and then a seed mix for dinner.
Pajarita is much more set in her opinion of this diet than I am and this difference is based on her own long term experience with developing and then using this diet, backed with the results of blood work that has been performed over many years on her own birds. This is a level of results and experience that I don't have and given my age that I am not likely to duplicate. Given the type and level of information that Pajarita has consistently provided us with, I have no doubt that her information concerning this diet is reasonably accurate and for the most part supported by the majority of my own research into this area of parrot keepimg. All that I can really do is to tell you what and how I feed my birds and trust in your judgement for how you feed your birds. I am sure that there are differences in how I feed my birds from how Pajarita feeds hers, just as I expect that there will be some differences in how you and I feed our birds.

[Pajarita]

Liz, you are one of the best bird keepers I know of and it's all to your credit! Few people keep cockatiels as well as you do so don't worry so much, it's just a matter of tweaking things a bit as well as understanding the subjects a bit more deeply.

Now, as to the light, it is, precisely, the rays of the setting sun coming through the window that will set their internal clock. The light might look bright to us when we see the rays shine on the floor but it doesn't have the same spectrum as the light in the middle of the day. You know how the clouds, mountains, sea, and everything looks pink, orange or red during the sunset? Well, THAT special red light is what they need to be exposed to for their internal clock to be set and, when you close the curtains you are, in fact, stopping the special light from reaching their photoreceptors (the cells that register light and which, in turn, give the signals to the glands). See what I mean?

My comment about the diet was because of the wheat germ and steel-cut oats you were adding to their budgie mix thinking it would reduce the protein when, in reality, it was increasing it. Increasing protein during breeding and molting are good and necessary things but it should be a better type of protein (like quinoa and hemp). In your birds' case, giving higher protein at this point in time is not desirable because, if they are still laying, it means they are still producing a large quantity of sexual hormones when, going by the season, they should be producing very little by now.

[liz]

not adding grain to the seed since you told me before. the zons are still getting half a walnut 2 pretzel and now a tbsp. of parrot seed - peanuts. Rambo finishes his within 5 minutes and tells me he wants more. what can I add to his evening meal?

[Pajarita]

Personally, I would eliminate the pretzels (nothing but white flour and water there, no nutrition whatsoever) and give him more nuts - like a couple of almonds, half a walnut, a pistachio or a filbert... like that. But he also needs to start eating his gloop so keep on insisting on that.

[liz]

I hide 2 almonds that were softened with the gain under the grain. He has to get some gloop in his mouth to get his almonds. So I know he is at least tasting it.
I was trying to keep the protein down and still fill his belly but he would prefer more nuts. He already gets half an English walnut. I found unsalted cashews. He likes them but Myrtle does not. Should I add 1 or 2 to his evening meal?

Tweet is still sitting on the eggs. No one has been helping her this time.

The only way to pick up Phoenix is to scoop him. He still complains about it but he is not afraid of me. He talks to me when I go in the room and comes to see what I have. He is trying to be Gimpy's buddy. I have hopes that he will teach Gimpy to trust me. Tommy keeps going in the small cage with the. He lets me pick him up anyway at all. I guess he is teaching them that my hands are okay.
Lola has taught Jackie that it is fun to talk face to face. They know what time it is and when I go in they are sitting side by side on the closest perch to the door and start a conversation.

The only time I have trouble with the little ones is when Flutter gets bored and clears off perches.

[Pajarita]

You mean you are putting almonds under the gloop in the morning? If you are, see if putting a bit of the budgie seed mixed into the gloop instead works better (are you making a gloop with large grains -like kamut and wheat kernels, for example- cooked real hard? Because they resemble seeds A LOT and it's easier to transition them when you start off with this). Now, the idea of feeding high protein for dinner only does not necessarily mean that it has to be seeds, it can be nuts instead and, if you feed a variety of them, it can actually be pretty nutritious, it's only that seeds are cheaper so people feed seeds instead of just nuts.

[liz]

The budgie seed does not work. He does not want anything to do with it.
I don't mean that he eats the gloop. It is more like he digs through the gloop to get to the almonds. I have been doing this for a while with hopes he will aquire a taste for the gloop.
The others love the gloop including Myrtle. She becomes a real mess while eating it. I do have the advantage that I can wipe her mouth with a napkin.

At the health food store the grain is in plastic bins. I choose the largest grain and add whole wheat couscous. I think the couscous is what first drew them in. They go for the faro first.