Wanting to bring an older parrot home

[Wolf]

That is also true, Pajarita. And, it also occurs to me that if they are outside and neglected, they may already be on a solar light schedule and may have been on it long enough to ease some of the hormonal issues to where they are able to be handled.
Any way, we will do whatever we can to help you should you decide to try. I would love to try to get the Yellow Naped for Mimi, I do have another cage that is suitable, I just don't see a way to come up with enough money at this time.

[Crystalmcp]

Ok everybody... I'm so excited I'm about to pee my pants!!! I'm on my way now to get the blue front... It's getting down to 28 degrees tonight and I'm not waiting!!! Please everybody give me a menu to get my little guy started on... He is sunflower seeds only right now!!! 500 does seems high for him, but to get at least one out umm pating him and getting him my warm house TODAY!! I will be back on in a little while to let everyone know if I'm missing an eye or ear !!

[Crystalmcp]

It can't be any worse than getting trampled on by a horse, so I'm going suck it up and win him over no matter what !!!!

[liz]

That means the yellow nap will be alone outside in 28 F.

[Wolf]

To start off you can get some Kashi 7 grain pilaf and cook the grain ad dente add a can of cooked white beans and some mixed vegetables and give him some for his breakfast along with some raw fresh vegetables and some pieces of a fruit or two for munching on all day and then a quality seed mix for dinner and remove the seed mix after he goes to sleep. That will give you time to find a place to get whole grains for the mixture.

[Crystalmcp]

No Liz, he is out with 2 more blue fronts!! I feel bad too, but I can't save them all ! I hope this doesn't sound like a dumb question, but what is white beans ? So far he is doing good... He was a little freaked about the move , but I'm going to win him over ! He may change, but so far I don't think he is a tough guy!! What veggies do they seems to like best?

[Wolf]

They may be called navy beans, you should have no trouble finding them at a grocery store in the canned foods section or you can find them as dried beans and cook them yourself. If you get the canned beans you will need to rinse them well to get the salt off them as your bird doesn't need the salt. For this cooked mixture, we call it gloop, I go to the frozen food section and get a bag of mixed vegetables, that is what it is called as well as what it is.
It is hard to say what veggies or fruit that your bird is going to like as it depends on what he may have had before or what he remembers. We spend a great deal of time trying to get our birds to eat a healthy diet of fresh and cooked veggies, whole grains and fruit and can be quite challenging, to say the least. My Amazon won't touch a banana, My Grey likes them and my Senegal will only eat the inside of the peel. They all like some of the same foods and also different foods based on taste and texture. They are so funny while your bird may not like small pieces of carrot, he may love them when they are shredded, or he may not like them raw but love them cooked. You see what I mean.
There is a list of foods and other important things that are good for your bird and also toxic things that you need to know about. Although it can be found in the nutritional section of this forum, here is the link to it. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12521
While we are on te topic of things that are good and bad for them don't put your bird in the kitchen as they will get covered with the oils from cooking foods as some always becomes airbourne in steam, also do not use non stick cookware as the nonstick coating will kill your bird very quickly. Watch for nonstick coating on anything that produces heat such as irons and toaster and so forth.

[liz]

A white bean is white and is called a Great Northern.

[Crystalmcp]

So far things are going good ! He loves apples.. Umm a banana he will touch but will not eat! He will take the food from my hand, and I'm being very careful! I have fresh veggies ( a mixture) , but so far he is not interested in them ... I did get him some unsalted almonds to try as treats to win him over ! Is it ok to give them whole grain baby cereal and mix veggies in it for breakfast or baby food period ! He does grawl at me a little if I get to pushy with him, but I pay it no mind and move a little away, but nit completely!!! He watches everything I do , he even starts getting excited when I talk to him in and tell him what a pretty bit he is.... I hope he gets better with letting me get close to him!

[Pajarita]

No, don't get baby food, it's too mushy for an adult zon. My bluefronts are the best eaters of the lot (I have 6 zons) and the male is, by far, the best of them. He is always the first one to fly over as soon as he sees me getting close to their platform with a plate in my hand (I use disposable white paper plates to feed them) and can hardly wait for me to put it down to the point that I have to use the plate to kind of push him back so I have enough room to set it down (can't use my hands with him, he is a wild-caught that was used as a breeder his entire life).

I use 'Small White Beans' only (http://www.amazon.com/Goya-Premium-Smal ... hite+beans - but they don't have to be Goya, any brand will do) because they are the kind that has the lowest level of the bad lectin that all beans have). They come in a can and all I do is rinse them in a colander under running water. If you cannot find the Kashi pilaf in your supermarket, get brown rice, barley and see if they have wheat kernels and quinoa (most supermarkets do nowadays). Cook them separately (they need different cooking times) but all of them to a hard 'al dente', mix the beans in, sprinkle some flax seed (you can also get it at a regular supermarket), some chopped broccoli, peas and carrots and sweet corn (all in the frozen aisle of the supermarket) and season with chili powder. This is a very simple and very basic gloop recipe but it works great to start them off.

At night and after he goes to sleep, take the seed bowl out of his cage and, in the morning, one hour after he wakes up, give him some warm gloop (they like warm things so it's an added attraction to make them try the new food) with some seeds mixed in. He will, most likely, not eat any of it the first day but he won't starve because, at sunset (around 4 pm), you will give him a level 1/4 measuring cup of his seed mix (make it a budgie one so it takes him longer to eat it and he ends up eating less protein than with a parrot one). And keep on doing this every day. Soon, you will see that he starts eating the seeds mixed in the gloop and soon after that, he will start eating the grains (you will find little empty 'skins' in his bowl). Once you see him eating the fresh corn, peas and carrots (they all like these veggies because they are sweet and juicy), you can start adding other stuff to the gloop making it a more complete recipe (wheat kernels, oat groats, different kinds of rices like black japonica, red Himalayan, lentils, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, artichoke or palm hearts, etc)