Enya has landed

[MightyMidget]

Enya wrapped up after shower

Enya was delivered on boxing day.
Enya hatched 2rd september 2014.

Unfortunately her wings have been clipped (she was raised in a house with five children ranging in age from 5 to 14 that are on school holidays so I can see why the breeder did it) she did learn to fly before it was done and we encourage lots of flapping to keep her fit.

I'm surprised at easy she has been to train she can already target and is learning to turn around, she loves pretending to be a bat, she does it for fun I only need to add a cue.

She loves shredding bottle brush branches and her bamboo toy. She likes her hoop swing and showers (everyday at the moment as it is hotter than hell here right now and I don't have air con and she is moulting) and she loves her orange ball, my hair, my laptop keyboard (already missing right arrow key) she thinks I need extra holes in my ears . . .I don't. She is scared of my dog and me sneezing . . .I'm sensitive to pet dander including birds, pollen, dust and most cleaning chemicals so I sneeze a lot.
Enya went her first outing today we walked to my Mums place Enya was well behaved and let me put her harness on and she didn't chew it and she let people hold and pet her.

According to her breeder her and the other babies were hard to wean as they don't like seed much and prefer veg. Enya goes for veg and fruit before seed every time I put both bowls in . She will eat a few passwell crumbles sometimes.

I'm going to be feeding her gloop/chop in the mornings after training then budgie seed and crumbles before bedtime. Thats if i can manage to get decent ingredients otherwise morning feed will be pellets and veg. I'm using small pieces of sunflower kernels (no shell) and tiny bits of slivered almond as training treats she gets no more than a teaspoon of treats a day.

so far the veggies she likes are
lightly steamed broccoli, pumpkin, corn, peas, carrot and cauliflower
raw corn, broccoli, carrot, rocket, baby kale, tatsoi, sow thistle and red capsicum (bell pepper)
she also eats sprouted seed
fruits are pomegranate, mango, strawberry, watermelon and dried apricot
she eats cuttlebone like pop corn so I only offer it twice a day while holding it she gets 2 bites that she eats all of even licking up the powder.
She prefers drinking water out of a coffee cup when out of her cage. It started with her constantly going over to my coffee and trying to get a drink so I got her a mug of water she doesn't go near my coffee she goes straight to her own cup.

I have a few questions about gloop
can I use rolled barley instead of hulled (can't get hulled here only peal and rolled)
can I use no added salt canned 4 bean (can't get many types dried here)
and can I use red/orange and or green lentils instead of brown (yet another thing I can't in the ass end of nowhere)

my poor laptop

[Wolf]

I am so happy for you that your bird has arrived, and she is so-o-o cute, too. I understand that the breeder has children, but I don't understand how that means that your bird should have been clipped. Well, what is done is done and you go no from there.
Part of the beauty of making gloop for your birds is that you can change the ingredients used to make it based on what you have available to you where you live. I am not certain ,but I think that peeled and hulled barley would be the same thing. Even if you can't find the same ingredients that we use in the USA, you should have no problem with coming up with enough other ingredients to make a great gloop from locally grown produce. You can use the canned beans, just be sure to rinse them well, I think that canned white beans would be the better beans, with red kidney beans and pinto beans being the worst beans to use. I am using red and green and brown lentils in my gloop. Also with your bird being so young I would give it gloop up to three times during the day, with it being as hot as you say , I would give smaller amounts of gloop but give it more often so as to limit the growth of bacteria in the food.
To me, because I live in the USA, you live where this type of bird has its natural habitat, so you are in the position to observe what they eat in the wild and could collect some of these natural foods for your bird. That is an advantage that I don't have and so envy you of.
Now, I know that you are having a lot of fun at the moment, and who wouldn't, after having waited so long for your bird. Please don't make the mistake of focusing too much on training your baby bird, right now it just needs to have you there for it more than anything else in its life. Its parents would be focused on teaching it what to eat and then how to find it and then they would focus on how to find its place in the flock and how to communicate and get along with the rest of the flock. These areas could serve you as well for areas to work on in training your bird. For example make some foraging toys and teach your bird how to find and get the food in it. I add this here as I find that many people make the mistake of training, training and training at the expense of bonding and it backfires on them and they end up having to start all over again because their bird is afraid of them. Training can help with bonding ,but it can not be used in place of the bonding time.

[MightyMidget]

thanks for the reply
damn about the red kidney beans finding a mix without them ain't gonna happen here looks like I will picking them out
Definitely be feeding small amounts thru the day, have to do the same with the chickens mash they refuse to eat dry food little shit machines have me well trained they even get ice water in their afternoon feed.

We don't have native Indian Ringnecks here only the scattered escapee but we do have a native relative 28s here (port lincoln ringneck parrots) they eat everything seed, fruit, nectar, flowers, insects and native seeds. They also eat apple seed not the fruit thats left behind they chew thru the apple to get the the seeds, they can decimate a crop but they look good doing it. They to go nuts about raw olives at my old house I counted 20 of them on the ground eating the seeds one day.

We only do tiny short training sessions like 3 to 5 minutes long about 3 times a day. Thats why I'm surprised at how fast she learns. Most of the time we just chill out playing and snuggling and Enya stays on my shoulder as I do housework when safe. When I'm online Enya is either in her open cage next to me eating or playing on my desk with toys and trying to eat my laptop keys.
We only spend around 2 to 4 hours apart a day on average.

I do have some foraging toys and i'm slowly getting her used to foraging by hiding some of her training treats around the desk I'm trying her on some whole almonds with shell tomorrow to help her learn to destroy to get the treat before I give her the harder toys.

[Wolf]

don't think I would let my bird have apple seeds be cause of the cyanide content of them although the apple itself is safe enough. I would also be concerned that the almonds in the shell might be too hard for her at her age, but I don't know for sure, At her age her mind is sort of like a little sponge soaking up everything it can.

[Pajarita]

Congrats, she is beautiful! But I would definitely ease up on the training. Babies will try to please you any way they can because they need the attention and company but learning tricks on command is not a natural behavior for parrots so it does stress them out and babies should not be stressed in any way (captivity is already bad enough as it is, no need to add to the already bad situation). Please, reconsider. Bonding, nurturing and loving her should be more than enough for now (same as you would do with a puppy, a kitten or a human baby) and will be much more beneficial in the long run.

Rolled barley looks the same as oatmeal (rolled oats) so you won't be able to use it for gloop (it would come out super mushy). See if you can find pearled, if nothing else.

[MightyMidget]

I have decided to take advise offered and only train in the morning before breakfast and do no more than 6 commands eg. target, step up, target, target, step up, target as I don't want to stress her. Then lots of cuddles and bonding time she loves her head scratched and giving kisses ( I didn't teach her this the breeders kids did I don't think kissers are exactly safe knowing how much bacteria we have in and around our mouths) She also loves being cupped against my chest with her head under my chin just snuggling and and sitting on my shoulder grooming my hair if its loose. When sitting on my hands she plays with my long nails its fun until she gets both sides in her beak then squeezes I tell her gentle and praise when she lets go of my poor long suffering nail. I'm literally OCD with keeping my hands clean with plain water I'm sensitive to chemicals so my nails should be safe chew toys.
I gave her some raw pumpkin today she bit into it dropped then looked at me as if to say "oi dumbass you forgot to cook it" it was priceless. She likes cucumber and grapes. Gotta say my diet has improved just from buying more produce for Enya.

Wolf I won't be feeding the seeds from apples .I just thought I was interesting that most of the native parrots eat them and discard the fruit itself its possible that they have a way to reduce the toxins like parrots do in south america using the clay cliffs.
I plan on cracking the nuts for her to start with and teacking her to get the nut I will have my camera ready. They should make a fun toy if nothing else.

Pajarita thanks we think she is the cutest little darling and she knows it.

I went to the only place in town that might sell oats groats and hulled barley they only order them in if buying 20 kg minimum. I can get pearled barley . Oats I can only get rolled even friends with horses use rolled not hulled as they are called here. Manjimup really needs a health food store or a better stock feed/pet store.
So I hoped Enya likes mushy cooked rolled oats. She likes everything I have given her so far except blueberries and raw pumpkin.
After reading the ingredients of the Passwell pellets Enya won't be eating them. They contain meat meal
The rest of the package is being fed to my 2 spoilt chickens as part of their mash.

My family thinks I'm nuts I cook for a parrot, I'm adamant that my dog only eats raw foods I don't trust packaged dog foods, the chickens get mash instead of pellets and/or scratch because they refuse to eat dry foods and I spend money on frozen rodents for my snake instead of trapping and killing my own. (its illegal here to feed live vertebrates to reptiles not that I would anyway too much chance of the snake being injured not to mention the torture for the rodent) And I eat a crap diet and I'm type 2 diabetic I have to agree with the family I'm nuts.

[Wolf]

You should be able to order hulled oats from places like dr foster and smith although I don't know if they ship to Australia or not, but I am certain that there are several places like them that do. I use bing for a search engine and jus enter bird or parrot food and go window shopping online to try and find the highest quality at the lowest prices. I live in a rural area too and there is only one pet store in under a two hour drive.
I didn't think tat you actually had the indian ringnecks in your area just that there were wild ringnecks of your local species and figure that that would be close enough to see what they ate in the wild, but it sounds like they are grubbing after the humans in your area. What a shame, oh well, live and learn.

[Pajarita]

She's a baby so soft foods are what she needs and the cooked rolled oats (we call it oatmeal) are perfect for right now. You can also give her Irish oatmeal (steel cut oats instead of rolled), cous cous, polenta (cooked corn meal) and you can mix all of them with baby food like sweet potatoes, squash, etc. (but not spinach). She should actually have two different types of soft food as well as some small, soft seeds at all times.

And, yes, of course she loves to cuddle on your chest and under your chin, it must feel the same as when a baby bird is under a momma bird.

[liz]

I save the plastic containers that my cockatiel seed comes in. They hold about five pounds. The local farm store would sell me grain without additives but could only get the variety that was common. I started searching grocery stores for dry grains and got some. I was very surprised to find a whole isle of grains in a Big Lot. I bought grain that had been mentioned in the forum but have never heard of before. Just keep looking or key it into search to find out who sells it in your area.
Enya is adorable.