Ember and Polly

[EmberSanja]

Hello! I joined a while ago when I started actively searching for an avian friend. Now I have one and decided to introduce us! I'm Ember, and my Indian Ringneck is Polly. She's around ten years old and is a rescue. She went through two drug homes with abusive men and children, then was taken by the police and kept by the head guy. He got shot in the back on the job and became paralyzed, so he gave Polly to some friends, who gave her to us a week ago. They really loved her, but were uneducated in how to care for her. She was on an all seed diet and they gave her boxes of nerd candy for treats! Now that she's here, I've been giving her fresh food every day and will be switching her onto pellets (or gloop/chop) as soon as I've gotten everything I need (the pellets or the ingredients needed for my gloop recipes). I have a couple questions for you lovely people;
Which noodles are the best of these for her?: egg noodles, elbow macaroni, rottelle, small shells, or whole wheat spaghetti noodles? If none, what should I buy? Also, is it brown rice that's good for her? I remember white rice is just fattening.
She came with a bottle of vitamins for her water also! Are they good to use or not? It's multi-drops for all birds from Wild Harvest (8 in one pet products also shows up on the bottle label)
How are grapes for birds? The people we got Polly from said they'd kill her in five minutes if she ate one, but I know that's not true as I know many bird owners give grapes to their birds. Still, I worry! So, thoughts?
How do I bathe her? I have spray bottles but her previous owners used it as a punishment, so I can't even bring them out without her getting scared and aggressive. They said she bathed herself but I'm in the room with her all day and have never seen her do it!
She sometimes bites the males in the house (due to her abuse she hates all males it seems). Any way for them to work with her so that she isn't so aggressive? The cage is open all day and she approaches them, not the other way around. She bites from the wrist down, though only sometimes. Other times she allows petting, though occasionally she'll "flip out" as my dad says and start biting in the middle or being pet. She also does not perch on hands but instead flies onto heads! Any advice?

Thanks! and hello

[liz]

The only luck Sanja has had is getting to you. Your love will spill over and she will love you.

Green leafy vegetables to begin with. Mine love Romaine lettuce. (no iceberg lettuce - there is no nutrition)

Rambo peels his grapes before he eats them. Myrtle can't wait. She brakes them open and sucks the inside out.

Myrtle still won't let me touch her back. She will flip onto her back to kick box. The only time I can scratch her head is when she is hiding under my hair.

I put Myrtle on the shower curtain to watch me she shower until she was brave enough to get sprayed. Rambo will even bathe in his water dish.

You two are going to be fine. There is a thread in here of what not to feed them.

[Wolf]

Hi Ember;

I wrote most of an answer to your post earlier but I apparently hit a wrong key and lost it all. Anyway, first of all I would like to thank you for taking in this bird and its issues. You sound like just the person to give the bird a good home while helping it to leave its current issues out in the cold.
I have never heard of this thing with grapes before and I don't think that it is true at all. It jus seems pretty absurd to me. I also think that unless there is a sound reason to giving the bird these vitamins that I would not do it. One of the biggest mistakes that we have made in the past is due to the concept of more is better and there is no way to know how many birds that have died from overdosing on one or more vitamins. I often feed my birds both brown rice and one of several varieties of whole wheat pasta as they are both part of my gloop recipe.
At 10 years of age your IRN is pretty much middle aged and it is really such a shame for her to have had to live in her past conditions. Regardless of that, it is what it is and we can only move on ahead and help this bird to get past this past life. Although the bird need to bathe on a regular basis and using a spray bottle for this purpose is common, I think that you will need to find a large shallow dish for the bird to bathe in. I don't know what this bird will view as a good dish for a bird bath, but it seems to me that a glass or ceramic baking pan would be a good choice to begin with. You will probably need to keep a couple of inches of clean water in it and allow free access to it to give the bird a chance to understand what it is and what it is for.
As to the birds choice of landing pads, I suppose that you could duck at the last instant causing the bird to land on a shoulder, or just removing the bird from the head. I think that patience with the bird and just telling it no bite whenever you see it is wanting to bite, combined with moving away from the bird just a little to avoid the bite, will in the long term solve this problem.
Thank you for asking and allowing us to share with you, I hope that you find this helpful.

[Pajarita]

I second Wolf's sentiment wholeheartedly: THANK YOU! These poor birds go through so much at the hands of people that, in most cases, don't mean any harm but do the wrong thing out of ignorance -not that I am calling anybody ignorant but most people don't really know how to deal with birds.

Now, let's see:

Grapes - this is a very common misconception. Grapes are not good for dogs (kidney failure) so people, not bothering to do their research, think they are not good for birds, also - but it's not true, parrots can eat them without a problem and they usually love them.

Bath - don't worry for a single second about it. Put out different bowls with water, try a large shallow one (I use cake pans) first but also smaller and deeper because they all have their personal opinions as to what constitutes the perfect 'tub' But, if she doesn't, don't worry. Plenty of time for it. Bathing is not only physically healthy for them (plumage), it's also emotionally beneficial as it's a very pleasurable and distracting activity but this is only when it's not forced on the bird so, if she doesn't want to, don't force her - eventually, she will.

Vitamins - If she has been getting them all along, I would only use them twice a week until she is eating a good diet with plenty of produce and once a week after that (they are good for whatever lacks we might be overlooking and for vit D3) but, if she hasn't been getting them, I would use them everyday for a week, then twice a week until she is eating well. I don't like man made vitamins but I often use them with birds that have had a bad diet for a long time for the simple reason that you want to correct all the deficiencies as soon as possible.

Diet - I like gloop better than anything else, I've been using it for many years now and my birds are healthy and have beautiful colors and plumage on it so I swear by it. If you are going to go the pellet route, make sure the ones you give her have no sugar in it (check all the different scientific names on the ingredients because manufacturers 'hide' the fact that they add sugar to them by using other names for it) - not that I have anything about birds eating something mildly sweet every now and then because I do give mine fruity gloop but I add either pure maple syrup or honey and not sugar. Sugar has no nutritional value whatsoever while honey and maple syrup do.

Biting - the men will have to win her over with patience and love - that's all there is to it.

[Harpmaker]

I add my thanks to the ones you are collecting! So many birds need help.

Raisins as treats are a good substitute for candy treats as well. Other dried fruits often have preservatives and/or added sugar, so be wary of them. And too much dried stuff would eventually tax the bird's kidneys, so moderation is key.

My bird hates sprayers-no reason, just does. She will bathe in her water bowl or a bird bath tub, but prefers to have an ice cube added to the water first. Seriously. Last week she ignored the water for six hours until I added an ice cube, and as soon as it melted she was in.

And some days she doesn't feel like bathing at all, even with ice. Her choice.

[liz]

Something funny about Myrtles showers: because she learned of the shower in the bathroom, she goes to the bathroom on the shower curtain rob when I tell her it is time for a shower. She thinks showers go no where else.

Rambo, the pedestrian, goes to the back of the shower and catches the water going down the shower curtain while I am in it.

Each one is unique with it's own personality and emotions. Just like a kid learns it will learn and you will learn from It what it likes. Rambo was great for my first big parrot. He knew enough and talked enough to tell me what to do for him.

[EmberSanja]

Thank you all for your responses!

The only problem I can think of with grapes is the pesticides, but I have a few grape vines on/around my property, so I think they should be fine with her! Learning about the kidney failure in dogs due to grapes is slightly alarming - Polly drops her fresh food sometimes and my puppy loves to gobble it up. I try to stop him regardless of the food, but I'll be extra careful with grapes!
I think I'll give her the vitamins a couple times a week until she gets better with her diet, then. Starting soon, I'll be giving her fresh food only for breakfast. Before she also had the option of her seed mix, but now that I know more of what fresh foods she likes, I'm not as worried about her refusing to eat. I'll also be slowly switching her to pellets, since shopping for enough fresh foods to make gloop isn't much of an option at this time of the month due to an unexpected drop in income.
I will try to introduce different bath bowls throughout the next month or so and see if she likes any. If she doesn't, I guess I'll have to try bringing her with me to shower!
Speaking of the diet, she seems to like the whole grain/wheat noodles (Thanks, Wolf, for letting me know they're okay!) and the fruits I've been giving her. Not so much the cooked carrots, but maybe she'll change her mind in the future - she did with bananas! She also doesn't really like raisins, which is probably good - I didn't know lots of dried fruit could strain their kidneys so much! Thank you for that information, Harpmaker.
My family gets our own honey (we have 25 hives currently, and we're starting to collect the honey and get them ready for winter, though we should have started about a week or two earlier) and our own syrup (lots of trees around here!) so that's a very useful tip for my family, Pajarita. Thank you!

[Wolf]

I don't know if you are aware of this or not but a seed mix and pellets both fill the same place as far as your birds diet goes. They are basically interchangeable and as such you should only feed one or the other ,but never both of them. Whether you choose to feed pellets or a seed mix, you still need to feed them their fresh fruits and vegetables.
As to the cost of making the gloop, I don't know for sure as I buy for that along with my groceries but I don't think that it costs more than ten or twelve dollars a month to make it. I feed four birds with it. so I estimate my total bird food bill to be about 30 dollars a month.

[EmberSanja]

I was under the impression that seeds are very fattening and unhealthy? Her mix needs to be changed regardless though because it's full of dyes and sunflower seeds.

Wow, I was expecting much more than that! I should be able to fit that into the budget. Gloop it is! Thank you

[Wolf]

I definitely agree that you need to change the mix that you are currently using, along with the dyes there is probably a load of sugar in it as well. Seeds are good for your bird and they eat a variety of them in the wild, but they do not eat seeds exclusively and this is where we cause our birds to have problems. We are lazy and because they will eat the seeds so readily, we give them the seeds as the majority of their diet and that is bad. Seeds have a lot of fat and protein, and birds need protein, just not that much and there is nothing yet indicated in the studies on avian nutrition that would indicate that they really need the fats.
We, either don't know, as the feed companies and those who do know don't make it easy to find out about, but birds eat many other things in the wild other than seeds. For instance they eat the leaves and flowers of many different plants, and they also eat the fruits of others. In many parts of the world, parrots are considered to be a nuisance as they will come in at harvest time and eat a farmers entire crop, so in those places they are poisoned and shot by the farmers.
So you see, seeds make up only a small portion of a parrots diet. It is not that seeds are bad for them, it is they are bad for them when fed in the amounts that we feed them. Big difference !