Ember and Polly

[Pajarita]

Naturally dried fruit or veggies are OK as long as they have not been treated with sulfites (things like raisins, dates, figs, sundried tomatoes, prunes, cranberries, etc) because they still retain enough moisture so as not to be a problem - you just should not feed them all the time or in large quantities because they are high in sugar. It's the dehydrated, freeze-dried or the fruit that has been treated with sulfites or sugar that are a problem -any fruit like apricots, apples, etc that looks good and is pliant has been treated (look at the label) and any fruit that is preserved in sugar like pineapple, papaya, etc (it looks glazed and is crispier in texture than the fresh fruit).

This is fruit treated with sulfites to retain color and texture: http://www.nuts.com/driedfruit/apricots ... ots|pmt|bb
http://www.nuts.com/driedfruit/apples/slices.html

This is fruit that was dried naturally without sulfites:
http://www.bellaviva.com/california-nat ... d-apricots
http://www.bellaviva.com/dried-honeycrisp-apple-slices

This is fruit dried with sugar:
http://www.nuts.com/driedfruit/pineappl ... ice|pmt|bb

This is without sugar:
http://www.superiornutstore.com/natural-pineapple.html

As to gloop been expensive, not so! I think pellets are much more expensive than gloop and not as healthy! If you go with the Kashi pilaf, the box costs about $4.00 and, if we add the beans and frozen veggies to it, I would say it's another $8 and you would have enough food for an entire month for a single bird.

[AnimalAffinity]

Try taking a shower with her! That's what I do even if it is a bit odd my parrots love it!

[Pajarita]

Yes, it is a good practice. I don't do it because I don't take cold showers ever - not even on a hot day during Summer.

[Harpmaker]

I made the mistake at first of giving Corsair warm water to bathe in like I use for my dogs. It turns out that water much warmer than room temperature strips the oils from their feathers, which is not good for them. Soap does the same thing, even if you wash it off well so they don't eat it when they preen. The things you learn here...

[Pajarita]

The important thing is that you learned them! In truth, if you scratch the surface just a little bit, you find good advice all over the place but the bad advice seems to be more prolific than the good one and people tend to equate quantity with quality when it comes to things like this -unfortunately for the birds, of course. Yes, warm water does strip the natural oils from their feathers and skin and, worse still, this oil that is stripped out is the one that will become the precursor of vitamin D3 so, when you bathe them with warm water, you are not only drying up their feathers (which lose integrity from it), their skin (which can become itchy and promote plucking) but you are also inhibiting the natural process of the vitamin (which actually acts as a hormone) that will enable the bird to absorb calcium.

[liz]

Rambo showers with the water that runs down the shower curtain. By the time it gets to him it is cool. I have a big walk in shower so he doesn't get any soap.

Starting Myrtle before she could fly, I put her on my shoulder so she could get some of the spray. After that I put her on the curtain rod and misted her with bird spray.

They both love their showers.