Hello from North Texas

[modifieddesign]

I just paid a ridiculous amount of money for an article I found on Google scholar and couldn't pass up.

It was in the Ostrich: Journal of African Ornithology and is an article titled "The feeding ecology of Meyer's Parrot Poicephalus meyeri in the Okavango Delta, Botswana."

I have the pdf now. Going to read it tonight but it's a study of what and how they eat in the wild. Pretty excited to find it since I imagine a lot of species don't have specific studies done on them.

I'm sure most of what they eat won't be anything I can go out and get but it will give me a better understanding of their needs. And with any luck maybe some of it is commercially available.

[Wolf]

Sounds pretty cool to me. How ridiculous ?

[modifieddesign]

$48 bucks ridiculous. Worth it though. It's only 13 pages long. Good read. I was surprised to find out that a large portion of their diet during breeding season is insects. Grubs and various larvae.

[ninaroo1216]

That's cool, I'm cringing at the $48 though

I have been looking for information on the wild diet of my conures, I have managed to find some interesting stuff, but nothing that isn't fairly well known about them. I think most of what I have learned will work for my parrotlet.

I have many friends in Australia, so I'm going to the source about my cockatiel information ;P

Its amazing the amount of work that goes into keeping birds as companions.

[modifieddesign]

Try scholar.google.com. maybe there is a study in that species as well. A lot are free. This one happened to not be.

[Harpmaker]

Norma is beautiful! They are so cute with the baby dark eyes. Has she been dna sexed?

I also have a Meyer's hen. Corsair is now 2.5 years old, and is just finishing her first real breeding season.

I would like to know after you finish the ridiculously expensive article if it was worth the money, so I don't have to buy it if it isn't.

[modifieddesign]

She has been DNA sexed as a male. Which I knew before I bought her, BUT my wife and daughter insisted on a female so uhhmm....I lied. Haha. I stay in the habit of calling it a her. We aren't breeders so I didn't really care either way.

The article was definitely informative and pretty interesting. They eat lots of seeds, fruit, and grubs in the wild. During breeding season they seek out as many grubs or larvae as they can find. None of the fruits they eat are available commercially as far as I can tell. The African Sausage tree is there favorite.

[Wolf]

I didn't figure on finding their native fruits here, I was hoping to find a similar type of fruit that could be substituted for them. Still looking.

[modifieddesign]

I'm doing the samething. Not sure what's even close to that though.

[Harpmaker]

You can buy the seeds online at $2.00 for 5, but the description says that it's invasive, so it's not something I feel comfortable planting in my small yard. It also says Meyer's Parrots like the seeds. Other sources say brown and brownhead parrots like the fruit.