New to the Parrot ownership world!

[Pajarita]

Great news! I've never known a single Senegal that was a family bird but, who knows?, you might have the exception!

I have to second Wolf's comments - both of them. Parrots don't live in hierarchical societies so nature made them all 'free thinkers' and that means that they are not mentally hard-wired to gracefully accept commands or impositions - they all do what they want to do when they want to do it. When you put your hand behind her, you are, in a way, physically forcing her to accept something she might or might not want and, I have to tell you, it's a dangerous thing to do with all parrots but, most especially, with senegals which can be extremely aggressive. The trick to a long, good relationship with a parrot is complete trust and that involves the same respect one would have for another human being. I know that most people would say that the whole concept of respecting a bird's wishes the same as a person's is a bit extreme but, in my personal experience, it's the ONLY thing that works in the long term. Parrots are tricky, tricky pets to keep. They are not like dogs that once you train stay the same as long as their living circumstances don't change dramatically, they change as they get older and it's not a little subtle thing, either, it can be major.

As to the food, your comment concerns me and I'll tell you why. Parrots in captivity don't really eat that much or that often - at least, not any of mine ever did UNLESS they had advanced liver damage. My senegals eat all their fruit, part or all of the veggie (depends on what it is), hardly ever the green (for example, today, they ate 5 blueberries, took a couple of bites of their raw carrot -they love blueberries so they kind of filled up on them leaving no real room for the carrot but, if I had given them a fruit they don't like so much, they would have eaten the whole carrot first- and did not touch the romaine lettuce) and some gloop in the morning (I give them about 2 level tablespoons each and there is always some leftover in the evening but it also depends on the flavor of the day -today they got cinnamon in it and, most likely, it will be almost all gone) - then, sometimes, during the day, they would pick at something here and there. They get a very small treat at around 3 or 4 pm (this is the time when I go upstairs and they stay on their own and it's also the time when they are again active after the noon rest) from my fingers and then dinner in the evening (which is enough seed/nut mix to fill their crop with a tiny bit leftover). That's it.

So, please, my dear, tell us what you feed her and when because there might be a health issue and we might be able to tell you whether there is a reason for concern or not.

[Jesscat]

Oh yes you are very helpful wolf! Thank you. From now on I will not put my hand behind her because that's exactly it she feels cornered. I trust her not to tear off my hand now so I will makes sure I'm doing it with a treat on her terms. We also got some perches on the outside of her cage that she loves.

In the morning I have been making her like a oatmeal. NOT with oatmeal but with her pellets. Not every morning just recently because I feel like she isn't eating her pellets. I just put hot water with her Roundyhouse nibbles and mix it. I wait tell it's completely cool and she loves it. For treats she likes pumpkin seeds, but not always. I have a bag of food I got from the pet store with mixed seed, dried fruit, and the colored pellets. I have been ONLY using this for random treats not everyday, and once in a while I will rig up some toys with it and tie it with hemp rope.

I have been trying to make chop. First time was to runny and if she could say gross she would have. There was to much kale and water. So I tried a new recipe with brown rice, quinoa, carrots, broccoli, flax seed, cocuntut. It was only good for about three days and she loved it. I tried to make her more with the northern beans but I feel like the beans were overpowering in that chop. I have more recepies I'll try. We have a garden so she gets a lot of kale, carrots, and green beans as treats. Oh yes and millets sometimes. I have given her to small strawberries from my garden also. The wild birds ate most of those though.

I feel like because she is clipped now she is gaining weight. She seems very happy though

[Wolf]

If the chop that you make is too watery then just drain off the excess. When I make gloop I try to keep the recipe to these ratios 40% partly cooked whole grains ( I like to use at least 4 different grains for this), 40% mixed vegetables ( I usually use the bags of frozen mixed vegetables, but also use fresh raw vegetables like broccoli etc.) and 20% thoroughly cooked white beans and lentils ( I prefer the Navy beans for this and cook my own from dry, but you can use the canned ones as long as you first drain and thoroughly rinse them. If it ends up too watery, I just drain off the excess water.

As to keeping it, you can portion it out in a size that gives a single feeding for your bird(s) and freeze them, then pull out one each evening to feed in the morning, just make sure that each portion contains enough gloop for all day until time for their evening meal and toss the remains of that meal out for the wild birds to eat and then feed your bird its evening meal of seeds/ nuts or pellets and then remove that after the bird goes to sleep for the night.

If your bird is clipped and doesn't get much exercise and you feed it a highly concentrated food such as pellets or one that is high in fats and proteins and carbs such as seeds or pellets all day long then it is easy to have them overeat and get fat. But if you feed fresh raw fruits and vegetables first thing in the mornings with enough for all day long and a breakfast of gloop again with enough to last all day with very little of either left at dinner time and then give them a dinner of either a seed/nut mix or pellets, it is hard to overfeed the bird.

If your bird like pumpkin seeds as a treat then by all means use them instead of sunflower seeds as they are healthier for her than the sunflower seeds, but there is no reason to tell her this.

While many people spend the money on a bird site to get a digital gram scale with a perch built in or with a perch that sits on the scale, I got one from Wal mart for less money and although I have a perch that will sit on the scale mine will stay on the scales platform just fine for me to weigh them.

[Jesscat]

Ok I will try and use the scale we have. I will also start freezing the chop. I am going to look up your guys gloop recepie. This morning she didn't touch the mooshy pellets so I gave her corn on the cob. I will switch the bigger meal to mornings. The thing is she goes hey wire when I make dinner. For anything we are making. We gave her a really small piece of pizza crust the other day and it was a bad bad choice she freaked anytime we were eating it. We just ain't going to eat a lot a pizza like usual. Last night was breakfast for dinner so she got scrambled eggs.

[Pajarita]

The problem with making chop with fresh produce and freezing it is that, unless the fresh produce comes from your own garden and you prepare it as soon as you take it from the plant and immediately freeze it, you are losing lots of nutrients.

[Wolf]

Actually, I did not mean that you should freeze chop, I was speaking of the gloop when I said you could freeze it.

[liz]

Unless you pick it from your own garden produce has lost nutrition while being transported and not that healthy.

I give mine hot soaked grain that has been allowed to absorb water over night. Every one loves it except Rambo. I hide a piece of walnut in his so he will get used to the taste while digging for his walnut. I portion the dry mix ahead of time and set up about 30 at a time in snack zip bags.

There is a kind of frozen mixed vegetables that really work for the Amazons. It is a mix of carrots, broccoli and cauliflower and all I do is thaw it sitting on the counter while I drink my coffee. They also like the frozen mixed vegetable that are small. They have corn, peas, carrots and some kind of bean. The smaller cut veggies are liked more than the big pieces when it comes to Cockatiels but the Amazons like it too. Through out the day I add mellon, banana and cucumber to their food trays as I cut it for humans.
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They usually only eat half. I would rather throw away their leftovers than to give them less then they want.

I still don't know why some grain has to be toasted before soaking. Pajarita brought that up. When I post like this Pajarita or Wolf will question some of it. My kids need me to be edited by the wiser humans.

The Amazons identify foods even when the are still packaged. Rambo was raised on seed, cut veggies and junk food. When I get the cracker out to put in my soup he will start begging. I found an unsalted soda cracker in WinDixie and substitute. Rambo likes broccoli and eats the tops off. I don't like it so when I order Hunan Chicken I bring the broccoli home. It probably has no nutrition in it and I rinse it to get the sauce off but as soon as I step in the front door Rambo knows I have it and will start begging.

Well that turned into a long post. Sorry about that but maybe some one got something out of it.

[Pajarita]

It's only the buckwheat that is better toasted, Liz, the rest are OK done either through soaking (as you do) or cooking them halfway (aka al dente -as I do). I guess one could also give them the whole grains dry but both the soaking and the cooking infuse them with water and that's a big plus.

[Jesscat]

I love all your guys advice! I am also on a couple Senegal parrots Facebook sites. I decided to post a picture of some chop I made. I used a very small amount of sweet coconut but they said definitely no with that. So I won't do that anymore. I was told coconut oil on a kale salad for her is ok. I also only use broccoli and green pepper. I was told the green pepper is high energy and not to give it often or when hormonal. It was my first time giving the green bell pepper to her and she seems alright. I also used a ancient grain noodle with quamia, organic Miller as the noodle. I was told not to do those noodles and told I could do a couple different ones that I wrote down.

This was great because in my head it looked super healthy for her. I love the energy food list. She is moody sometimes but I think that's because her feet bug her a little from having toes bitten off. I will try to make the gloop soon also.

[Wolf]

I would limit the kale due to the iron content. You are at a difficult time as you are now trying to work out a good diet for your birds and there is a lot of conflicting information available and that can make it very confusing especially in the beginning. The first thing that I suggest is to research what your birds eat in the wild, in their natural habitat. These foods are not likely to be found where you live, but these are the foods that you need to figure out what is available food wise that you can use to substitute to give them a similar diet of. For this your next best friend is a listing of foods that are safe or toxic to your bird such as this list viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12521
The list begins on the second page of this link and this one includes more than just foods. I am sure that you will find it very useful to you.

A site that gives you a good nutritional breakdown of what is in the various foods will help you to match up the nutritional values of different foods and then there is the membership of this forum for you to ask questions of. Then you take all of this information and start making the dietary changes that you think will be the most beneficial for your bird.

I ask questions here and I do a lot of research, I listen very closely to those with the most experience and then I make up my own mind. There are no parrot experts and the area of parrot diet and nutrition is an area that we still have a very long way to go.