New Sennie Owner

[AlexanderV]

hello! im alex and im a first-time bird owner!
i have a senegal parrot called kepler and i want to give them the best possible life i can, and that includes diet..

see, ive been looking into parrots for the past year and havent found a definitive answer about senegal parrot diet yet :c
ive been feeding kep a diet of partially pellets and mostly fresh foods (i.e.: veg like carrots, zucchini, broccoli, cucumbers and a bit of watermelon during the summer as well as some fruit and berries)
seeds are for treats only

my question is: how much of what do i give them and what grains i should provide in their diet? (i have close to no clue about those)
(note! kepler is about 6 months old, and still not very picky about food)

thank you in advance!

[Georges mom]

Welcome to the forum and might I add your bird is adorable. I personally cannot advise you on diet but you'll get a lot of help here and all your questions answered from the people here. Bird world is wonderful so best of luck to you and enjoy!

[Wolf]

It is really doubtful that you will find any really definitive answers to your quest about what to feed your Senegal parrot. This is partly because we can not actually duplicate any of their diets from the wild. I an going to give you a link that will help you to know what foods are safe or toxic for them to eat as well as a host of other safe and toxic items that you should be aware of. The list actually begins on the second page of the topic in the link. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12521

I feed mine fresh, raw fruits and vegetables and a homemade food we call gloop for breakfast and all day nibbling and then a seed and nut mix for her dinner. You can find several variations on gloop in the Health, Nutrition and Diet section of the forum. You can also feed foods like sprouts, mash or chop to your bird.
I hope that this will be useful to you and your bird.

[liz]

Welcome to the forum. I am so glad that you found theparrotforum. There are so many things we don't know about birds and you can't run on instinct like you would with furry pets.

You can learn a lot here. I learn something new almost every day.

Diet and lighting is important. It is also important that you feed the right foods at the right time of day. (I soak 5 kinds of grain in boiling water over night then rinse it for their breakfast.)
I give the soaked grain with fruit and veggies for breakfast and seed before they go to perch for the night. The breakfast is the important foods that they need and seeds are loved as much as a desert. Just like kids they need to be offered healthy foods first and then desert.

Wolf responded with a better way of explaining it while I was typing but I took the time to type so will add the post anyway.

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum! Kepler is a beautiful little girl and, if she is anything like my Zoey, you will get a lot of love from her!

I don't feed pellets because I've done a lot of research and reached the conclusion that dead food with man-made vitamins is not the best dietary option for parrots so my senegals (I have two, a male and a female, but also had two other females) eat gloop and raw produce for breakfast and seeds/nuts for dinner. Yours is still a juvenile and will be one for the next year and a half so I suggest you make sure her nutrition is as good as you can make it and that you introduce a large variety of produce (with emphasis on blue, yellow and red veggies as well as dark green leafies) so she will always be a good eater.

[AlexanderV]

thank you for the welcome and kind words!
ive started looking into gloop, but still have a lot of questions regarding other areas of bird ownership i cant seem to find the answer to, so i hope your dont mind me 'drilling' you on stuff

thank you again!

[Wolf]

Ask as many questions as you want.

[Pajarita]

"Drill" away and who knows? you might strike oil!

[AlexanderV]

Okay so here are some questions:
1. im making a play gym for kepler and im using a large branch from a plum tree. my question is whether i should or shouldn't remove the bark; its never been treated with pesticides (and i know that for sure because its from our fruit garden (which kepler enjoys the apple-y benefits of ))

2. Pajarita mentioned blue, red and yellow vegetables.. which are those? (english isnt my first language so i dont know what conventionally falls under those )

3. do you have any advice on harness-training? more specifically on how to discourage biting the harness/making the bird feel comfortable in one?

(apologies for taking so long, i had school stuff to do and all my other non-studying time was with the birb)

[Pajarita]

No, don't remove the bark, it's part of the attraction of a real tree branch. It's nicely rough so they get very good traction for perching and it files down their claws AND they can strip it, which seems to be a lot of fun for them!

Blue/purple produce are things like blueberries, blackberries, purple grapes, purple cabbage, pomegranate seeds, purple plumbs, purple carrots, purple figs, purple potatoes, blue corn, etc.

Red are tomatoes, cherries, cranberries, ruby grapefruits, pink grapes, red peppers, strawberries, watermelon, maradol papaya, etc.

Yellow orange are squashes, calabazas and pumpkins, yellow and orange peppers, yellow tomatoes, cantaloupe, yellow beets, oranges, corn, golden potatoes, yellow papaya, mangoes, peaches, carrots, etc.

Getting a bird to accept a harness is simply a very long process where you get the bird used to seeing it first, then looped (without actually buckling it) over their head, etc. It's not something that you can do in a month or two.