by Pajarita » Wed Feb 12, 2020 9:38 am
Oh, yes, the best thing for a parrot (or any animal, actually) is to have what you call a 'pattern' in daily activities. This pattern needs to conform as much as possible to the bird's circadian cycle (circa - as in near or about, and dian as in day). Let me explain. Birds are all photoperiodic - a long word that means their endocrine system -and the seasons it sets (like breeding, molting, migrating, etc)- are governed by light, specifically, the number of daylight hours there is at any given day. This number is 'registered' by the body with the dawn and dusk of each day because it is the different spectrum that only happens at twilight that turns on or off their internal clock. Think of it as a stop watch. When the photoreceptors in their brain (birds have cells that register light inside their heads as well as in their eyes -like mammals have- nature having given them cranial bones so thin that light actually goes through them -isn't that super cool?!) are exposed to the light of dawn, they register the beginning of the daylight hours, and, when they are exposed to the light of dusk, they register the end of the daylight hours. And their body registers this number carefully because it is the number of hours in the day that tells their body what season (or period) it is (photo from the word light in greek and period as in season). BUT there are also 'periods' within this daily cycle! Dawn wakes them up and makes them hungry, noon tells them it's time to rest and dusk makes them hungry again and, as night begins to fall, this special light activates the production of melatonin to make them drowsy so they set to roost for the night. Parrots are happier and healthier when they can follow the 'patterns', whether it's the circadian or the circannual, that they evolve to live under (don't forget that parrots are not domesticated and that the ones we keep as pets are genetically identical to the wild ones and have exactly the same needs).
So, we open the drapes, blinds or uncover their cage at dawn (so they can be exposed to this light for 1.5 to 2 hours and start their internal stop watch) and we feed them (once the sunrays are coming into the room, we can turn on the overhead lights). Then it's time for interacting, bathing, playing, whatever. At noon (more or less), they stop to rest, some nap and some just chill quietly (you will hardly hear a peep out of them at this time of the day), then it's time to maybe pick a little something to eat, interact, play, etc until it's dusk when they are to be fed again (overhead lights need to be turned off when the sun is halfway down to the horizon after which the parrot cannot be exposed to artificial light until the next morning). All birds eat only two main meals a day: breakfast and dinner. But this doesn't mean they should not have access to food in the middle of the day, they should. Now, the trick is to feed them the healthiest food when they are hungriest (breakfast) and to leave food for during the day that is also healthy for them, reserving the high protein food for the night for two reasons: 1) you don't want them to overeat high protein because it damages their liver and kidneys and makes them hormonal which means aggression, 2) the nights are long during the winter and protein makes them feel fuller for a longer period of time. See, the thing about protein is that herbivore birds crave it with a passion. Why? Because it's essential for reproduction (yolks are all protein), growth (muscles need protein) and life BUT there are no natural sources of abundant high protein food in nature so birds need to look and look to find enough protein and, when they find it, they are hardwired to eat and eat and eat until it's all gone. So, when you free-feed high protein food, the bird never eats enough produce which is terribly unhealthy for them.
Now, I feed my birds gloop with raw produce (one fruit, one veggie, one leafy green - I have found that giving them one of each and a different one every day works best for them because when you give them choices they always end up eating their favorite and nothing else) in the morning and for all day picking and a mix of nuts and seeds for dinner (my cockatoo gets mostly nuts which I vary from batch to batch so although he gets three different kinds, they can be walnuts, pecans, almonds, filberts, brazil nuts, cashews or pistachios - they only get human grade roasted peanuts in the shell as a special treat). I have been doing research for many years on their natural diets and experimenting different staples for them and use gloop because it's healthy, non-fattening, filling, easy to make (after you get the knack of it) and the birds love it.
And yes, always feed the staples (gloop and high protein) food in the cage but you can give her raw produce before she starts on the gloop in her cage. My birds are let out as soon as there is the merest light in the sky and often steal or are given some produce while I clean their cages and give them fresh water and food - after which they are put in the cage to eat breakfast for about 1/2 hour, then let out again until the early pm. I never have a single problem putting them in their cages and some of them even go into them by themselves (they know the command "Go Home!" and they also know that 'Que rica papa" -I was born and raised in a South American country so I speak both English and Spanish- means food) because they know food is in there and want to get to it - even in the afternoon when they go back in and do not come out until the next morning because I close the doors to the cages so they don't have access to the gloop when they are out and, after hours of being out flying and interacting, they are eager for a nice bite to eat.