How do i change them over

[Lina]

How do i get these amazons to start eating the pellets so i can get them off thier like all seed diet?

[feathermum]

why change them to pellets? I know this is something everyone has their own opinion on, but there are better options out there then pellets. in the wild most parrots DO eat seeds,nuts, barks,berries,flower buds & so on. If you are in the ?US or Canada, I know that there are compines who make great mixes for specific parrot species . my favorite is Goldenfeast. I mix &match along w/ fresh stuff. I think that's much better then a pellet, IMO. mabey u could check it out

honestly I have seen wonderful changes in many Amazons when taken off all seed/pellet diets and put on 1 of these specialized ones!! I hope u can look into it & give it a chance, I think there is another...ABBA..i haven't used it, but have herd good things

[Pajarita]

Zons don't do well with high protein so you need to be careful about that and pellets don't allow you to monitor it because you never know how much protein is in them (the labels always say 'no less than' or 'greater than' but they don't give you an actual value so it's anybody's guess what's in them). My zons eat a dish of cooked grains with cooked, chopped veggies accompanied by one raw fruit, one raw (or cooked as in the case of beets, corn on the cob, etc) and one leafy green. They all came to me as adults and seed junkies but it's VERY easy to convert them to gloop (some people call it goop, some mash, some chop but it's pretty much the same thing). Just feed the cooked grains mixed with a bit of seeds first until you see them eating the cooked grains and then start adding the veggies one by one and reducing the seeds you sprinkled on it until it's 50% veggies, 50% cooked grains and no seeds). Mine also get seeds for dinner but they always get a lower protein mix than what is recommended so the zons get less than 1/4 measuring cup of that for dinner.

[Pricey_boy]

its not that complicated you cant just change them to pellets you need to wean them.slowly reduce amount of seeds and increse amount of other foods till theres no more seeds. i dont completely remove the seeds i like to buy small parrot mix without sunflowers and incorporate it with the healthy eating plan. it may take a few weeks to do this because you need to go very slow.

[Lina]

Hi lets see if this works this time. They say the third times a charm (hating my computer at this moment) been trying for an hour and a half to reply to this post.

Thank you for your input, why im wanting to change off the seeds..i have read in seval places that too much seeds makes em aggressive and hormonal which it the two isssues i think i have with these two one is aggressive and the other very very hormonal, so im hoping a lil diet change can help, i have started feeding em fresh fruits every morning ( grapes , cherry, apple and pear is what i have had on hand) i have also started trying baby carrots cut into stick form and some corn on the cob( have found one likes it cooked the other likes it raw)

the food that my sister gave me for them is KAYTEE forti-diet for parrots, we had a better mixture till i tried to burn down the bird shed but i had to throw all it away cause it got coated in the chems from the fire ext.
I have bought some roudybush pelltets to add to thier food i dont plan on putting them on a total pellet diet, but the bag she gave me has sooooo much sunflowerseed in it.

I am very new to birds they are not my thing but for my sister i will do what i need too, and these birds are sweet, well one is the other is sweet at time and then attacks for no reason) but im think the attack isn't as much of an attack as an attempt to play cause what he did to my arm 2 nights ago is the same way he attacks his toys in his cage. It might be how he was trained to play I am not sure I am still learning and taking it slow with them.

I am open to any helpful hints and tips anyone has.

I do live in the US in Oregon the high desert by the way

OK crossing toes this posts

[Pajarita]

LOL - No, if he bites you or beats the crap out of his toys, he is not playing, he is been aggressive. No doubt about that.

Now, food and aggression do have a link and I always reduce the amount of protein in the winter but the main trigger is the amount of lighthours the bird is exposed to (quality of light also have bearing). All birds are photoperiodic, this means that they set their internal clock and biorhythms (circadian and circannual cycles) by light so what you need to do (and you are at the perfect time of the year for doing this) is to get their endocrine system back in tune with the seasons so they won't produce sexual hormones all year round (which they are not supposed to do and, when they do, makes them sexually frustrated and VERY aggressive). This is done by keeping them to a solar schedule (up with sunrise and dinner and bed with sunset). If you do this and reduce the amount of protein (seeds or pellets should NEVER be free-fed) during the cold weather months, you will notice a HUGE difference in their behavior. I have six amazons (all rescues), the youngest is a male about ten years old and the oldest is a female around 50 (the others are 32, 29, 28, and an unaged one that must be older than 22 because he is also one of two wild-caught (as juveniles) males (that means HIGHLY aggressive birds which will never bond with humans) I have so I have A LOT of experience with amazon aggression.

Now, quality of light is also very important in reducing aggression because a good quality full spectrum with UVA and UVB output will allow him to produce more serotonin (the happy hormone) as well as improve the quality of his sleep, his appetite, etc. (happy and healthy birds are not aggressive). But don't get any of those bird lamps that clamp on top of the cage, get fluorescent tubes for the ceiling fixture (light that is too close to them hurts their eyes -birds have gone blind because of this).

Another good thing for serotonin is feeding them oat groats because they have a lot of tryptophan which makes the brain produce and release serotonin.

[Lina]

So more daylight the better in summer? They are in a room the the whole north wall and east wall is window. I have been covering them at sunset for warmth and uncovering them an hour or so after sunrise ( but i could uncover them sooner since i am up every morning by 5am.) It been dropping down in the high 30s low 40s at night so i have been covering them and putting a heater by em so if they get cold they can move to that end of the cages.

Buzz the one i think is hormonal isnt aggressive, but when she starts fluffing and doing a lil shake thing it gets Riki all wound up. Riki is the one that attacks for no reason and I think some idiot taught him to play rough maybe like ya can with puppies and kittens and baby rats, but that just a though, he has had like 3 or 4 owners before my sister that she knows of. I am slowly getting the room they are in parrot safe it was my moms art room cause of all the windows (Im still working at getting all the stuff moved out that we dont want the birds munching hehe)

I think the more fresh fruit and veggie is better for them right?

hoping this posts

[janetafloat]

Pajarita - I asked this in another thread but it got missed - how does this solar schedule thing work in northern latitudes? Where I am it's getting light at 4:30 a.m. and isn't fully dark at 10 p.m. That's not enough sleep for parrots...or me, for that matter.
And what about the winter, when it's dark at gone 9 in the morning and getting dark at 3:30 in the afternoon

[Pajarita]

I live in Northern New Jersey and my birds have no trouble whatsoever with a sun schedule (and I've been doing it since 1992 as I always kept my canaries on a solar schedule and did the same with the parrots when I started keeping them -I did not even know that people kept them at a human schedule!), they all go into breeding condition in the spring and into the resting season in the fall right after their annual molt but I know people (not personally, from bird forums) who live in Northern Canada where they have day or night practically all day long, depending on the season, and the two people I know have a sleeping room for their birds in the basement. They installed lights overhead as well as on the walls with dimmers and they just turn off the overhead after they turn the ones on the walls on and lower these a bit every 15 minutes or so until they make it 'night' and do the reverse in the morning to make the days more like a temperate climate region (they go by the sunrise/sunset schedules you can find online). They both have U2s and they don't want them overly hormonal and, although this is not the ideal (that would be natural light), it apparently works well enough... But it is, of course, a pain in the neck! Much easier to just follow the sun.