Lovebird diet (nutrition variety fruit etc)

[Meli]

Hi dear all! I own a lovebird lutino fischer hand raised. He is hard to eat fruit. I have read that only-seed diet can lead to many health problems and nutritive elements deplition. Does anyone know what kind of fruit, cereal and other nutrients prefer the lovebirds? Should I remove the seeds for some hours when I give him fruit to have only one option and finally eat it? In what form should I give it to him preferably? Cream, chopped coarsely or finely , whole pieces hanged in the cage?

note: I once gave him grinded apple and he instantly in an hour had diarrea..! :S Is it dangerous for him or he will get used to fruit after some times eating it? Did anyone had similar problem?


Thank you!

[Wolf]

Small seed mix such as: canary, millet and oats with a small amount of hemp; fruit such as: apple, pear, banana; green leaves such as: Swiss chard, lettuce, sowthistle, dandelion, chickweed; willow catkins; spray millet; rearing food (for young) consisting of: hardboiled egg, wholegrain bread, low fat cheese and carrot, ground to crumbly consistency; complete pellet if taken.

The above was copied and pasted from World Parrot Trust . com , and pertains only to Fischers Lovebirds.

That was not diarrhea, that was just excess water and this is normal. His poop will return to normal shortly and no, it is not dangerous to him. Also it should get better over time.

[Pajarita]

Actually, all lovebirds eat the same thing, at least all of mine did and I had peachface, fischer's, black mask and black cheek as well an entire clutch of hybrids I got from a lady in Philadelphia. They are not big fruit eaters but they do love leafy greens and cooked veggies. Mine ate the same gloop I give to all my parrots along with one fruit, one veggie and one leafy green or cruciform in the morning and, for dinner, they got a small psittacine seed mix with some striped sunflower seed. They loved the gloop and ate everything in it, grains, pulses and veggies. They are actually very good eaters but, of course, I had the advantage of having so many and, when you do, there is always one or two that have been there longer and would eat anything and the newer ones would just copy them. But the transitioning gloop works for everybody, even the ones that are alone. What you need to do is give him his seed mix dinner in the evening (this time of the year, in the USA Northeast, it would be around 7:15 pm) and, as soon as he's done and getting ready to roost for the night, take the bowl away. In the morning, wait a bit after sunrise (say, 8 am around here) to get him good and hungry and give him whole grains (I always use wheat kernels, oat groats, pearled barley, brown rice and kamut but I always add some other type of rice like black or red or wild -which is not rice at all but the birds love it) cooked al dente (firm and all separated, not sticking to each other at all) - this is easily achieved by putting the grains in a lot of water and, once they are done, draining them in a colander. Now, not all these grains cook in the same period of time so what I do is mix the ones that do so I cook all the rices together (I also add the lentils to them because they cook in the same time as the rices); the oats and the barley in another pot and the wheat and the kamut in another. Once they are all done and thoroughly drained, mix them together, add some small white beans (you can use a can but rinse them well to get rid of whatever salt they might have), some flax and some sesame seed (not too much, they are good but they are also quite oily). In the morning, put the cooked grains and beans in his food bowl, sprinkle a bit of seeds on top, mix them together and serve either at room temperature or a bit warm. He will start by picking just the seeds out of it but, sooner or later, he will go for one of the grains or the beans and he will like it and, before you know it, he will be eating it without a problem. When you see that this has been happening for three or four days in a row, eliminate the seeds. Once he is eating the mix without seeds, add sweet corn to the mix, once he is eating this, add peas and carrots - then chopped broccoli (the one that comes frozen in a bag labeled 'chopped broccoli', not the 'florets' and not the 'pieces' unless you want to chop them up in the food processor) - then baked sweet potatoes and butternut squash (they sell them already cubed and frozen in Whole Foods -as a matter of fact, with the exception of the chopped broccoli, you can find everything else in Whole Foods).

The final product should be 50% grains/pulses and 50% veggies.

I feed all my parrots gloop, from the budgies to the cockatoos, the difference in their diets is through the amount of green, fruit, veggie and type of seed mix as well as whether they get nuts or not and how many. The lovies do better with a bit more protein than the budgies.

[Meli]

Thank you very much both again! You are amazing )) I'll try and repost about the progress!!

[GingerBird]

My lovebird isn't the easiest either regarding to his healthy diet. But, he LOVES soft cooked carrots (small pieces) and cooked green beans (just boiled in plain water) . Those two are his favorite and he also likes strawberries and bananas. He'll try new food when he watch me eating the same. I just take a small bite, and he'll taste it with his tongue, then I take a small bite again etc. etc. eventually they will eat their nutritious food!

[Meli]

Okay thanks I will try! And detail: do you give him the fruit and leafs whole? finely chopped? or like cream/puree?

I tried some things Wolf and Pajarita posted and there was great progress today. I removed his seeds for some hours and he ate apple and a grinded mix of boiled lentils-white/brown rice- oat -and almond!
He looks happy but he was very reluctant to even try in the begining. It did help, me hand-feeding him little pieces to start trying. Another good trick was pretending to eat an apple piece and then give it to him. As he trusts me he is trying to act the same and then he bites as well The next time he got hungry he just ate alone from his bowl without any help!

[Pajarita]

Great, great progress and VERY fast so I can tell you have a good eater there! Lovies usually are so, when people say theirs is not is usually because they did not try every trick there is because, once you get them used to trying new foods, they continue on their own. I give the leafy greens in the whole leaf (always dripping wet, birds like it better like that) and the fruit and veggie in chunks -unless it's something like blueberries or grapes which I open up for them (just use the nails of both thumbs to 'reveal' the inside) at the beginning so they can see the juicy inside and be tempted.