Food for Pod

[Wolf]

You said make him work for his breakfast. What are you giving him for breakfast?

[Pajarita]

I have to tell you that making a companion animal work for his food is not something I approve of. Michael talks of 'keeping them focused on survival' so he recommends making them do tricks for their food but, personally, I don't want any of my animals to have to work for food or worry about whether he is going to get enough food or not. I want them as happy go lucky and worry/stress free as I can manage and that does not include making a little bird work for what I consider his right. Work for his food is what they did to Alex and he suffered stress-related problems most of his life and died young. I want my animals to be happy, not worried and/or stressed out, and to live long lives. I am a grandmother, we live to feed the hungry! I feed feral cats, an opossum, the squirrels, the birds outside... as my husband says "If it's breathing, she'll feed it" Mind you, none of my animals (dogs, cats, birds) are fat, they are all in good weight and shape!

[DanaandPod]

Well, typically he just had pellets. But, now that I am branching out even more... I plan to give him some fresh food in the am. I am excited because I just came from the store and got him wild rice, barley, beans, blue berries, raspberries, broccoli, butternut squash, kale, peas, carrots....
I was thinking maybe just give him the fruit as treats...but I tried it this evening and it is not going over well....He expects sun flower seeds for tricks. Maybe I can cut them even smaller? But then they will be barely a crumb.... lol I feel what you are saying about working for food...and I won't do that... although...in the wild that is what they do...? forage for food constantly... Anyway, I have limited everything as far as treats... He got one peanut today and two almonds and four sunflower seeds and did some tricks for apple. I plan to keep the pellets in his cage...and I still give zupreme in his foraging toy too but not as much. I noticed that they had a peanut flavor zupreem...I wonder if I can use that as a trick treat...but then...he will need to dunk it so maybe not... I think at the very least I have already cut his dose and now he is getting more fresh foods. I am excited that he is eating them cooked like the squash and green beans. That was great to see. He really doesnt eat much...so i got everything frozen and organic to last long. I think Ill use an ice cube tray to freeze his cooked meals in for the week. (I read this idea once for babies when making homemade baby food and like the idea) I guess I finally got the child I always wanted. And, he was watching Pluto and Mickey mouse when I came home which I left on for him thanks to youtube.

[Wolf]

Dana, I need you to stop and think about this for a minute or two. The only things that were wrong with your Pod's diet were not enough vegetables ant too much protein. There are only three things that are high protein foods and they are nuts, seeds and pellets. We know that feeding too much protein will give Pod fatty liver disease. We also know that pellets were invented to replace the seeds in his diet so that he could not pick out his favorite seeds and only eat them. We know that pellets main ingredients are ground up seeds. With this in mind can you tell me why you want to keep giving Pod free access to high protein food in the form of pellets all day long, when you already know that doing so will cause him to have liver disease?
Again, you should only give pod pellets for his dinner and remove the leftover amount from his cage after he goes to sleep. Try putting some popcorn in his foraging toy.

[Pajarita]

If you free-feed pellets, you will never get him to eat a large variety of fresh food. Protein is not found easily in high content sources and in abundance in nature and, because protein is necessary for life and reproduction, nature gave them a 'protein tooth' so, when they find it, they eat and eat and eat until there is no more. That's why free-feeding any type of protein food is dangerous.

As to foraging in the wild been work, well, it might seem like work to us but I doubt it's work for them. Have you ever seen parrots eating in the wild? It looks more like a party than anything else.

[Wolf]

I just thought of this. In the few documentaries on parrots that I have seen, with the exception of while they are busy feeding their babies parrots appear to only go looking for food twice a day. Now that could be the fact or it could be just an illusion created by the filming.

[Pajarita]

No, that's the way it is, they go out in the morning and in the evening. What we call 'flock calls' which happen at these times are actually "Chow time" calls

[DanaandPod]

Okay. Well, I leave the pellets in his cage becaue I am not home to give dinner. Should I then give just enough for his dinner and leave it in the cage and hope he eats it for dinner? As far as the zupreme pellets...I thought it was a healthy alternative to nuts...but maybe I can fill that forager with popcorn... And put fruit in his other foraging cups? So, now...He gets two peanuts, two almonds and three or four sunflower seeds daily. I pummeled the sunflower and peanut to tid bits...and used that as his trick treats which he still went for. And, todays breakfast consisted of wheat bulgar, carrots, green beans and a side of mango. Enough to basically fill two spaces in an ice tray. He gladly ate most of it! Now, I will put a blue berry in all his foraging cups and will put popcorn in his favorite foraging toy. He also gets apple in another foraging toy. And, enough pellets for dinner which tonight I can give so it wont be in his cage. This is a dramatic change...and he is like what the heck??? Yet...seems to be gladly going along with it. The zupreme was getting expensive so pop corn as a replacement only helps me. Comments? And, as always...thank you

[DanaandPod]

also, how many beans is okay in one day for him to have?

[Wolf]

I understand you needing to put enough food in his cage to provide for dinner as part of the time you are not there for dinner time. But he won't wait to eat it for dinner, what he will do is eat it first and then he will start on the other foods. The protein foods are eaten first. I do think that what you do need to do is to measure the amount of pellets that he eats for dinner on the days that you are there to give it to him at dinner time and then when you take what he didn't eat out of his cage measure that as well so that you can only give him the amount that he will need on the days that you have to feed for all day. You can always give a little more of the soft food on those days to be certain that he will have enough to eat.
I see a lot of improvement taking place in his diet and am glad to hear that he is good with the changes too. I do think that his breakfast needs a bit more work before it is close to right, especially in light of you needing to feed in the manner that you have just stated. Pajarita is by far better on their nutritional needs than I am. She can give you her way of making a gloop variation using Kashi 7 Grain pilaf that would address Pods dietary requirements better than I can, but that is what I would feed him for breakfast and for all day long, with a fresh fruit and fresh vegetable or two. Or you could buy the individual whole grains that she recommends and make her standard gloop.
Just my thoughts on this.