diet corrections/physical problems

[liz]

Thankyou everyone,
I havnt yet gotten a chance to get wholegrain yet, but I'll try to encorage her to have some veggies, hopefully it shouldnt be to hard because if i put anything in my mouth it has to be in hers, or else hehe.
She already loves fruit. her favourites are apple, banana, grape.. but the one she goes ballistic for is strawberry!! Sadly its out of season now.
how do you cook the wholegrains? boil them?... (I dont have a microwave lol)
I'm really really happy about this, thankyou Its good to know that everyone is happy to help. You guys are great

I am lucky I have an organic whole grain store near me. I have read my way through the grocery store carbohydrate isle before. Steel cut oats without addatives is good. Wild rice without addatives is good. If you find something in the grocery store that looks natural but not advertised that way then read it. It cannot have addatives or soy in any form. No sugar or salt added and low in protein. I do not go above the 4% iron either.
This is just in a pinch. If you portion from your plate in front of them you can add sugar and butter to yours but still be eating something that looks like what you gave them. It is a little chewy for us since we do not pick up one at a time.
I don't microwave for my birds. I use a hot pot. It brings the water to a bubbling boil. I portion the grain into a big insulated cup and add the boiling water. 15 to 20 minutes is good but longer is better. I stir it and rinse it with cold water.
I always keep frozen mixed veggies in the freezer in case I run out of produce. It is a quick replacement for chop. The advantage of that is that you can eat that with them too.
Mine, like little kids, want what I have. This has changed my diet a lot. I have to eat healthy in front of my kids so they will learn and continue to.
Even if they have chop if they see me with a carrot they want their share. The only junk food I can eat during the day is the unsalted pretzels I found.
I have a damaged pancreas and must eat at least 7000 calories a day to hold my weight. After they are down for the night I take my junk food to bed with me. This has helped but it has caused crumbs in my bed since the dogs want their dog biscutes too. (no man in my bed and I just brush the crumbs out.)
My Amazons are not caged so Myrtle always joins us for meals. She has tied a wider variety of food since she has her own place at the table and gets portions from our plates.
I depend on Shadow, Tammy, Tommy and Maggie to teach the cockatiel flock. They get their food together on a large tray. Gimpy, who gets fed separate, has surprised me with his way of attacking raw cranberries.
Oh well, I wandered around again.
Good morning everyone.

[Pajarita]

I also use a pot, a large stock pot, to be more precise, but I make large batches of gloop. I use the microwave for bringing it room temperature if the middle of it is still cold and for cooking the sweet potatoes. I use the Potato Express bag for them which I have found to be great for 'baked' potatoes, too, but you can always boil them or bake them in the oven. If I am baking something, I put sweet potatoes on another rack and cook them this way but, if I am just making gloop, I use the Potato Express bag.

Shira, I also don't know why your birds are more picky after a longer freezing period. It shouldn't really make any difference in the taste or texture - at least, as far as I know, the whole 'decomposition' process stops so everything stays the same. The only difference I have found is when I use fresh produce instead of frozen because the fresh produce does become watery when it thaws after freezing while the frozen one doesn't.

[seagoatdeb]

My Pois always want what I eat so on my veggie base pasta I just put olive oil and tumeric and they love it. When I am eating sweet potatoes, the love to eat them too when I am making sprouted almond milk or any nut milk of course they always get a sprouted nut and that is by far their favorite and I can hear them dancing chirping and carrying on, when I am making my nut milks..lol

[Chantilly]

Haha, Tilly goes crazy when she hears us eating dinner without her, Seagoatdeb
Thankyou Liz, I'll look for something good,
Should saucepan do the trick?
Thanks again everyone, I gave Tilly some veggies this morning.. when i was holding her she kept flying to the kitchen bench and trying to eat some ornamental chillies... lol. once I cut them up for her she lost intrest and started to try to break through the bananas skin. So I shared some banana with her and cut up some endive, carrot, chilli and banana. She ate some of the endive and carrrot but loved the capsicum&banana lol. she was verry curious and actually quite willing to try the new foods, and she also has a big chunk of zuchhini, she likes zucchini...
Fruit and veggies she likes-
Tomato,Zucchini,Capsicum,Apple,Pear, Bannana,Strawberry(absolutely loves),Pinnaple, Mango(absolutely loves),Peach...
I think that that is about it. she dosnt seem to like squash, wich is weird because it is basicly zucchini. She dosnt like Rockmelon and isnt that fussed on watermellon. Dosnt mind endive either.
Sorry i'm rabling
Thanks again

[Chantilly]

Oh, and the forum was down lastnigh wasnt it? it was about 6:30pm when I went on last night and wouldnt open the wholetime I was on (till 8:30pm) wich is about 3:30am to 5:30am in America I think.

[Hannah777]

Hi, I'm new here... I have a question

I bought my first conure a few months ago and upon switching diets, his feathers are starting to turn black around the tips, I'm not sure if this is just feather bronzing from rubbing in his little happy hut tent, or if it is malnutrition. (he doesn't like fresh foods much, so he doesn't eat much of that unfortunately. Although I am trying to coax him into having more)

Upon better diet will his feathers return back to normal, or will he have to molt them out entirely? (He just finished molting about a month ago)

Thanks!!

[Chantilly]

Hi Hannah, If it is from diet, I think she will need to molt again.. Is it Ollie or Peggy?
If it is Ollie, it might be a feather stage, or usual feathering for the species?
Sorry I'm not of much help, I'm sure the others will be able to help you out more.

[Hannah777]

It's Ollie, he's 8 years old and just finished his molt. I got Peggy about a month ago, and the guy didn't take very good care of her. I think she was the runt among his 14 birds...he was breeding them. But her feathers are all broken and scruffy. She's only 2 months or so though. So she still has all that baby down. I'm not worried about her she eats everything I give her, and I know her feathers will improve with a molt.

[Hannah777]

Thanks so much for your quick reply though! I just want happy healthy birdies . These are my first conures so I am still figuring out what they like and how to get a solid diet going!

[Chantilly]

No problem!
I understand that, We had Tilly(cinnamon gcc) from a baby, and I only recently relised her diet wrong... and we've had her for a year and a half! The breeder never gave us any advice at all! She wasnt even weaned!
I just did some searching and what your bird may have gotton is stress marks, this could be from an incomplete diet or if you just moved house or something stressful like that. If these marks might leave by the next molt.
Here is a page on ParrotForums.com where Feathers lined with black is talked about: http://www.parrotforums.com/conures/151 ... ncern.html
That is good that Peggy is happy with her veggies and to leafn to eat new foods,
I just adore conures Id love to see some photos of your sweet hearts!
I really hope this helps and I wish you the best with Ollie! They are such fussy things, parrots are! or mine is anyway! lol :p