Diet Conversion Journey

[Wolf]

Just because you mentioned it, I had to look it up and The World Parrot Trust list the lifespan of the Patagonian conure as being 35+ years in captivity. I though you might like to know that.

Parrot nutrition has made a lot of advances over the years, and their are many ways of feeding our birds the basics for a healthy diet ranging from mashes, and chops, to sprouting and home cooked foods to all raw foods for them and they all have good points to them as well as drawbacks, with the most obvious pro or con being that of time ranging from the time spent in preparing these different food to the time it takes to feed these different foods and cleaning up afterwards.

I think that beginning the day with fresh, raw produce followed by gloop for breakfast with enough of both of these food provided for all day foraging with a good quality seed mix with a tree nut or two for their dinner is the best diet to feed them. This is the reason that I feed this diet to all of my birds. If I had found a better diet to feed them than that which I currently provide, you can bet that I would be feeding that instead as nothing else would make any since to me. These birds are all my friends and they deserve the very best that I can give them.

[Pajarita]

Yes, that's what I would feed him: gloop and produce for breakfast and all day picking and a good quality seed/nut mix for dinner. But I would also make an appointment at the avian vet and have a complete physical done on him because depending on what the doctor finds, you might need to add some herbals or supplements to his soft food (another reason why I like feeding gloop, you can not only control exactly what you are feeding, you can also add all kinds of herbals to it (I give milk thistle, dandelion root, methionine and aloe vera juice to all my older birds).

Conures are great eaters (all South American parrots are, in my personal opinion) so you should have no problem switching him. I would start with a simple gloop made out of whole grains first and, once you see he is eating them, you can start gradually adding veggies to it starting with sweet corn (they all LOVE fresh corn!).

[galeriagila]

Thank you, Wolfe... 35! I actually researched age when I got him, and at that time, most sources said 30. I wanted a bird whose lifespan would be close to mine (I was 30 at the time). 35 it is, then. He has a terrific avian vet, Pajarita, and I drag him there every few years. He absolutely hates it. They take blood, and I hear him in the back room screaming "NO NO NO HELLO GAIL" which breaks my heart. I need a glass of wine by the time I get home! I'll make an appointment...
Gloop? I will search your site for what that is, in order not to ask you to repeat it... sounds yummy!!!!

[Pajarita]

Well, it must be yummy to them because they certainly like it. I've never tried it myself but some people have and they say the basic recipe (the one without the daily 'flavorings' I add) doesn't have a whole lot of taste. My birds have favorites. The one they all love is the one with chili powder in it but it's a VERY close second to the one with cinnamon so try those two spices first.

[galeriagila]

Will do! I love both those ingredients, fortunately!

He loves jalapenos. I had heard that parrots crave hot chiles because their senses of taste and smell weren't very good, and they enjoyed the intensity... is that true? Would explain the chili powder and cinnamon, too, maybe!

[galeriagila]

Well, the diet changes aren't going to be as drastic as I had thought, now that I have read a whole bunch of posts/recipes/variations on the gloop-plus diet.

For now, I'll be maintaining the Harrison's... in a separate bowl... I actually don't think it constitutes more than 25-30% of his diet anyway. Then I'll serve up fresh gloop (I was already serving up fruits and veggies, including beans/lentils... the new addition is/are the whole grains). And really, the biggest change is that I'll now offer a daily evening "dessert" of seeds. Until now, seeds were a treat, not a staple. I guess I could use a suggestion of an optimal seed mix brand or recipe!

Onwards!

[seagoatdeb]

Just because you mentioned it, I had to look it up and The World Parrot Trust list the lifespan of the Patagonian conure as being 35+ years in captivity. I though you might like to know that.

Parrot nutrition has made a lot of advances over the years, and their are many ways of feeding our birds the basics for a healthy diet ranging from mashes, and chops, to sprouting and home cooked foods to all raw foods for them and they all have good points to them as well as drawbacks, with the most obvious pro or con being that of time ranging from the time spent in preparing these different food to the time it takes to feed these different foods and cleaning up afterwards.

I think that beginning the day with fresh, raw produce followed by gloop for breakfast with enough of both of these food provided for all day foraging with a good quality seed mix with a tree nut or two for their dinner is the best diet to feed them. This is the reason that I feed this diet to all of my birds. If I had found a better diet to feed them than that which I currently provide, you can bet that I would be feeding that instead as nothing else would make any since to me. These birds are all my friends and they deserve the very best that I can give them.

Parrot nutrition has made a lot of advances. I always feed a lot of raw veggies early in the day, and for the later meal I add in fruit. I give a teaspoon of a good seed mix, and a couple of nuts a day. I give only a small amount of legumes and grains. I do not use gloop, mostly because of the high amount of grains, beans and legumes and the high use of frozen vegetables. I do use some frozen when that is all that is available to buy. I also will serve cooked squash and sweet potatoe on occasion.

I use mostly fresh vegetables and fruits, and want my parrots to have the Enzymes that would occur in nature, so do not want to decrease Enzymes by having them blanched for freezing or cooked. Enzymes have very important functions to our health and they are a natural part of what parrots eat in the wild.

The few grains, beans and legumes, I give to the parrots, I either cook or sprout, to make them digestible. The reason why I dont think grains and legumes should be used in such high amounts is the same reason that I dont think they are right for humans to use in such high amounts.

Humans were hunters and gatherers for most of their history on earth. They ate what they could catch for animals and they ate seeds, nuts, and vegetables and fruit. Nuts and seeds can be eaten raw, and can be sprouted to make it even easier on digestion.

What humans did not eat untill agriculture was introduced was legumes, beans and grains. These are not good for people to eat raw and must be cooked, or sprouted or fermented, and on an evolutionary scale, we have not been eating them for very long, so our bodies are not as well adapted to eating them so we must cook them or get sick. Our parrots, do not have cooked legumes, beans and grains as a part of their diet in the wild, and their bodies are NEW at eating these foods.

For this reason, and the fact that there are no studies on the effect of feeding such high amounts of legumes, beans and grains to parrots, it is not something I can in good conscience do. There is a file in this group on raw whole food eating for parrots. I tend to feed mostly the raw whole food method. I cant give my parrots exactly what they ate in nature, but I can be very cautious on foods that arent natural for them.

[Wolf]

Hi seagoatdeb, thanks for replying to this, I was hopeing that you would, as I think that you have a lot of very good nutritional information as regards both humans and parrots,

I don't think that I can buy into your evolutionary argument Beginning with the fact that in evolutionary terms we have not been here for more than a minute or so, ourselves, but that part is neither here nor there and I really don't particularly want to have us begin a discussion here on our ideas about evolution. I just wanted to thank you for showing up and adding to the information here on parrot nutrition. Thanks.

[Pajarita]

Will do! I love both those ingredients, fortunately!

He loves jalapenos. I had heard that parrots crave hot chiles because their senses of taste and smell weren't very good, and they enjoyed the intensity... is that true? Would explain the chili powder and cinnamon, too, maybe!

Yes, it's correct. Parrots have an average of 300-400 taste buds which is not only a small number in comparison to other species but they are also located in the choanal zone (on the upper part of the back of their beak -kind of almost their throat) and they don't taste sweet (no receptor taste buds for it) so they like sour, bitter and, most particularly, hot spicy flavors. But, if you ask me, they also seem to have quite a developed sense of umami or savory receptors because they do love things like meat and cheese (which are not good for them but there you have it). If there are any studies about why they like this taste, I haven't found them but my 'off-the-wall' theory (one for which I don't have any scientific evidence for it) for it is that, like all other tastes, it's a survival trait because umami is, usually, a marker for protein and all birds crave it (no protein = no growth and no reproduction).

[galeriagila]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... makes sense!

Only problem is... when the Rbird enjoys his jalapenos and then preens himself... nuzzling and snuggling can be a very sneezey experience!!!!! I usually feed him the larger green chiles... a little less incendiary, and he still like them.