Sunflower seed shells - concerned

[liz]

I am so happy to read your confessions about not worrying about germs too much. Myrtle drinks out of the dog bowl rather than go back to her cage for a drink. She also takes the dog toys apart.

[Wolf]

Kookooloo is the only bird that I have that chews on material type of things such as blankets or jackets, she does not chew on every type of cloth, but those are her favorites. I have to watch her very closely, but have never seen her try to swallow any of it, still I worry that she might swallow some of it so I strongly discourage this behavior. Kiki doesn't really chew on cloth but she has a thing about zippers and she will destroy any of them that she can get her beak on.

[Pajarita]

I follow my avian vet advice when it comes to what they have studied and that doesn't include diet and behavior. Years ago, I had four canary babies born with weird beaks - they had like a very thin sliver missing on each side of their top beak. I took them to my avian vet and she couldn't come out with an answer so she consulted with other avian vets and their reply was that the problem was dietary because I was not feeding them pellets. Imagine that! They wanted me to feed pellets not only to birds that are natural seed eaters but which have been successfully kept and bred in captivity (and fed seeds) since the 1400's! What hubris! By the way, the birds and had no other problems so, obviously, it was nothing but a genetic defect that caused it - I don't know whether it came from the mother or the father because I never breed birds that have produced offspring with problems.

[Wolf]

Bird Woman's pics

I know that these pics are upside down. I don't know why They don't show upside down in any of my files so I have no idea why they are posting this way.

[Pajarita]

That's OK, Wolf, no biggie, we can all see them just fine!

Nice selection of produce, Birdwoman! I use much smaller pieces of produce in the gloop because I have found that, if I leave them big, the birds will pick them up and throw them to the floor whereas, if I make them small, they will eat them. As to the daily combination of raw produce, I give them one veggie, one fruit and one green because if I give them a selection (I tried it several times), they will pick what they like best and not eat the rest. But your system might very well work out with toos and macaws as they are bigger and better eaters than other species.

[Bird woman]

This is dinner time upside down as it always is when there done. Breakfast is my gloop time and everything is puréed and added to the mash and is 60to70 % raw veggies so the little buggers eat it all and can't pick anything out . BW.

[Pajarita]

Ahhhh, yes, sometimes, you have no choice but to be sneaky with them!