Help with GCC Diet

[SNMinervini]

Hello!

I have had my Yellow Sided GCC , Amelia, for about 3 months now.
I purchased her from a local parrot store, they said she is about 7 months old.
She has been vetted and DNA tested as a female. All is well so far, I just want to make sure she is getting exactly what she needs from a dietary standpoint.
She came to me on a food from Hagen, its called Hagen Tropican for parrots, she gets that in a fresh bowl every morning with a fresh bowl of water. She has no problem and will go for the food right away.
She also gets Frozen veggie mix (corn, carrots, peas, green beans) with fresh water in the evening.
That is the Basics of her diet, however i keep trying new foods with her.. whatever i buy fresh from the local farmers market, which is always a hit or miss with her. She is VERY picky ct .
I have 3 other treats that the bird stop owner told me to buy as well, pumpkin seeds, dried papaya, nutriberries (amelia's favorite), and Island treat (natures garden blend) for small parrots ( i give that occasionally , but she goes nuts for it).

I guess I'm just looking for guidance, making sure I'm doing the right thing, and seeing if i need to add or subtract anything into her diet.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks

-Sam

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum, Mine (Minerva?) and Amelia! And thank you for taking the time to do research on the best diet for your baby!

GCCs are mostly fruit eaters in the wild so they need a diet that is very high in moisture (85 to 95%) and fiber and low in protein and fat. So, although your frozen veggies dinner is good, the other food you mentioned: seeds, nuts, nutriberries, dried papaya (too low in moisture and treated both with preservatives and sugar -both no-nos with birds) is not good. Mine (Codee, female) eats gloop (high moisture, high natural fiber, low protein, low fat) and raw produce for breakfast (but, in truth, she hardly ever eats the leafy greens -she does eat her raw broccoli though- and only some veggies while she devours large portions of the fruit of the day) and gets a budgie seed mix for dinner (in the spring and summer, she gets a cockatiel mix that has a few striped sunflowers in it and I also had a bit of hemp and/or quinoa).

With parrots, it takes a loooong time to get them to eat a large variety of produce and the only way to achieve this is to eat it in front of them (at breakfast) and to keep on trying (even if it takes years). Start with the 'proven favorites' like apples, grapes, blueberries, corn, baby peas, carrots, pomegranate seeds (ALL my parrots like these), a different one each day of the week and keep at it until she eats them all without you having to stand in front of her eating them yourself. And, when she does, start adding other stuff like cantaloupe, mango, baked sweet potatoes or butternut squash, etc.

The other thing you need to take into consideration is that birds are hungriest in the morning so this is the best time to feed them the 'healthy' food. Also, saving the higher protein food (seeds) for dinner, which should be served at dusk, ensures that they don't eat that much of it and that they feel full longer in the long winter nights (the body takes longer to digest protein than anything else).