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Hi there… need some help/advise.
BACKGROUND:
We have a brand new Caique, about 17 weeks old. We bought her through an in-state breeder (and drove to pick her up this over the weekend), so we've had her for about 6 days now.
Our Caique's adjusted quickly and was well socialized. We put her in a large cage, 36x24 and already bought a play stand that we're putting together tonight.
She's very interactive… and steps-up for the whole family, and loves getting her/his head scratched. Been doing some clicker training and we can now hold her in our hand, on her back.
For the first 2 days, we fed the breeders diet (pictured below). She gave us a small bag (enough for maybe a week or more). Our bird was eating it perfectly, although from what I can tell she mostly just picks out the nuts & seeds from the mix. We picked up some organic fruit and vegetables and began introducing them. So far, she'll eat a small amount of blackberries, raw carrot pieces, and grapes. Not too interested in fresh mango, papaya, carrot tops, or broccoli.
On day "3" I tried giving her RoudyBush Pellets (maintenance small) and she devoured them!! Holding them in her foot to make sure she hardly dropped any. She ate a lot!! I mentioned it to our breeder and she was surprised, but thought it was great. Still she advised me to mix back in her original diet (1/2 & 1/2) as she was concerned our bird would get diarrhea from switching over too fast. So, we did. But it became very apparent that she only seemed to be picking out the seeds/nuts from the mixture.
That was Tuesday. So.. yesterday, Wed, we tired rotating dishes … original mix , then in a few hours, fresh fruit and vegetables, then few hours later, pellets which we left in overnight.
PROBLEM:
This morning woke up and noticed most if not all the pellets were still there from last night. Didn't think anything about it, and checked on our bird throughout the day.. around 2pm, gave a small amount of fresh fruit/vegetables which I noticed she ate more aggressively than yesterday - although would only eat the grape/carrot - nothing else.
By mid-afternoon it looked like most or all of the pellets were still there - and our "quiet bird" got progressively more noisy and agitated. At first, I thought she just wanted attention, and taken out of the cage. So I did, and gave her tiny almond slivers as treats while doing some clicker training. I took most of the pellets out, and counted the one's I left in to see if she really wasn't eating any.
By late afternoon early evening, I noticed there had been little to no elimination in the bottom of the cage and that the pellets had not been touched. I got worried and tried to hand feed some pellets but she just kept getting louder and more frantic. I put in the original mix (pictured below) this evening & she dove in the bowl and ate non-stop 30 min plus -- then went back and kept on eating for what seemed like forever!! She had two eliminations during those first hours, and two more the second hour, all mostly white, with some black, non excessively runny as far as I can tell.
I feel really bad. I assumed (obviously incorrectly) that because she'd eaten the RoudyBush Pellets so well the other day, that she was eating them today… and when I began to wonder if she really was, I kept thinking if she was really that hungry she would surely begin eating them.
Lesson learned.
So… where do we go from here? I have a live sprouting system I got from ChinaPrarie that I'm hoping to eventually get our bird on to but our Avian Vet who did a wellness check yesterday, while very supportive of sprouts, but strongly recommended having pellets in the cage at all times. I thought we were all set - but now today our bird won't touch the RoudyBush pellets, and seems to only want to eat seeds & nuts with a tiny amount of fruit/veg.
So.. my question is: where do we go from here? I ground up the roudybush pellets this evening and sprinkled them all over the mix pictured below & she did eat the mix (although I don't know how much of the roudybush "dust" (if any) she ate. Right now, she's quiet and seems happy again.
Tomorrow, should I try moistening the seed mix then sprinkling the ground up Roudybush pellet dust on them to try to help with the transition? Or, maybe turn the ground pellets into a paste and mix in the seed mix, or ???
In the coming weeks, we were hoping to transition our bird to mostly live sprouts, fruits, vegetables & some pellets. But I think he/she's hooked on seeds/nuts and I'm wondering what we can do to encourage a more balanced, healthy diet than just seeds and nuts?
What should we do ?