Daily food routine for your bird?

[Alexander]

Hello!

As some of you know, I just brought home my first Senegal parrot and I am currently researching on the food routine I am going to establish. I am a bit confused about all the stuff that are available (pellets, seeds, fresh food, etc.) and I would like to read what daily food routines other people follow for their birds. Thanks!

Alexander

[Michael]

First off, you should start by following whatever food routine was established by the breeder. The bird is still a baby (I presume?) so don't pay attention to any training diets I mention elsewhere because right now the bird needs to eat well and frequently. Most of the feeding "routines" you'll hear us talk about is with older parrots that are more established. With yours, you'll just want to feed it things it is used to and introduce lots of new things at the same time.

[lzver]

Michael's advice is right on. A lot has changed in your baby Sennie's life today and he's probably pretty stressed out. Keep feeding him the food that he is used to and slowly start introducing fresh foods. And don't be surprised if he won't eat for a day or so. My Senegal didn't eat for almost 2 days after we brought him home. Our Red Belly was fine ... not much phases her anyways.

As far as a daily routine goes, most days my two get fresh veggies/fruits/sprouted beans/vegetable pasta/grains first thing in the morning for about 2 hours. While we are at work, they have a supply of pellets in their cage at all times. Then when I get home from work they get another mix of fresh food for 2 - 3 hours. After about 7pm each night, the pellets are back in their cage. They also get healthy treats if its good for them when I'm cooking as well.

[pchela]

I put my routine and a recipe for glop which I highly recommend in this thread viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1851

I'm being lazy and didn't want to type it all out again.

[Alexander]

Thank you all three for your advice and for sharing with me the food routines of your birds. I will follow the food routine that he had till now which is consisted of seeds and some fresh fruit in the morning. Gradually, I am planning to reduce the amount of seeds he eats and increase the amount of fresh food as well as familiarise him with eating pellets.

[Michael]

Don't go too crazy with the fresh fruit/veggies. The more I've been learning about it, the more I've been realizing that they don't satisfy a parrot's nutrition that well. I used to feed my parrot 40/40/20 pellets/fresh/seeds. However, now I've been moving more to a 70/20/10 regime where pellets dominate her nutritional requirements. And this wasn't just from reading/talking to people. I've been finding that Kili actually wants the pellets. I used to feed a meal of pellets in the morning and just veggies in the evening (seeds/treats only for training). However, lately I've been offering her some pellets along with or right after veggie meals and she goes right for them. The 50/50 split (in meals rather than overall nutrition) between veggies and pellets created an impression from her behavior as inadequate and increasing pellets to about 70/30 out of the ratio.

But I watch her. I think it depends a bit seasonally as well. When she is molting she seems to need more nutrition so she prefers to have more pellets. Other times she goes for the veggies. Fruits are basically all sugar/water so I save them for treats only.

[notscaredtodance]

I think it's important to point out that while fruits are more treats, veggies, especially dark leafy greens like kale, broccoli, mustard greens, are VERY nutritious, low in sugar, and really should be fed as often as you have them available, same with legumes, which are full of good stuff.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

My routine is probably not ideal, but so far it is working well for my GCC. He has dry food available in his cage at all times -- I put a non-sunflower-containing seed, grain and extruded fortified mix in the bottom of the cup, a layer of Roudybushpellets on top of that and a few Avicake bits or Nutriberries on top of that. The idea is to encourage him to eat more pellets, get some foraging enrichment and still allow him to eat what he really seems to favor. When I need to change this out (every couple days) I do it in the late afternoon or early evening. He gets fresh raw food in the morning, a mix of fruits and veggies, whatever is in season and varying the content frequently. Sometimes it's on a kebab in big chunks, sometimes it's minced, sometimes it's coarsely cut in a dish. Currently I'm leaving it until the evening, but as the weather gets hotter I may not be able to do that. Minced apple is reserved as a training treat.

Everything else -- cooked food, table scraps, etc. is an occasional treat. I keep a millet spray on his playstand.

[TheNzJessie]

my routine for my budgie is 2 teaspoons of seed mixture a day (so he eats all of it not just the parts he likes) and has fresh vegetables and fruit (mostly broccoli carrot and apple) offered at lunch and at dinner time. as for my lorikeet his routine is (will be) i got him today. wet mix made in the morning vege, fruit mixture at lunch, bottle brushes at night/dinnertime and dry mix offered throughout the day.