by Pajarita » Wed Jul 10, 2019 8:14 am
OK, let me be clearer on the solar schedule - it's not the number of hours they sleep (this changes as the seasons change with loooong nights during the winter and very short ones during the summer). It's the following of the sun schedule and exposing them (without any aritificial light on) to the different light that happens only at dawn and dusk so, for example, this time of the year, I am opening the blinds in the windows at 5 am but I don't turn on the ceiing fixture until the sun is already all out in the sky and sunrays are streaking into the room (which happens around 7 am) BUT, in the winter, I don't open the blinds until much later. To make it easier: you need to open the blinds or uncover the cage when there is the merest light beginning to show in the sky (which is way before the sun actually comes out), turn on the artificial lights when the sunrays are already coming into the room, then, in the pm, turn off all the lights when the sun is halfway down to the horizon in the afternoon (and, in winter, this means around 2:45 - 3 pm) and cover the cage or close the blinds when the bird is already roosting and almost asleep and night has fallen.
Now, as to the diet. I've done research on parrots natural diets since 1994 when my first rescue, a redlored amazon, was diagnosed with high uric acid and reached the conclusion many years ago that pellets are not and never will be the best dietary option for parrots (waaaay too dry -bad for their kidneys, wrong fiber, inferior ingredients, soy, man-made vitamins/minerals and, for amazons, waaaay too much protein) so my birds also eat seeds BUT they don't get a bowl full of them all day long. I feed my parrots gloop and raw produce at dawn and leave it there all day long until the evening when I take it out and give them their dinner, a measured and small (just enough to fill their crop and a tiny bit more) portion of a nut/seed mix (I always give them more nuts than seeds because they are healthier).
Amazons are GREAT eaters and super easy to transition to a good, healthy diet and the only reason why you haven't been able to do it is that you, most likely, are putting out all the food together and any parrot, given the choice between a leafy green, a veggie, a fruit or seeds will go for the seeds EVERY TIME. What you need to do is take away the leftover seeds when you open the blinds before dawn and, once there is a tiny amount of light, put out the raw produce (one leafy green -choose something with a crunchy stalk like the heart of the romaine or bok choy, a veggie -everybirdy's favorite is fresh corn on the cob, a fruit -they LOVE blackberries), wait about one hour and then serve the gloop lukewarm. If you start him out with a simple grain gloop, he will eat it on the second day and, once he is eating it for a few days without a problem, start adding veggies to it starting with sweet corn, then peas and carrots, then broccoli, etc. All my birds are rehomes, most of them came to me because of issues and 99% of them were fed seeds and little else but they all eat raw produce and gloop now -and they love it!