Force feed adult lovebirds

[basbhaiwoiwoi]

Hi,

I bought 2 lovebirds last week and I believe they are not eating properly. They only eat the basic seeds and millets but i dont think it is enough. I tried force feeding them with an injection the organic food that is available for human babies (Gerber multi fruits and biscuits). Is it okay to give them this? They are extremely afraid and move a lot when i make them eat that.

Thanks,

[Pajarita]

No, it is not. For one thing, you are stressing them out something TERRIBLE! And, for another, birds cannot eat any type of cereal meant for humans because they all have too much iron for them (birds need much, much, much less iron than humans and, when you feed them too much, it ends up in their liver causing a disease called hemochromatosis which is fatal and has no cure).

Now, the thing with lovebirds is that you should not free-feed seed because, if you do, they won't eat anything else. You need to give them something like gloop (cooked grains mixed with chopped veggies), a piece of fruit and a leafy green. They are actually excellent eaters and love their greens and fruits as well as some vegetables (like corn on the cob -which they LOVE). At dawn, give them the leafy greens, fruits and some veggie they like (cucumber, cherry tomatoes, carrots, etc) and, about one hour after, give them the gloop and leave this food there all day long. Once the sun starts to set, take this food out and give them one tablespoon of a good quality budgie mix with two small pieces of nuts (like walnuts, almonds, etc). They won't start eating this new diet the first day or the next but, in about three days, they will start - and they are not going to starve in the meantime because you are giving them the seed dinner.