Chop/gloop

[stevesjk]

Just ordered all those in with my next shop. How about walnuts?

[Pajarita]

Walnuts are OK but my sennies high value item are cashews -not that this means it will be your bird's high value, mind you!

Now, what you are doing is good as a transition diet but you cannot feed just two or three pellets a day and always the same produce because you will skew her nutrition - she needs fruits like blueberries, blackberries, cantaloupe, pomegranate seeds.. some nice calabaza or squash... some nice crispy greens. And then there is the pellets. See, the thing about pellets is that you either feed them as the protein food or you don't because doing it halfway does not provide the bird with all the vitamins/minerals it needs and it's very difficult to supplement them when you are already feeding something that has some of it. I choose not to feed them at all because I don't believe they are the best dietary option for parrots and I am not 100% they are that effective when it comes to nutrition... I know of birds that have died of eggbinding on Harrison's pellets and I know of macaws that have been fed Kaytee's fruit pellets for years and developed diabetes from them. I've never had a single bird eggbound or have one developed any kind of condition that is directly related to the diet (like diabetes, hepatic lipidosis, hemochromatosis, mineral or vitamin deficiency, etc) and I firmly believe that this is because I do not give them any commercial or people's food or any animal product.

[stevesjk]

Thanks pajarita, definite improvement, not 100% yet but gonna keep going. Harrison's is removed permanently, soy is just too harsh on their systems from what I have read. No more nuttiberries to get her back in her cage either, I use banana, apple or those tree nuts you recommended as rewards

[Pajarita]

GREAT NEWS!! One more thing I was thinking about the other night, could it be that your home is too dry during the winter months? I have a humidifier running in the birdroom but the birds I have downstairs (living and dining room) don't have the benefit of one (makes it too humid for the furniture, wood floor and draperies) so what I do is spray the paper I put at the bottom of their cages so the evaporation can help a bit. But, with the exception of the YNA which do not bathe that often but don't dislike the spray, they all bathe almost every day so they are good. My sennies pretty much hate the spray and prefer to bathe on their own in a bowl of water but they really do not bathe often enough and neither did the other sennies I've had so I don't know if this is something typical of the species or it was just a coincidence that all the sennies I've had did not like bathing often. But, if I had one scratching, I would do it because dryness does cause itch. Do you spray her regularly or does she bathe often on her own? Because, if she doesn't, you might want to spray her every other day or so to keep her skin from drying which could cause itch, too. Once the summer comes, it's OK because it's always more humid during those months... well, unless you live in a place like Arizona where you would have to put a humidifier or something during the summer, too.

[stevesjk]

I took your advice from 2 years ago and I soak the newspaper every day, I also spray as much as 2 bottles of water over her everyday....she loves it, she looks pretty drenched after it but doesn't open her wings so there are some dry spots. Provided a water bowl for ages, was never interested. She will only take spraying in her cage so when I'm done I have to dry all the perches and bars to prevent fungal infections. Shall I go to every other day? That might be a bit easier for me actually because being physically disabled I find it a big task. It's ironic really when you mention humidity in the winter months because I found she was actually ok this winter, this issue started in spring, almost as soon as the clocks changed and her days got longer

[Pajarita]

Yes, I know you said that this only starts in spring but I thought that maybe it was kind of an 'accumulation' of dryness after months of a dry environment during the winter. But, if you are misting her so often and wetting the paper, it cannot be that. And, yes, I think that you can go to every other day and I would not worry too much about drying the perches (you do use natural tree branches, right?) after - they will dry up naturally in a matter of a couple of hours and that is not enough to create fungus one them. I never dry them and I never got mildew or fungus on them.

[stevesjk]

Yep all natural branches. Oh right that's handy if I don't have to dry much, you are right actually, I just sprayed her and cleaned the cage after, went To dry the perches and it was almost dry.

[stevesjk]

Do you dry the bars?

[Pajarita]

Nope. My daily cage cleaning goes as follows: I start by taking out the water and food bowl and whatever left over fruit/veggie/green there is. Then I scrape the perches and bars dirty with food with the edge of a knife to dislodge all the food and poop stuck on them - once this is done, I wipe/rub them with a wet sponge (the kind you get for scrubbing pots). Put clean paper in the cage and serve the water and produce. A bit later, the bowl or plate with gloop. Once a week, I do a more thorough cleaning by soaking the perches in hot water with a splash of dish soap, scrubbing and drying them (just so they don't drip, nothing really thorough), going over the bars and toys more carefully and washing the grate and tray in the sink. Three times a year (beginning of spring, mid-summer and end of fall), my husband power washes them outside. Truth is, my birds cages don't really get very dirty because they spend so much time out of them...

[stevesjk]

Thanks pajarita