Feeding times?

[Aurora and I]

I have one rosella parrot named Aurora I have had her for only a few weeks, but have done much research previous to getting her. She's only 6 months old. She's a lively little girl and she is taking well to target training, but in my research I have found conflicting views on feeding parrots.

FIrst of all I am trying to convert her to pellets and she is not taking well to that. She has been on seeds ever since she was born from the breeder, and she dosen't want to part with them. I know that pallets are the healthiest form of diet that can be given to a parrot as an all round diet. Of cores you have to include fresh fruits and seeds for a well rounded diet. So any help in converting her would be nice. She won't take the pellets as treats, and after moistening them with fruit juice and she ate some seeds off the pellets, but will not touch them herself.

Also I was wondering about different peples opinions about feeding times. I take her food out of her cage 2 hours before training her and she is happy to accept her favorite treat (sunflower seeds) and will eat a bunch afterwords. But What I want to know is if people give their parrots specific amounts of food throughout the day or leave a bunch of food in their bowl and let them eat when they want?
So do I give them little amounts of food or a mass amount of food?
which is healthiest? Or is it just preference?

[pennyandrocky]

hi, i put a small amount of pellots in one bowl first thing in the morning,in another bowl i'll put fruit with plain yogurt, cereal, or scrambled eggs with a little plain toast. at dinner i make them each a small amount of what we're having,if we have something they should not eat i have muti-colored pasta for them sometimes add a salsa,beans,steamed veggie.

[Shelby]

I have heard that some people are more successful converting to pellets after getting their bird to eat sprouts with their seeds. A few people here have posted directions for how they sprout, and I am sure you can find articles from health food stores as well (since people eat sprouts too!).

I have also heard people have been successful with mixing seeds and pellets and each week raising the percentage of pellets and lowering that of seeds (while carefully monitoring the bird's weight so they know it is still eating enough).

If your bird eats the pellets with a little juice on them, you could try feeding them that way and gradually put less and less juice on them until she eats them dry (again, monitoring her weight throughout the process).

[liz]

For me it would depend on the time of day that you train. If it is evening I would give her seed in the morning and take it away when she stops eating. Then put the pellets in to prevent starvation until evening when you train. After training give her the food she wants enough to get her through the night.

You want to make sure she is getting enough after training and through the night and morning. If she isn't hungry enough to eat the pellets then you at least know she ate good over night.

My dogs are chubby but will not eat the dry dog food which is good for them. I split 2 cans of food between 6 dogs in the morning when we eat breakfast. When we eat lunch they get half a low fat turkey hot dog. At bedtime I give them a 30 calorie chicken jerkey. If they get hungry in between they will resort to a mouthful of dry food.

[Cage Cleaner]

[Michael]

I wrote about feeding schedules a bit in this article so take a look if you haven't read it already:

http://TrainedParrot.com/Good_Behavior

[Aurora and I]

Thanks for all the help guys, i'm using some of the strategies regarding changing her to pellets and i hope it works. Also Michael I read the article and it was great and I learned a lot that I hadn't known before about training and good behavior of parrots. Thanks for all the help and I hope to be getting my little baby to have a healthy lifestyle reinforced with positive reinforcement training.

[Aurora and I]

My bird is now completely converted to pellets, and she loves it! Thanks for all the help, and it was the fruit juice that made her take interest in them. She's munching away as I am typing this!
Thanks guys.

[Shelby]

I'm really happy you were successful! Hopefully she will have a long and happy life with you!

[Aurora and I]

I'm really happy you were successful! Hopefully she will have a long and happy life with you!

Thanks! She's now starting to take to fresh veggies! Thanks to Michael's article on teaching your parrots to try new foods! Next she needs to have some fruit!