I have not had a bird in the house for years and finally have my life at a point where I could own another and purchased an alexandrine almost a week ago. The woman I bought him from had him on a 100% seed diet plus French fries. They used white grapes to lure him but only as treats. Apparently she had bought him young at a pet expo with no bird experience. She was very afraid of him and couldn’t get him out of the cage because he would bluff bite at her. He is super sweet and steps up just fine for me already if I ignore the bluffing. She said thinks he is 4 or 5 years old but he still makes little baby bird noises.
I am trying to switch him from this seed diet to a mostly fruit/vegetables and a few pellets but I am having a very hard time getting him to try foods. I am offering all sorts of fresh food but he will only eat white grapes, asparagus and carrots. I grow sprouts and he may have eaten some radish and alfalfa sprouts but I think he was mostly playing with them. He refuses to try berries, bananas, peppers, snap peas, mango or any other fruit I have cut up. He will eat the white grapes but not red or black. I am worried about him getting enough food and have been monitoring his weight on a food scale. It hasn’t dropped too much but I am still worried. I was not given much extra of the seed mixture he was on but I have been offering a small amount of it to him while he is on the stand to make sure he is getting enough to eat. Should I go buy another bag of seed mixture and try to more gradually wean him off of it or will he eat the fresh food when he is hungry?
I was also wondering about tomatoes. Years ago when I had a bird all of the nightshades were on the foods to avoid list but reading recently I have seen them on some diet lists. Has the school of thought changed on this or are they still foods to steer clear of? I have some rainbow cherry tomatoes in the house and some are a similar color to the white grapes so I thought he may be more likely to try them. His feathers may be slightly dull looking but i only have past birds i have owned as a baseline. he also has some dark blackish tint on some of his wing feathers and i know this can be due to diet issues in some species but cannot find anything about this on alexandrines
One final question is about hair products. I have long hair and he loves to get under it and play with it and I started thinking if my hair products could harm him. I use
- Christope robin hair oil ingredients: Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil, Caprylic/Capric Triglyceride, Coco-Caprylate, Oryza Sativa Bran Oil, Opuntia Ficus Indica Seed Oil, Fragrance, Inula Crithmoide Leaf/Flower Extract, Opuntia Ficus Indica Fruit Extract, Lecithin, Tocopherol, Ascorbyl Palmitate, Amyl Cinnamal, Citronellol, Citric Acid, Benzyl Salicylate, Evernia Prunastri (Oakmoss) Extract, Linalool, Geraniol, Limonene, Hydroxycitronellal, Coumarin.
-But I am more concerned about the dry shampoo I use. It is not an aerosol but a powder you shake out. Bumble and Bumble Prêt-à-Powder ingredients: Zea Mays (Corn) Starch , Montmorillonite , Tapioca Starch , Avena Sativa (Oat) Kernel Flour , Silica , Polysilicone-22 , Fragrance (Parfum) , Hexyl Cinnamal , Linalool , Citronellol , Limonene , Coumarin , Geraniol , Butylphenyl Methylpropional , Potassium Sorbate. I know they have sensitive respiratory systems and was worried about the small particles being inhaled. Should I stay away from either of there products?
Thank you for your time, I know it was a long post. I haven’t had a bird in a few years and just want him to be as happy as possible.