Feeding dried fruit?

NataliaTG

New member
Jul 23, 2017
6
0
Mexico
Parrots
Oliver, double yellow headed amazon.
In the past few days I've been trying to offer Oliver some fresh fruits and veggies. Other than celery leaves and lettuce, he doesn't eat them at all, and if I hand feed them to him he just throws them away. He loves pellets, seeds, peanuts and corn (and corn tortillas which he soaks in water).

Today I gave him a little bit of dried papaya and he LOVED IT! He even dropped it by accident and went all the way to rescue the little piece. So I decided to give him some fresh papaya and just by touching it with his beak he decided that he doesn't like it.

I just feel like he doesn't really enjoy ''fresh'' things. Now, I won't give up trying to feed him new foods, but I'm wondering if for the sake of him eating anthing else other than pellets, seeds and lettuce, is it okay to feed him dried fruits?

What I plan to do is give him a piece of dried fruit and then a small piece of fresh fruit... and repeat lol

Also, what fruits do your birdies love the most?
 

Flboy

Well-known member
Dec 28, 2014
12,598
4,101
Greater Orlando area, Florida
Parrots
JoJo, 'Special' GCC, Bongo, Cinnamon GCC(wife's)
FYI, Costco carries a big bag of dried fruit/quality nuts at a great price! I know of a couple of pet stores that buy these bags and break them out selling it as bulk!
 

Katu

New member
May 27, 2017
148
0
GTA, ON
Parrots
Male blue budgie!
I'm no expert, but drying fruit highly concentrates the amount of sugar in it, so I would be cautious in giving it to birds. :)
 

OutlawedSpirit

New member
Apr 12, 2016
1,020
21
Northern Illinois, USA
Parrots
Bo - DYH ~ Gus - CAG ~ Twitch - Linnie ~ Apple - Pineapple GCC ~ Goliath - Quaker ~ Squish - Peach face Lovebird
One thing you coud do, that I've done, is invest in a dehydrator. You can find decent models for less than $150. This would have three advantages for you.

First, even though the dehydrator is an initial investment, it would save you money because dried fruit is expensive. Plus, you could dry small amounts of a lot of different foods to give Oliver to try an expand his tastes without gong broke trying to buy that much dried fruit.

Two, you know for a fact that there are no added preservatives or other chemicals added. Many dried fruits are chemically treated and should not be offered to your bird.

Third, you don't have to stop at fruits. Many vegetables can be dried as well, which means you can expand his diet even further. The more things you can get him to try and accept, the easier is going to be to eventually get hum eating fresh food.

One more added bonus. Since drying fruit does concentrate the sugars, you will get to know how much dried fruit is the equivalent of the fresh fruit. For example, if you take half an apple and it weighs say 30 grams, then dry it and it weighs 5 grams, you know that 5 grams of dried apple has roughly the sane amount of sugar as an entire half of an apple. I hope that makes sense.


Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 

msdeb

Member
Dec 22, 2013
153
5
texas
Parrots
Charlie the birdie, yellow naped amazon and little bird, a monk parrot , and Polly -yellow crowned amazon
It could be the temperature of the fresh fruit. Charlie doesn't like fruit from the refrigerator. He touches it with his beak and turns away, but the same food at room temperature he loves. i let his fruit set on the counter for a bit and then give it to him.
He loves my food best and steals from my plate readily. If you think of what a balanced human diet consists of that is pretty close to a good birdie diet minus the onion, avocado, chocolate, caffeine, and other bird/pet no-nos. Mostly veggies, fruits, grains (in moderation, too much carbs are bad for the heart) protein and low salt and fat intake. Try different things that are easy to obtain and mix with healthy pellets, use seeds as a training tool because birds usually love them but don't give too many at a session (they are the bird equivalent of junk food) Charlie loves fresh raw corn on the cob, steamed sweet potato, raw green beans, radishes, tomato, cucumber, melon, grapes, oatmeal, oranges, apples (no seeds of apples or cherries) pear, plum, broccoli, squash, zucchini, pineapple, etc. Go through the veggie aisle at the grocery store. Present food items more than once, birds like stuff they are familiar with, new stuff is always scary at first. Amazons like to chew stuff, so give them plenty to chew on in the form of fresh hardwood sticks, Fresh water every day. And don't forget a bath! check the threads for how to introduce a bath and know that if done correctly it is the best part of both of your days.
 

clark_conure

Well-known member
Jul 14, 2017
3,924
Media
21
2,224
Minnesota
Parrots
A crossover Quaker Scuti (F), A Sun conure named AC, A Cinnamon Green Cheek conure Kent, and 6 budgies, Scuti Jr. (f), yellow (m), clark Jr. (m), Dot (f), Zebra(f), Machine (m).
I had the same experience with bananananananas with my conure. He loved the freeze dried pieces of banana, he'd dip them in the water bowl and go nuts...so I bought some bananas.....he couldn't give a crap less for fresh ones. I tried cutting them up and hole and everything but he only wanted the crispy banana "chips". They like what they like, what can I say....
 

Notdumasilook

New member
Jul 28, 2015
539
6
Charlotte, NC
Parrots
Blue Fronted Amazon, Cookie..Sun Conure..lil Booger (RIP) Have owned Parakeets, lovebirds, cockatiels, cockatoos, pocket parrot, and quakers.
CAUTION..... Ive heard that birdies have issues with some sulfur compounds found in store bought dried fruits. Obviously it doesn't hurt us but may hurt the birdie... Check that out to make sure
 

plumsmum2005

New member
Nov 18, 2015
5,330
94
England, UK
Parrots
Lou, Ruby, and Sonu.
Fly free Plum, my gorgeous boy.
Producing veggie chop is one way to try and sneak something new past them. If it is all mixed up it is more difficult to pick n choose. Also a hungry bird that is not stuffed full of treats may be more willing to go try something new?
 

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