eating habits!

suebee

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Jan 13, 2011
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well i always thought the nut did not like strawberries, well i was wrong!

i put one on her fruit kebab stick, as we got some really big juicy ones from waitrose, she devored it!! making all the oh yum an eyes slightly pinned motions

anyway later on that day i offer her a small piece, and she drops it as if it was something bad?? so i try again, this time i held it, and you guessed it, she ate it!
not sure what she has against holding the fruit lol
maybe i need a silver spoon to feed her, her pellets???

but lately she has taken to dunking her dry food, into her water bowl, pellets and banana chips or fried fruit

she will eat brocoli if its tied up right ( i was wrong about this one as well, another no hold item)

what other wierd food habits do your birds have?? as i feel, if i can offer the healthy stuff, in the correct manner then it'll be less waste and will lead to a healthier nut!!
 

roxynoodle

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Dec 1, 2011
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Rowdy will take pretty much anything from my hands. It's actually been the best way for me to get her to try something new. If it's on my plate, she wants it. So I hand her a piece and then she will eat it.

Pete made me hand feed him his medicated toast the first few days or he wouldn't eat it. Then after that he would only eat it out of his dish. He is often reluctant to take something new from my hands.
 

Mayden

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Merlin & Charlie (Senegals)
Hmm, don't really think Merlin has any 'weird' or 'picky' eating habits. He'll just eat pretty much anything that isn't too huge and intimidating for him. :)
 

MickeysMom

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Mickey - Female U2 age unknown. DNA test came back...he is a SHE,

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Chiquita 16 yr old Female U2 and Junior 16 yr old Male Grey
That's so funny! Mickey also will only eat certain foods if I hold them for him....and he has to have his bowl of oatmeal while being held, if I put it in the holder he ignores it!
 

merlinsmom13

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Jul 27, 2010
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Merlin a Red Crowned Amazon
I'm still working on Merlins diet. He won't eat anything w/a wet texture. He likes cauliflower & broccoli, but bananas are yucky. He even gets a "its yucky" look on his face when I offer it to him. But he'll eat banana chips, he's just weird. I've been sprinkling cayenne pepper on his veggies & he'll eat them better. Strawberries, he eats the seeds off of them. But he gets that pointy eyed look when he gets a strawberry taste, so I'm still hopeful he'll like them eventually.
 

roxynoodle

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Dec 1, 2011
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I'm still working on Merlins diet. He won't eat anything w/a wet texture. He likes cauliflower & broccoli, but bananas are yucky. He even gets a "its yucky" look on his face when I offer it to him. But he'll eat banana chips, he's just weird. I've been sprinkling cayenne pepper on his veggies & he'll eat them better. Strawberries, he eats the seeds off of them. But he gets that pointy eyed look when he gets a strawberry taste, so I'm still hopeful he'll like them eventually.

Actually that might not be that weird. I keep reading birds are more into texture than taste. Although mine all like bananas, and I know Rowdy likes strawberries. I haven't bought any recently to find out yet with Merlin and Pete.
 
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suebee

suebee

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lol nuts like that with bananas, the dried chips only!!

will do the cayenne pepper trick, as lately she has taken to shredding dried chillies that are in her food mix

oh an she likes her mashed foods fed to her, she will eat it out of her bowl, but another NO hold item

but cherries are her number one fav fruit dried or fresh

horrible thing is, i was never this attentive with my own son's fussiness!!! it was a case of eat it how it comes or arrange it how you want it lol (his a thing about visible fat in meat)
 

Enjru

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Feb 19, 2012
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1 x Scarlet Macaw, 2 x DYHA's
Hi suebee,

Are you removing the stones from the cherries before you feed them to nuts? Because the stones of all stone fruits including cherries, peaches, etc, contain cyanide. Even apple pips contain cyanide. Humans can swallow a few pips and/or stones and still be OK, but we are a lot larger than our birds. Only minimal amounts of cyanide are absorbed if the stones are swallowed intact, BUT, if the stones are cracked open, quite a bit of the cyanide can actually be absorbed into the body. I am not aware of any case reports or studies of cyanide poisoning in birds from ingestion of fruit stones and pips, but perhaps it is better to be cautious and remove the stones and pips anyway.

Cheers.
Enjru
 

Enjru

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1 x Scarlet Macaw, 2 x DYHA's
I like to experiment in the ways I present the food to my parrots in order to make it interesting for them and make them forage. I highly recommend Scott Echols' DVD called "Captive Foraging".

I use all kinds of foraging toys to keep my parrots working for their food. My parrots definitely enjoy having to work for their food over just having the food put into the food bowls for them. I only use the food bowls to present some mushy foods because mushy foods stuck inside foraging toys is too hard to clean.

If you have spare time and you are handy, you can probably make heaps of DIY foraging toys.

Other eating habits apart from foraging, hmm...

Chilli is a very messy eater. She likes to take her food to eat in front of her water bowl, dunking the food into the water before eating it. Then, she washes her beak in the water after eating. Her water bowl can get dirty within 5 seconds of me changing it.
 
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suebee

suebee

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she never cracks the cherry stones :) as for foraging toys she likes the ones where you can see the prize
 

roxynoodle

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I do remove the pits from cherries. Well, what I tend to do is cut it in half, save the half without the pit for the birds and then I eat the half with the pit, lol! No, I don't mean I actually eat the pits, but I eat that half and then spit them out, lol!

I have the visible fat on meat issue as well, Suebee. My mom always called me the "meat inspector" when I was a kid. Even now I have to cut it all off. You should see how I take apart bacon.
 
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suebee

suebee

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lol roxy my son will only eat the eye!!
but i do remember when i was a kid, i hated fat, on pork etc, bacon fat well done was ok, oh i love the rind :) but its rare to get any bacon with it on now??
 

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