Advice on caique diet

hey guys,

(Apologize in advance, I have a lot of questions )

Just curious what everyone is feeding their caiques and looking for some suggestions and advice on my feeding routine for them.

I'm currently doing a fresh mash for breakfast and dinner which includes some greens like spinach or kale and some fruits like mango strawberry, guava, grapes with some other veggie like peppers carrots and a small amount of cabbage based salad mix and I sprinkle a spoonful of Harrison mash on top. Basically whatever I have in the fridge for the day. I haven't tried making a big bash of chops and freezing them, i don't mind chopping a small amount up daily.

The only thing is I haven't added much legume or beans. My thinking is these little guys use to live up in the canopies of the Amazon, they would never get grains and legumes on a regular basis in nature and I guess I didn't want to give them too much protein? If that makes any sense.

Is there a thing of "feeding too much fruits and veggies?" My two little guys loves their fruits and finish all that I give them in the morning and eats most of the veggies and only nibbles on their pellets like 30% of the time. My vet told me that their diet should be 70% pellet, should I be worried?

They have TOPS pellet and Harrison's available through out the day.
I'm currently trying both the large granule Harrison and the fine version, they seem to have a preference for the large granules because it's big enough to hold.

If you do feed your caiques Harrison which size do you use?

Wow your caiques sound pretty spoiled! My caique gets mainly Roudybush pellets (I was told the same 70%) supplemented by whatever fresh food I have available. Pippi gets the "small" size for pellets, but they're big enough for her to hold in her foot, and she loves them. Her favorite thing to do is bring the pellets across the cage one by one to dip in her water bowl before eating. The fresh food is usually some sort of vegetable like broccoli, dandelion greens, corn, or beans, and some sort of fruit like melon, apple, grapes, strawberry, or pineapple. Those are some of the most common things I give Pippi, but that's just because it's usually what we have in the house as people food. She also gets rice, bread, bits of veggie soups, and any other piece of bird-friendly dinner we have. I also give her a small amount of bee pollen occasionally as a supplement. I've found that she will eat an infinite amount of fruit (especially sugary ones like strawberries, mangos, and bananas) so I try to limit that to one piece a day because I don't want her getting too much sugar. Also, you'll notice that if they eat a ton of watery fruit their poo gets quite watery as well, so I figure if that happens I gave her too much. As for your concerns about too much protein, I really don't know, but I try to give Pippi some sort of protein at least once a week. I think (like most things) it's just good to have in moderation. Legumes and beans are one of Pippi's favorite foods though, so I wouldn't take them out of her diet completely Hope this helps!

I think I'll add in some legume in and maybe when I have time a bit of sprout?

Bee pollen is an awesome idea!!!!! Thank you for mentioning, I totally forgot I even had some at home, will add that in tomorrow.

I feel like I may be giving them too much of what they like aka fruits because their poop is always full of urine but the poop itself is solid so I don't think it's diarrhea, probably like what you said: from the fruits.

I have discussed this already in other posts but suffice it to say on our first visit with the Avian Vet we got a 30 minute lecture on Pixie's diet. Our Vet recommends only Harrison's for Pellets. When I asked why she said she has witnessed more illnesses cured completely with a simple change to Harrison's pellets than any medication she has prescribed. This included a complete resolution to chronic kidney failure in her own parrot. She also cautioned us on feeding any type of "mash" as according to her it encourages nesting and territorial behavior, which can lead to biting. Having said that Pixie loves her mash and we still give it about 1-2 x weekely. She asked us to limit the feeding of apples, oranges, and bananas to only 1 or 2 times per week and called them "sugar bombs". We are also to limit the use of vegetables like carrots, peas and beets for the same reason. We feed melon, lots of berries, and just about every type of green the store carries including kale, swiss chard, and dandelion greens, on a daily basis. Cucumber, yellow and orange peppers, and hot peppers of any kind are also on our daily list. Pixie also loves Quinoa, couscous, and brown rice every 2nd day or so, and cooked legumes about twice per week.
We have tried the crumbles and the regular sized pellets and Pixie seems to prefer the larger size as others have mentioned. You can also run the large pellets through a coffee grinder (not used for coffee) in order the vary the size and keep things interesting.
Hope this helps!

I just got the unfortunate call from the vet today one has a gram -ve bacterial in his poop and one has a very high white cell count and both likely has an infection of some sort...
We're going to do a 14d course of antibiotics...

I don't know how this happened, I use only fresh fruits and veggies, washes all of them thoroughly, changes their fresh food out after a while and water daily... Could this have been an issue before I brought them home???

Should I stop feeding them watery fruits and veggies while they're recovering from this....
Just so worried...especially I wasn't expecting there to be problems when I brought them into the vet....

i know you posted about a month ago, but i just saw this. i was searching for mash/chop recipes and amounts for the bird i'll be bringing home in a month. is your bird ok now? did you continue feeding the same diet?

One is cleared but the other one is on his second round of antibiotics but both are doing great and eating great so far.

Right now in terms of diet I've been preparing a fresh mash for breakfast and dinner daily. What goes in it varies but mostly consist of one or two types of fruits (raspberry, blackberry, granadilla, cherry, mangosteen etc) in small amounts, a veggi base (kale, broccoli, carrots, peppers, cabbage salad mix), some grains and or sprouts, a sprinkle of bee pollen, chia seed,hemp seed and a large spoonful of Harrison's mash. To bind everything together I use a tiny amount of non sweetened organic apple sauce.

I find chopping everything into fine fine dice or just chop it in the food processor is better for mess control, less is wasted and the birdies can't pick and choose what they eat.

I know it sounds tedious but typically it only takes 10-15min to prep and they love it. I don't do a big bash and freeze it since I only have two birds and it's easy to prep things fresh daily. They have Harrison's pellets and goldn'obles available all day and a few Harrison's treats/nutriberry they can forage for.

Hope this helps!

thank you for the thoughtful response!! glad to hear your birds are ok/getting better.