Will Hotrod be okay to go about a week with no fruits or veggies?

Hello all!

I haven't been on here very much lately - I've been soooo busy! I hope everybody's fids are doing great.

So, normally I give Hotrod fruits in the morning and place a mixture of seed, pellets, and occasionally a pinch of bee pollen (all being Goldenfeast brand) in his cage to eat during the day while I am at work. (He still doesn't eat very many pellets, but I am hoping that gets better one day since I put them with the seed every day.) Then in the evenings he gets his veggie/beans. My concern is that in a few weeks I am going on an eight day vacation. I am having my mother-in-law check on him and our cat once a day... to give Hotrod fresh water, fresh seed/pellets, a little bit of play time, etc. I can't ask her to go there at least twice a day to prepare him fresh fruit and veggies, then go back to remove it in a couple of hours. It's just too much to ask of her. So my question being... do you think Hotrod will be okay to go eight days with no fruits or veggies, living mostly on "Conure Gourmet Blend" seed mix? I was also considering getting him the Missing Link Ultimate Avian Supplement Formula to sprinkle in his food while we are gone...does anybody think this would be a good idea? Here's the link to it:

The Missing Link - The Missing Link Ultimate Avian Formula - 3.5 oz. Pouch

I am soooo nervous for leaving my little Hotrod for the first time....I hope he will be okay!! I would take him with me if we weren't going on a vacation where pets aren't allowed. How do yall's fids do when you leave them for a vacation?

I think he'll be fine for that short of a period of time. It's not like you're eliminating them from his diet forever. Heck, many parrots sadly go years and years without a bite of fresh produce

Just a suggestion, but would dried fruit/veg be an option? The "just veggies" brand is safe for parrots and Kiwi at least is rather fond of their fruit and veggie products They aren't perishable.

Pellets/goldenfeast will be perfectly fine If you are really worried you could try Mysafebirdstore Bountiful Harvest for small birds. It has bigger chunks of fruits/veggies and lots of variety.

I give my birds the goldenfeast just veggies during the day to go with some seed and pellets. One of these days I'm going to stop being lazy and dehydrate my own.

While you are gone, you only want to leave/feed what he normally eats, trying to change foods when you are gone or even shortly before you leave, could cause him to refuse to eat.....what you might want to do is mix up his pellets, seed & your pinch of bee pollen, enough for each day, considering he won't have his daily fruits & veggies, package 8 zip-lock bags & leave them in the refrigerator, actually I might package up 10 bags & start giving that mixture to him two days before you leave.....

I would wait until you returned before changing anything.....

I honestly wouldn't worry much. I have an amazon that lived on just seed for 30 years and he is alive. Not overly healthy but that took 30 years. I have left my birds for 3 months without a problem no one died or had an issue. They were just happy to see me when I came back. My mother says I'm heartless though so I don't worry as much as normal people

Will your bird eat freeze dried or dried fruits and veggies? The Just Tomatoes brand of freeze dried fruits and vegetables have no added ingredients so they are better than not feeding any fruits or veggies.

klnor said:

Will your bird eat freeze dried or dried fruits and veggies? The Just Tomatoes brand of freeze dried fruits and vegetables have no added ingredients so they are better than not feeding any fruits or veggies.

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^^^This sounds like a fantastic idea. You should buy some soon to see if he'll eat them.

I tried the Bountiful Harvest Blend for Ducati and he loved it. More so than the Goldenfeast dried veggie blend. He also lived on nothing but Walmart Brand seed mix and maybe an apple for a year of his life and he's perfectly healthy so I would think 8 days will be fine.

My Sun and green cheek get more pellet then anything. I would make sure he has lots of new toys and plenty to keep his mind off you being away. Cartoons always work great. At least my lil monsters

Thank you so much for the advice, everyone!! I am still nervous about leaving my Hotrod as the time gets closer, but feel better after reading all of yall's posts.
What I have decided to do after looking into all of your suggestions, (which I very much appreciate!!) is order him some Goldenfeast blends (since I already know Hotrod likes many of their products) with fruits/veggies in them that don't have to be cooked. I was thinking of doing one of two ideas: 1: Pre-mixing the new blends in with his Conure Gourmet Blend to be put in two different bowls in his cage. One would be the conure blend mixed with Hookbill Legume Blend and the other being conure blend with Caribbean Bounty. I am also planning on packaging everything in zip loc bags for my mother-in-law as "weco" suggested. Or 2: I just might make three different bags of the three different blends to be put in three separate bowls (Hookbill, Caribbean, and Conure Blend separate)..I am not so sure yet. Over the next couple weeks I may just start feeding him both ways to see what he seems to like better. Do yall think that is a good idea?
I have also ordered him a ton of new toys ($50 worth to be exact!) from My Safe Bird Store to keep him occupied. I was also thinking of setting our TV to come on a few hours per day.
In addition to all of that, I read an article online about leaving your parrot to go on vacation. This person was saying that two weeks before he leaves, he starts telling his parrot every day "We love you very much but we have to go away for a little while and somebody awesome will be taking care of you in my place, and we will be back real soon, etc." He goes on to explain that he knows parrots can't understand what we are saying, but says they are extremely smart and intuitive to where they DO understand that we are trying to communicate something important to them by repeating it everyday, so that when he leaves to go on vacation he believes his parrots can put two and two together and realize what we were trying to communicate to them. So I am doing this with Hotrod too! I don't know if it will work, but it can't hurt trying. He is so attached to me so I want him to be okay while we are gone. Luckily I do have a full time job and nobody is home with Hotrod and Selah (our cat) from 8:15am-5:45pm, so at least they are used to being alone for a good portion of the day. Do yall think I should spend less time with him as the vacation gets closer?

Again, thank you all for the advice!! It is very much appreciated and it makes me feel better to know yall can relate to me.