Morning feedings not going as hoped

chris-md

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i've been very fortunate that Parker has taken to fresh fruits and vegetables quite readily. However, he does not seem to eat much in the morning.

My schedule being the way it is he gets his food at about seven in the morning, but he doesn't seem to touch it. I'm concerned because this limits his fruit and vegetable intake to one time a day in the evening. And this doesn't take into account his Higgins fruit to nut mix I give him in place of pellets.

I've also experienced an issue, or I think it might be there, that he really only wants to eat if we physically hold the food in front of him. He doesn't readily go to his food dish but half the time. More than a little frustrating.

Anyone's bird also peel the skins on things like grapes and peas, and only eat the inside? Quite amusing, but he's missing out on all the nutrients and fiber!

Plus side, DH gave him some treats for the first time yesterday, and help a big cleaning the cage. Slowly coming around!
 

LoveMyConlan

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My Conure wouldn't touch fruit at first so I had to slice open things like grapes and blueberries. Note he loves them but demands they be opened for him so he can suck all the goodness out and throw the skins on the floor.... Lol
 

Mimsy01

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Foo tosses skins as well.

I'm not currently working so I'm home to switch things now. However, when I wasn't I just left things that can sit out while I'm gone. Like berries, peas and such, they are perfectly fine at room temp. I only left a small amount so that Foo wouldn't just paint her cage in the stuff.
 

Anansi

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Do you have the fruits and veggies out in cups at the same time as the Higgins fruit to nut mix? If so, this may account for how little Parker eats from his fresh food in the morning. Back when I fed dry mix type food to my ekkies along with the fruits and veggies, I found that I had to either limit the amount or feed the fresh well before. Otherwise, Bixby in particular would go to town on the dry and then just pick at the fresh. Not cool.

I've actually never heard of an ekkie who doesn't skin grapes or peas. Cool to watch, no? They're quite surgical with it, aren't they? And don't worry, they still get nutrition from the contents. (Of the peas, anyway. Grapes don't really offer much more than water.)
 

Kiwibird

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"Peeling" their produce is very common. It never ceases to amaze me the level of accuracy Kiwi exhibits when peeling a apple chunk or grape:D

During the day, why not offer (unsoldered, no sugar added) dry fruit and veg? It makes for great, non perishable foraging! Some bigger fruits can even be added to toys (such as dehydrated orange and kiwi slices) and hung just like beads.
 

Dopey

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Chris - how much are you giving him in the morning to eat? It may be that after you leave he chows down on it. Leave it there all day. I think you will find it's gone when you get home. If you aren't comfortable with that try it on a day that you will be home a few hours later (like on the weekend).

My Ekkies each get 1/2 - 2/3 cup of veggies (chop) in the morning. It's usually eaten by noon. They get another 1/4 of veggie/fruit in the evening. That's usually gone very quickly. Last night I gave them a 1/2 cup and this morning there was still some in both bowls.

If, I give them any pellets or seed mix it's usually just a tablespoon and they gobble that down like crazy but its a treat.

My Ekkies are lazy and they don't like to really forage for food but they will. However, I put a packet of nutriberries in their cage on July 3rd and it's still there. I'm just waiting to see how long it's going to take for them to find it.
 
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chris-md

chris-md

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Conlan sounds sweet! Parkers the same way, everything needs to be tiny for him to eat it.

Kiwi, it really it. Perfect way to describe it! He does it with everything, I'm finding. He had pineapple for the first time yesterday and seemed to more squeeze water and innards, and leave the pulp just like the skins. Same thing with celery. When I'm gone he actually does get dry fruit/veg. He gets this stuff, Higgins fruit to nuts mix. Mostly dried veg/fruits with the occasional nut and pellet thrown in. http://www.djfeathers.com/shop/images/food/fruits2nuts.jpg

Anansi, I keep them separate. Dry stuff comes out when fresh stuff goes in. He goes ham on the dry stuff so I want to not give him that opportunity. I'm just not sure if 7am might be a tad early?

Dopey, great question! I probably give 4tbs worth, which he never finishes - lots of in-bowl waste, never mind the little bit he flings out. Per instructions Ive read I let it stay out for about an hour and no more to prevent spoilage in the cage. Pit it out when I wake up and remove it when we leave for work I'm definitely open to trying new things so of you think I should leave it in the cage while I'm gone, and you think there won't be any issues, then I'm willing to provide more and let it stay longer.
 
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SilverSage

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How warm is the inside of your house? I've been doing a lot of reading and asking, and it seems that Eckies tend to do best when the food is offered all day rather than in meals. Mine are both slow eaters (and yes they skin their food!) and will eat many times a day. I prefer the meal method with my non eckies but with them it seems to be best to leave it out. I suggest putting it in in the morning and having a second bowl on them fridge to switch out in the evening, or feeding the dry in the evening. With eckies I don't suggest leaving the dry in the cage all night unless they show they prefer fresh to dry. Mine will fill up in pellets (after a decade of them as the main diet) if I let them, which is damaging for their health.
 
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chris-md

chris-md

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How warm is the inside of your house? I've been doing a lot of reading and asking, and it seems that Eckies tend to do best when the food is offered all day rather than in meals. Mine are both slow eaters (and yes they skin their food!) and will eat many times a day. I prefer the meal method with my non eckies but with them it seems to be best to leave it out. I suggest putting it in in the morning and having a second bowl on them fridge to switch out in the evening, or feeding the dry in the evening. With eckies I don't suggest leaving the dry in the cage all night unless they show they prefer fresh to dry. Mine will fill up in pellets (after a decade of them as the main diet) if I let them, which is damaging for their health.

House is about 73F, maybe a little warmer where he is, beside (not in front of) a west facing window. It almost sounds like you're recommending the opposite of what I've had to do to get by: leave dry out in the morning since he's not apparently hungry then, and feed fresh at night.
 

SilverSage

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No no no, sorry, I'm suggesting that you leave the fresh out, and feed the dry as a meal not leave it in the cage overnight. I asked about the temp because here in Hawaii I can leave fresh food out 8 or more hours without spoiling (did I eat from my birds food dish to test this? Does that make me gross?) as long as it is not during the warmest or most humid weeks. However, it's important to note that this is for FRESH food. Frozen produce spoils in an hour or two; yuck! Also, I have been doing some research lately that suggests parrots tend to eat fruit in the wild before it ripens rather than after. I am experimenting with my flock on this and have seen no aversion to it. What I have noticed is that the unripened fruit stays fresh longer than ripe fruit. Still researching it, but it might he,p with the issue you are having :)
 

SilverSage

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Note! I forgot to add that the same research suggested that the SEEDS of unripened fruit can contain toxins that ripe seeds do not, and that this is why wild parrots eat clay, Barack, and other things to bind the toxins and let them be expelled from the body. So if you are going to feed the unripened stuff I suggest not giving the seeds. And like I said this is something I am just now reading about, it's amazing how little we read in the pet sector about the actual wild eating of parrots, isn't it?
 

Anansi

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Dani (Silversage) is right. You should stop leaving the dry food out at night. Parker's filling up on it before you even offer the bowl of fresh in the mornings. At the room temperature you have going on, I wouldn't worry over much about fresh food spoilage.

Every weekday I prep their bowls of fresh fruits and veggies and leave it with them. Then, after work, I prep a new batch and give it to them as their dinner. Remember that the fresh food is the important stuff. Dry food is secondary. So after they finish their dinner, you can offer a bowl of dry as a treat... which you'd then remove before bedtime.

Try this method, and I bet you'll see a significant difference in how much fresh food is consumed in the mornings.

The next step, once that's settled, is to determine how much of everything he's eating. Of special import are carrots and dandelions. There will be lots of tricks that can be used to entice a finicky ekkie to eat all the good stuff. Remember that a fresh food diet is best when a wide variety of foods is being consumed.









*
 
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chris-md

chris-md

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Guys, thank you so much, I'm really absorbing a lot here!

Can you tie this in: I mix a batch for a couple days, freeze the bulk, and dethaw what I need for the day. This method isn't conducive to what you are describing right, for spoilage purposes since freezing is involved? Or when you say frozen, are you talking about frozen bagged veggies? I assume I could at least refrigerate a 2-3 day bulk batch?
 

SilverSage

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I mean personally I don't like any of it to freeze at any time.

I find that produce stays good longer when not chopped (best option) or when chopped and stored with only itself and not other produce mixed in (second best option).

What I do is chop up a bunch of veggies and fruits and store them in individual containers. In the morning I mix it in the actual food dish and chop more of anything I am out of, or replace it with a new veggie. I have a constant cycle of chopped fruits and veggies, and this seems to let it stay good a lot longer. It takes me about an hour to do this for My whole flock as well as chop, and scrub all water dishes, and replace toys, and my flock is significantly larger than yours :) feeding one bird like this take maybe five minutes? Which is a lot longer than just feeding dry, but I think it is worth it :)
 

Kyoto

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No no no, sorry, I'm suggesting that you leave the fresh out, and feed the dry as a meal not leave it in the cage overnight. I asked about the temp because here in Hawaii I can leave fresh food out 8 or more hours without spoiling (did I eat from my birds food dish to test this? Does that make me gross?) as long as it is not during the warmest or most humid weeks. However, it's important to note that this is for FRESH food. Frozen produce spoils in an hour or two; yuck! Also, I have been doing some research lately that suggests parrots tend to eat fruit in the wild before it ripens rather than after. I am experimenting with my flock on this and have seen no aversion to it. What I have noticed is that the unripened fruit stays fresh longer than ripe fruit. Still researching it, but it might he,p with the issue you are having :)

Thank you so much for this! I was worried about leaving fresh foods in Kyo's cage at all. And the idea with the fruit unripened is a great one!
 

SilverSage

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Kyoto, please be sure to read the post right after where I mention unripened seeds as potentially dangerous.
 

Anansi

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I basically chop enough for 2-3 feedings, so I never have the need to freeze. It's not that I have anything hardcore against freezing, as some seem to do so with great success, but my ekkies just don't seem to enjoy thawed food quite as much.

So I make a double or triple portion, serve out the amount for the current meal, and then seal the rest in a container and chuck it into the refrigerator's vegetable drawer. More work than dry food? Certainly. But really not that big a deal, either.

Here are what my batches tend to look like:

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Notice the variety. Switching it up not only keeps them interested, but it also helps ensure that they're getting a balanced diet.
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And can't forget to prep some sprouts for extra nutrition!
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obeck

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I make kiwi a dessert size plate and put it on his fold down cage door. He sits in the back of the cage in the morning until I cook him breakfast. When I bring the plate over, every morning, he looks at me like"what do you have there" and "is that for me?". It's quite cute but it took time just keep at it. The trick was to find something he loved.
 
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chris-md

chris-md

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Thanks Obeck! I'm finding he's obsessed with celery, white rice (just happened to have some at the time, Chinese food, no sauce), and hard boiled egg.

Dani/Anansi, you really highlight what I've been doing wrong. I notice what I gave him this morning (thawed leftovers) looked absolutely sickening compared to the photos you just posted Anansi, and he wasnt touching it. I rechopped some stuff on the fly and he stuffed his face! No more frozen leftovers! Any leftovers have to sit in the fridge from now on, so I'm not chopping as far I'm advance as I would like. But as you say, it's worth it!

Granted, this was later than usual, when he might have an appetite.
 

SilverSage

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:) that was basically my experience too, lol. And now I have a whole freezer full of chop! Also, be careful how much animal protein he gets. I'm still learning but I believe that too much is pretty bad for them, I think they are only supposed to get like 1/4 egg once per week or less? But like I said I'm still learning!
 

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