eating too much at once?

Owlet

Well-known member
Oct 27, 2016
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Colorado
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Lincoln (Eclectus), Apollo (Cockatiel), Aster (GCC)
So, normally Lincoln just picks at his food throughout the day but past week or so he has been spending like an hour in the bowl when I first put it in and once he's done he's got an impressive boob going (big crop), could it be unhealthy to eat so much at once? is the new chop too much of a hit?
 

ChristaNL

Banned
Banned
May 23, 2018
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NL= the Netherlands, Europe
Parrots
Sunny a female B&G macaw;
Japie (m) & Appie (f), both are congo african grey;
All are rescues- had to leave their previous homes for 'reasons', are still in contact with them :)
Sunny does this in the evening...she stocks up on pellets till I am afraid she will burst (and then goes for a nice long drink to top it all up)
If you touch her you can feel the individual pellets under the skin ... but she seems to be happy with it.

(She has those pellets around all day long, so it is not a feed-eat response of any kind- she just decides to 'go for it'.)


I think Lincoln may be paying your chop-cooking a compliment ;)

(or is he like Chairo preparing for a huge molt?)
 

Sunnyclover

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Jan 11, 2017
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New Jersey
Parrots
Sun Conure - Ollie- Hatched 08/18/16*

Nanday Conure -Finley- Hatched 10/07/17*

Turquoise Yellow Sided Green Cheek Conure -Paris- Hatched 03/03/18*

Black Capped Conure -North- Hatched 10/10/18
I don't have an Eclectus but my Nanday conure, Finley eats for like 2 hours and has a very large crop at times. He goes through fazes with it and sometimes he'll don't his for a few weeks and then go back to normal eating 20 mind here and there throughout the day. It might be something like Lincoln needs a certain things in his body and feels like eating more will accomplish that and also since he is a feather picker it's possible he's eating more at once to stimulate new feather growth.
 

EllenD

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Aug 20, 2016
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State College, PA
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Senegal Parrot named "Kane"; Yellow-Sided Green Cheek Conure named "Bowie"; Blue Quaker Parrot named "Lita Ford"; Cockatiel named "Duff"; 8 American/English Budgie Hybrids; Ringneck Dove named "Dylan"
That's totally normal, it probably just means that he really likes what he's eating...It's the same thing they would do if we gave them a whole bowl of junk-food or something else they like, they'll eat themselves full. I don't think that birds are like dogs or pigs (or humans) where they will eat something they really like until they are physically ill, but they'll eat until they are completely satiated.

Their crops stretch WAY BEYOND what they normally do when they eat...I've had people who have never owned a bird before adopt one at the Rescue, and they'll call all freaked-out after the first couple of days because they don't think their bird is eating enough food because their crops aren't "visible", like they search online about what a "Crop" is, and read it's a "balloon" that fills with food as they eat, and they think that after they eat enough food their Crop's should be blown-up like a balloon. So when they can't see them they're worried that the bird isn't eating enough...So the opposite also applies, we typically don't ever see their crops balloon-up very often, so when they eat enough that they do blow-up like a balloon we get worried. But it's completely normal, and as big as Lincoln's crop was after eating that new Chop recipe, it can stretch probably 10 times larger than that or more before he'd ever have an issue...

Anyone who has ever hand-fed a baby bird without their mature-feathers formula knows how large their crops can get; I've seen some parent-birds actually over-fill their newly-hatched baby's crops, to the point where I was actually concerned they were going to die...But they're always fine, those things can stretch!!!

Too bad we don't have crops...We could eat and eat and eat, and we'd never get sick...Of course we'd all end-up weighing 500 pounds...
 
OP
Owlet

Owlet

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Oct 27, 2016
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Colorado
Parrots
Lincoln (Eclectus), Apollo (Cockatiel), Aster (GCC)
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tbh when I first got Lincoln I was a tad worried he wasn't eating enough because I never saw his crop. Quickly learned that was normal though xD
 

Laurasea

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Aug 2, 2018
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USA
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Full house
Frankly I'm jealous. I see peoples pictures if Parrots with full a crop. And I wonder why I never see mine with full crop. I just hope it's because mine graze all day long at my different bird stations,?
 

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