Yeah Jack LOVES sunflower seeds

Hello everyone,

I went to Bulk Barn today and picked some sunflower seeds.(non salted) Jack absolutely LOVES them. We are working on "Step Up" tonight, he is doing an awesome job.

I am so excited to start teaching him basic commands. I have already noticed a change in his behaviour. I am looking forward to his progress.

Now time for my questions... I bought the most nutritional sunflower seeds that Balk Barn Sold. How many can he have a day? He has already had about 15 in less than an hour. I am keeping training to about 15 minutes and then he just gets bonding time with me.

Is this too many sunflower seeds for him? They are working so well for me, I don't want to have an super trained FAT bird.

I will have all weekend to train with him and I want to make sure that I am not feeding my bird too much junk food.

Thanks everyone,

Brett and Jack

I have a similar problem with Eddie. He's an eclectus and sunflowers are particularly bad for him, but he works hardest for those. A good method is to use a less fatty treat for the smaller steps of success and save the sunflowers for when he really get something right. I believe its called ‘variable ratio reinforcement’.

For example, I am currently doing recall with Eddie. When he responds after multiple calls, he gets a less favoured treat. When he responds after one call, he gets a sunflower seed

Sorry I can't help out with exact amounts that a bird is allowed a day. From a dietary standpoint, the less the better.

hehe, the seedie junkies LOVE sunflower seeds!

Lucky for me, Cal is a huge fruit and veg fan. She loves grape even more than sunflower seeds! Peas....can't get enough lol. She eats pretty much anything and since I swapped her to Kaytee Exact, her bowl is cleared in no time.

She gets just a few a day with her pellets. Brazil and hazelnuts are also a winner with her. Pumpkin seeds were what she first accepted from my hand.

Try all manner of things and you never know, there may be a healthier alternative to the seeds. They love chilli's too. I buy Cal dried ones. She likes small pieces of red pepper, broccoli, carrot...you name it!

Aussie Ben said:

I have a similar problem with Eddie. He's an eclectus and sunflowers are particularly bad for him, but he works hardest for those. A good method is to use a less fatty treat for the smaller steps of success and save the sunflowers for when he really get something right. I believe its called ‘variable ratio reinforcement’.

For example, I am currently doing recall with Eddie. When he responds after multiple calls, he gets a less favoured treat. When he responds after one call, he gets a sunflower seed

Click to expand...

Ben that is brilliant advice!

My girl loves raisins and dried cranberries most.

wildheart said:

Aussie Ben said:

I have a similar problem with Eddie. He's an eclectus and sunflowers are particularly bad for him, but he works hardest for those. A good method is to use a less fatty treat for the smaller steps of success and save the sunflowers for when he really get something right. I believe its called ‘variable ratio reinforcement’.

For example, I am currently doing recall with Eddie. When he responds after multiple calls, he gets a less favoured treat. When he responds after one call, he gets a sunflower seed

Click to expand...

Ben that is brilliant advice!

My girl loves raisins and dried cranberries most.

Click to expand...

Sterretjie and Mishka must be twins..... from another mother LoL

Mishka also loves raisins and dried cranberry

Thanks guys... Now for my next question. If I am trying to fill Jacks bowl with an assortment of fruits and vegetables daily to get him eating healthier, do I not want his treats to used in his everyday food?

Today I am putting in lettuce and brocolli with some honey doo melon. I am hoping he will eat them. If I use his everyday food as a treat, will this not defeat the pupose of a treat?

He will only get sunflower seeds for treats and they will not be in his regular diet. I have him on Zupreem right now and there are sunflower seeds in it. My LPS is going to be carrying Kaytee and so I am hoping they have a better food without sunflower seeds. She should be carrying the brand by next week.

Cheers,
Brett and Jack

We were talking to our breeder this week when we picked up our girls from boarding and she said that for training, she finds her birds' absolute favorite food and they only get that food as a training/reward.

I've said before that our Alexandrine, Max, would wash my car if I paid him in walnuts. We've used them for training, but mostly to help him bond with our youngest son. I haven't been able to determine what Ruby's favorite is...she loves everything excelpt cherries...however, she has a history as a sprout thief. She stole sprouts at the breeder before she was fully weaned and did it again while she was there boarding last week. I'm glad she likes them so much, but I hope I can find another favorite because sprouts are a large part of her daily diet.

Di's on the money, you want to remove the treat from the diet. I find this so hard as Eddie always changes his mind as to which are his favourite treats. Sunflower seeds generally always remain a favourite, but one weeks its almonds, another its cashews, the next its some sort of fruit lol. It goes on and on and I just have to keep swapping around. They do often get bored with a particular food, well atleast mine does

I feed vegies. separate from fruit. We do not eat them together so I do not feed my bird those things together. It has somethng to do with the digestion processes. Their little crops do not have much room for a big bowl of food. Also I item is that lettuce has very little nutrition. Best to give the dark green leafy vegies. The leaves of the broccli plant are where all the vitamins live.

I keep back hazelnuts and grapes for Cal as treats =]

Everything else is freeplay. Sorry, I probably wasn't very clear (the rambler strikes again) I was basically mentioning some things that Cal enjoys to eat daily that your bird may latch onto and EUREKA! A training treat is found lol.

Cal has 2 feeding bowls. 1 for Kaytee Exact Rainbow (IT SMELLS DIVINE!!!) (I didn't like zupreem either - she wouldn't eat that properly, it smelt not too good and still had seeds as you say) and a few seeds. 1 is for her "daily's". In the morning she has sweet in there like apple,mango,orange, pineapple for example. In the evening she has her veg. Peas, sweetcorn, broccolli,peppers etc etc. I leave those dishes with her for 15-20mins and then clear up.

Seems to work quite well. =]