Implementing a fresh diet? Some questions :S

Hi, my name is Kara and i'm new to this forum. I have a green cheeked conure named Jingus. He is about 5 years old and we have had the best time together. I really love my bird and I want him to live a long and happy life so I'd like to get him to eat a little more healthier.

He isn't too bad- he only eats vetafarm nutriblend pellets (is this a good brand? any suggestions for a better brand?), he eats about 1 raspberry and mango cube everyday, and the occasional almond. I like to treat him to sunflower seeds because he loooves them, but I don't give him a heap, and sometimes a little nibble of whatever i'm eating.

I read somewhere that birds should be having like 50% vegetables, 20% pellets, 20% fruit, 7% dry seed mix and like 3% tree nuts? how do you implement this? I'm not sure how much he eats and how to cook in a way that won't waste food (as in, giving him a whole apple would be pointless as he eats like a slither of an apple and then i'd have to throw out the rest)? And then if i do cook food do I leave it in the cage all day while i'm at uni? I think basically i'm just looking for a quick and easy plan on how to implement more fresh food into my bird's diet. What recipes do you make for your bird? Is there a way I could cook all his dietary requirements on say, a Sunday and then freeze them individually and only take out and heat up what he needs each day?

Bit of an overload of questions, sorry >.<'' Any tips would be helpful and muchly appreciated!

Thanks for your time

I have a green cheek and what I do is buy his cooked bird food called hot and hearty. I cook one cup of that then cut up veggies and mix them together. I have ice cube trays that I freeze them in then once frozen I transfer them to a freezer container. Every morning I give him clean water and fresh pellets then pop an ice cube into the microwave and serve! He knows the microwave beep means breakfast and gets so excited!!!

Ah that sounds great^_^. Hot and hearty... I'll have to google that and see if I can get it here in Australia, or do you just get your stuff online?

Sorry, where are my manners. Welcome to the forum! Haha

Also, I am not sure if that's a good brand of pellets, I feed zupreem because that's what my breeder weaned him onto. But I think as long as your bird is eating pellets it should be good to go with some veggies of course. Just whatever pellets your bird will eat are fine.

I get it online from a site called my parrot food. It's $15. So not bad because it lasts quite some time. There might be better brands of cooked food out there also, so you may want to wait for other answers or do research. Again I use what my breeder weaned him onto, I've never looked into anything else.

I never knew about this whole "cooked foods" business until now so that's exciting and i'll have to give it a try, thanks Looking through some posts, it seems like some birds are quite fussy with switching to pellets so i'm feeling pretty thankful that I just tipped out his seeds and swapped them with no problems lol. Hopefully i'll get the same with cooked foods : p

Wow lucky you. I was lucky enough to have a breeder that weaned them onto a healthy diet. But yes I've heard it can take a lot of effort to switch diets. But some birds do it quickly and painlessly.

I'm not sure how many parronts here use cooked bird food I haven't seen any threads on it, I know a lot use chop though which to me seems very similar to what I do. But like I said you may want to wait for other opinions. I'm new to all of this.

Ann333 said:

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I'm not sure how many parronts here use cooked bird food I haven't seen any threads on it.....

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I cook this up for my fids once a month:
http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-food-recipes-diet/22594-cook-portion-freeze-my-recipe.html

I'd say that quite a few of us actually just finished making cooked food for our birds that we label as "chop". It's convenient to make a giant batch in one go, freeze in portions, thaw, and add fresh things to. I spent at least 3 hours cooking and prepping for my two little birdies. 3 hours of work for 30 days of great food is a good deal to me!

And, as a tip, I always feed my chop in my morning when they're hungriest. Avery is a bit more picky, but she'll eat it here and there. Shiko my IRN will down it no questions asked

Dinosrawr said:

I spent at least 3 hours cooking and prepping for my two little birdies. 3 hours of work for 30 days of great food is a good deal to me!

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-If you don't mind sharing, what did you cook up for your birds? ^^

I used:
- 1 serving of Lundberg's wild rice mix (Long Grain Brown Rice, Sweet Brown Rice, Wild Rice, Whole Grain Wehani[emoji768] Rice, Whole Grain Black Japonica[emoji769] Rice)
-1 small serving of whole wheat avemarie pasta
- 2 puréed kiwis for sweetness
- 5 strawberries
- 1 Apple
- dandelion greens
- kale
- broccoli
- sweet sugar snap peas that I open myself
- yellow carrots
- orange carrots
- sweet red and orange bell peppers
- edamame
- green lentils
- parsley
- oat groats
- hulled barley
- millet
- quinoa
- green beans
- chickpeas

That's about all I can remember for the time being. It changes every month to keep things different for the birds. I try to use fruits as a natural sweetener so they'll eat the more bitter veggies, and it works. I use different shaped pastas that are small, and preferably that have holes because that way veggies get stuck in them. And I cut things or process things depending on which size I know my birds prefer for that particular item.

wow that looks great, such variety. Hopefully when I raid the kitchen it will be full of all different healthy things to buzz together. balancing sweeter fruits with veggies sounds like a good plan to me