25 year old rescued amazon help

Hello everybody,

I rescued a red lored amazon who is 25 years old and she doesn't and hasn't eaten fruit, veg or pellets before and she has hypocalcemia so I am desperately trying to get her to eat them all. Does anyone have any tips on introducing new food and pellets to her? She is extremely stubborn and set in her own ways.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

So, what is she current eating? And who, based on what, defined a LOW 'calcium' status for your Amazon?

It would be rare for a certified avian professional to prescribe fruits for an Amazon with low calcium as that is commonly found in a wide and varied supply of 'healthy' seeds, grains, nuts and natural veggies. In addition, a low calcium level is only found in a full spectrum blood test, which would have commonly had your Avian Medical Professional recommending taking common (standard white) TUMS, finely crushing a single tab and sprinkling it 'lightly' over your Amazons normal dry food dish, uses a single TUMS over several days.

It would be common for your Avian Professional to request your visiting again in about 4 to 8 weeks for an additional blood test.

NOTE: Never quickly switch a rescue Parrot to a new diet when they first arrive in your home! It is not uncommon for a Parrot to STOP EATING when they arrive in a new home. As a result, never switch their diet until they have become comfortable to try new things.

NOTE: Sunflower seed and peanuts are a major NO, NO with Amazons and if your Amazon's current diet is heavy in one or the other or both, they will need to be worked out of his diet over this next year. Search for a High Quality Parrot's of the America's Seed package. This group will come with some Sunflower seed and Peanuts, just slowly pull them out of the dry food offering and provide them to the outside birds.

After she is settled in for a bit, you can chop up some hot peppers, the hotter the beter, and mix it with her food. Whole peppers seeds and all including juices. Try diiferent size chanks from finely chopped to larger bits. Al little at first, so she gets the taste of them on her regualr food. parrots have 1 taste bud for 100 of ours, and what we might find unbearably hot is mildly tastey to a parrot. Ver good fro them too.

My good friend 'Boats has given you excellent advicee, and you should spend some time reading the 2 stickies at the top of he Amazon subforum, also written by 'Boats. INVALUABLE information!

Have you had blood work etc? Did you take her to an avian certified vet and find out what their recommendations are?

Do not cut her off from what she was eating before--- they can starve. Try to gradually introduce things..what was she eating for 15 years?

Repeat exposure is key. It can take years to get them to try new things but 500 rejections does not mean that you get to give up.

You could try eating the things your bird wants in front of your bird (they tend to want what they see us eat).

If your bird has a history of eating junk food, you could try putting some pellets in a zip-lock bag and then putting that inside of something like an empty chip or cracker bag (if you put them in directly, you would get salt/oil on the pellets, and you don't want that). For my bird, the crinkle of a chip or cracker bag is magical.

Birdie bread is another option--recipes online.

Try preparing veg etc differently (steamed, vs raw etc)