Over-eating?

MeganMango

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Oct 13, 2012
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Guelph Ontario
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1 red bellied parrot (Mango), 3 cockatiels (Bugsie, Alfie, and Bananas)
Hello again!
When I bought Mango, my red belly parrot, he was eating only seeds with dried fruit in the mix. He saw a vet and we found he is a little underweight and slighly deficient and calcium and vitamin A. We started to move him over the the coarse Harrisons pellets, and he wouldnt touch them at first. I convinced him to eat them using a few tricks. I pretended to eat them and gave them to him while we had dinner. Then the next morning he got his regular food while we got ready to go, then I switched it out for the pellets for the day to see if he would eat them. He demolished them, and now its all he wants. I dont mind that he loves his pellets, its made the whole transition easier. The problem is that he is only suppose to eat a couple of table spoons, but he is eating 3-4 times the recommended amount. Since he has been underweight I havent restricted him at all, and I thought maybe he just feels super hungry from not being properly fed and hes making up for lost time. He is starting to pick at veggies, but he mostly wants to fight them when he gets excited. I give him two table spoons which equates to about 6 large pellets in the morning, and by the time I get home from work he wants more. He stands at his dish and peeps at me. If I give him veggies, it distracts him for a few minutes, but he goes back to his begging. I give him more pellets and he picks at them while we eat, and then by the time I do dishes he wants more! He will ask for more again before we go to bed, and they are gone by morning. Hes been seen by the vet and had blood done and everything, and he is in good working order. Is it normal for him to eat like this? Will it gradually decrease as he normalizes his calcium levels? I dont care if he eats more, but Im concerned about over-eating and getting fat or overdosing vitamins. Is this a serious problem? If so, what can I do? I cant possibly leave him feeling hungry.
 

Riio

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Apr 19, 2011
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San Diego California
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'Rio'~RIP baby girl 'Sunshine'~Yellow Side Green Cheek Conure
I would think his eating pellets as much as he wants is ok. I dont believe he can be overdosed on the vitamins and such if its just coming from his food. Now all this being said, I have no real knowlege in this area, just got all my 'smarts' from this forum :22: ;)
I have heard that some birds get fat and become perch potatoes, but I would think free feeding pellets would be ok. Especially with him being under weight.
Best of luck, Im sure a real expert will chime in and give you the correct advice! :)
 

Eloy

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Sep 4, 2012
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Are u sure he is hungry and eat them all and not using the pellets for time-killer?
 
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MeganMango

MeganMango

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Oct 13, 2012
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Guelph Ontario
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1 red bellied parrot (Mango), 3 cockatiels (Bugsie, Alfie, and Bananas)
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I dont think he is killing time, he is incredibly busy. He could be doing this while we are at work, but his cage door is open and he is part of our routine all night until we sleep. He has access to us and what we are doing as well as a huge variety of toys when ever we are home. He usually watches me make dinner, and his favorite game is to try to steal the food while I chop veggies. This is the only time he eats a substantial amount of veggies, and he usually gets a good variety as we eat loads of veg and very little meat. He is put on his cage while we cook to keep him safe, but he usually hangs out on the roof. He cant fly and I have extra foraging toys that he gets to play with only at this time in attempt to keep him busy and not annoyed while I cook. I put a little bit of his old seed mix inside, and he rips and shreds and throws things everywhere. He plays hard all night with us from about 5:00-10:30/11:00pm, but keeps going back to his cage where he eats, he then comes back to one of us to take a nap on us for a few minutes before going back to his shenanegans. He is like a puppy, play hard, eat hard, sleep hard and repeat.
 

Eloy

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And for how long has he been eating like this?
I have not let him have free access of the pellets. If he want more food he can eat vegetables, fruit and fresh tree branches with leaves. Or other vegetables from the garden. (like grass, dandelion greens and herbs.)
 
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MeganMango

MeganMango

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Oct 13, 2012
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Guelph Ontario
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1 red bellied parrot (Mango), 3 cockatiels (Bugsie, Alfie, and Bananas)
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We just got him last week. He didnt eat anything for the first couple of days we had him, he mostly slept and was pretty depressed (hence the immediate vet visit). He has really come out of his shell (I crack myself up!) and is much more playful and outgoing now. His vet visit was Monday afternoon, and he started to eat his pellets Tuesday, but really went crazy for them on Weds. so about 3 days of this. He is only 7 months, and given he didnt eat for two days, was under weight and vitamin deficient I thought he would probably eat less and less over time as things got sorted out. Maybe I should call the vet and see what she suggests? He wont eat veggies in his cage, only when we are eating/prepping food. If I leave them in his cage (even in toys or clipped up in interesting places) he goes through and grabs each on and throws it on the ground. He hates anything cooked. He gives it a dirty look, yells at it and promptly dumps it out of his dish (so much wonderful attitude). The vet told me to give pellets as 70-75% of the diet, veggies as the other 25-30% with the sees and sugary fruits as treats and in foraging toys so he has to work for it. Today he ate a one and a half inch cube of raw sweet potato, half a raw baby carrot, an approximately 4inch by 4 inch piece of raw kale, and he played with the broccoli and yelled at it (he doesnt like it). Even after all that (over about 2 hours) he still went into his cage and ate a whole pellet when I was done chopping. I watched him and he does eat most of it although he carries it to his perch and some of the dust falls to the bottom of the cage. I would guess he is getting 2/3 or 3/4 of it total, which still has him eating more than the recommended amount.
 

Eloy

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Yes call the Vet, and let the bird eat with you so he learn to eat everything.
And if you letting him eat with you he will love you for it!
But for me it seems like your bird is having a great life with you already. :)
 

Riio

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San Diego California
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'Rio'~RIP baby girl 'Sunshine'~Yellow Side Green Cheek Conure
Gawd I love his big lil attitude! I can only imagine how much 'worse' his antics are going to get with time and him getting even more comfy with y'all! (he seems pretty darn comfy already though!) good luck with him hahahahahahahaha if hes yelling at brocoli already it can only be a matter of time before he starts talking back to you! Hahahahahaha
 
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MeganMango

MeganMango

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Oct 13, 2012
522
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Guelph Ontario
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1 red bellied parrot (Mango), 3 cockatiels (Bugsie, Alfie, and Bananas)
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Gawd I love his big lil attitude! I can only imagine how much 'worse' his antics are going to get with time and him getting even more comfy with y'all! (he seems pretty darn comfy already though!) good luck with him hahahahahahahaha if hes yelling at brocoli already it can only be a matter of time before he starts talking back to you! Hahahahahaha

I absolutely love how snotty he is, and Im sure we encourage him because I cant help but laugh. So far he hasnt been nippy though which makes me happy. he tried to put his beak on me a bit but we have ignored it, and we do the things that upset him anyways so he doesnt seem to think its a useful option for getting away with things.
Eloy, Mango does eat with us, hes just not allowed to be in the kitchen when the stove is hot because he doesnt always (ever) stay where he is suppose to be. He can be really naughty when we are eating though. He is very preoccupied with what is on our plates even if we give him his own. A couple of days ago he wanted into my nachos but I didnt want him getting the salt and sour cream. He had his own veggies, but he kept coming over and trying to steal my nachos. I just kept moving him over to his own dish, and finally he just bolted across my plate of nachos, covering himself with sour cream and salsa, grabbed a chip and fluttered all around the table trying to keep it away from me. I had chips and sour cream mixed with feathers everywhere! The biggest problem is that he is so freaking adorable I just laugh. We then had to have a serious shower to get all the sour cream off of him. We have to be very careful to make sure he doesnt get something that will make him sick.
 

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