Am I feeding to much?

Hey there guys, I bought my birds a supply of food along with a couple new stuff and some treats. I feel like I might be giving them to much now. I bought 5 lbs. of golden sunburst millet and boy are they plump! Takes the birds about 3-6 days to finish them. With my green cheek I have the millet in a plastic container with small holes throughout the thing, making him have to work to get the millet. I think that that is a good thing right? I also got 2 sticks of treats that have seeds, pellets, and other varieous treats stuffed into it. I put these on a cool thing I bought. It's a treat holder and anything that your bird chews off will fall directly onto this 6" diameter plate that it catches for later consumption. Then I bought this pinecone with seeds and pellets and sunflowers stuffed onto it. I took that out for the moment because I'm giving Kiwi one of the stick treats first. Then I have normal pellets that I give them. About half a tablespoon of pellets. Then I'm also giving them the other half of the tablespoon with those colored pellets. Then I also bought three 12 ounce bags of mixed fruit, mixed veggies, and mixed veggies/nuts. I'm also giving them one Avi-cake a week. In case you don't know what those are here's a link to them(the birds LOVE them!) Lafeber's Avi-Cakes for Birds

Then i'm giving them one nutri-berry every day(maybe every other). I'm not sure if ya'll feed your birds nutri berry's but the birds love them. The ones i have are stuffed with papaya and mango.

Now I feed the millet once a week, avi-cakes once a week, nutri-berry's once a day or every other, and mixed veggies/pellets/colored pellets every day.

Does this seem like to much? Should I tone down on the food? Kiwi get's a lotta excercize in his cage(he runs all over the place). Peeps isn't as playful, he'll usually sit on his perch next to me. But most times i'll get him out of his cage and then he likes to run.

Should I weigh the birds? I don't want to take them in for this, i'm really tight on money right now and i'd prefer to figure this out at home. Thanks for any help guys and sorry this was kinda long.

Oh and also something I really want to fix............Kiwi keeps dropping his colored pellets to the floor, same with the mixed veggies. How can I get him to keep his food in his bowl? Peeps dosn't do that at all!

It does seem like a lot. If you've noticed them getting plumper since feeding them these treats then it's probably time to cut back on the treats, and maybe feed a bit less of their normal daily food. What I've been feeding my parrotlet that seems to have kept him at a healthy weight is just barely covering the bottom of his dish with Harrison's pellets with a pinch of various seeds for variety. In another dish I give him a stalk of broccoli, 3 pieces of a small sliced carrot, and a blueberry (working on increasing the variety of fruits and veggies, right now those are the ones he wants to eat). I don't use treat sticks in the cage, and millet as a once in awhile treat. I use sunflower seeds for training treats. The vet says he is at a healthy weight and maintaining so I figure I'm doing alright. He is also flighted and often flies to and fro from his cage to me so he gets a good amount of exercise. I'm feeding my conure much in the same manner, just slightly more, but I've only had her for a couple days so I can't tell about her weight yet. She isn't flighted, either.

Be careful with colored pellets. I've been told the colors are not good for their liver. It also discolors their poop, and if you suspect your bird is sick, you can't tell from the color of his droppings if they're bright red/purple/blue anyway from the colored food.

Do you have a gram scale you could weigh them on at home?

birdiemomma said:

Do you have a gram scale you could weigh them on at home?

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Yes I do. Should I weight them once a week? Or every day. And thanks for the help mishy. Kinda sucks though cuz i bought 3 lbs of that colored pellet stuff. Should I keep feeding them that?

Maybe it's just me but I try to limit how much I feed my sun millet I heard it's high in fat if ate too regularly but I could be wrong

Millet seed has no nutritional value....it's just sort of like a junk food.

It does sound like a lot.....I tend to keep Cal's pellet bowl full but with only a few nuts and seeds a day. Her daily "treat" is one of the many fruit or veg combinations she loves so much. She thinks they are so nummy, that most so called pre-packaged treats hold not much interest to her. I have several brands of bird cookies and treats but she has yet to finish a bag of anything.

For weekly/bi-weekly treats she has a variety of things to choose from. Her favourites are plain popcorn and boiled egg. She likes to eat her real treats with me. Mmmmm shredded egg lol.

I feed my bird the Zupreem colored pellets and she is completely fine. It really is whatever your preference is. She has been on her Zupreem pellets since she was weaned and the vet always tells me she is in great health so I am not too worried!

I missed the part on food colouring.....

The food colouring used in kaytee and zupreem is natural food colouring. Feeding your bird naturally coloured food directly, such as beetroot (not pickled, obviously!!!), will colour it's droppings also.

I've never read anything that's pointed to it being harmful. I would like to, but I doubt I will see the cause for concern. Any pellet is better than seeds only. I would like it if Cal would eventually have Harrisons only, but as the ingredients are practically the same, I'm not overly concerned. I have a happy, healthy bird. That's all I need!

On the food coloring - ARTIFICIALLY colored pellets can be harmful to liver, as I've been told by many birdy-friends and bird store owners. And miscolored droppings can mask a health issue if there is one - if their poop is miscolored if they're sick, you wouldn't be able to tell because their poop is colored by their food. That's all I'm sayin. :] Doesn't mean that the bird ISN'T healthy for eating colored pellets, it's just a preventative measure I go with.

mishykinz said:

On the food coloring - ARTIFICIALLY colored pellets can be harmful to liver, as I've been told by many birdy-friends and bird store owners. And miscolored droppings can mask a health issue if there is one - if their poop is miscolored if they're sick, you wouldn't be able to tell because their poop is colored by their food. That's all I'm sayin. :] Doesn't mean that the bird ISN'T healthy for eating colored pellets, it's just a preventative measure I go with.

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But if it's naturally colored it shouldn't matter at all. The colors of regular fruits & vegetables change the color of my birds droppings. So if I was basing my feeding off of her droppings changing colors then I could only feed her one color of food. Oh & by the way I am not trying to argue or fight. I am just sort of confused lol!

I'm still talking about artificial colors Sorry. As for veggies changing the color of poop, I've never experienced that. I've fed them broccoli, carrots, blueberries and melons and their poop isn't rainbow colored, it's just the normal poop color. I've read only a few fruits/veggies will change poop color (such as beets).

Pomegranates definitely change the color! Can be kind of startling if you've forgotten what you gave them.

I do know that a green/white poop is what you have when the bird has a more seed-based diet, brownish if it's more pellet-based (for pellets that have no artificial dyes). I feed my two conures a mixture of pellets and their bean/grain/veggie mash and their poop is usually brownish-green/white. Except when pomegranates are concerned (my Sun's favorite).

mishykinz said:

I'm still talking about artificial colors Sorry. As for veggies changing the color of poop, I've never experienced that. I've fed them broccoli, carrots, blueberries and melons and their poop isn't rainbow colored, it's just the normal poop color. I've read only a few fruits/veggies will change poop color (such as beets).

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Oh okay. Sorry I got so confused. I have a two year old yelling in the background so that might be part of the problem! haha. I feed red bell peppers and watch out because there are maroon droppings. It's really weird & very scary if you forgot you fed them that!!!

I still have an unanswered question. My conure is taking the colored pellets into his mouth, eating a little, and then drops them to the floor. Wasted. Same with some of the nuts and dried veggies. What can I do to not let this happen?

That's just how birds are. They eat what they want and throw the rest elsewhere. Bella is a very messy eater and when she chews a pellet about half of it stays in her mouth and the other half is just crumbs... everywhere!!!