What I need to know.
-Do I leave seeds there for her to graze?
-How much should she eat every day?
-What should I avoid?
-Should I buy her shelled nuts so she uses her muscles to open the casing?
Hello, and welcome to the Parrot Forums family! Congratulations on the beautiful new member of your household!
-Seeds should only be used as a treat and fed in small amounts. We're talking a teaspoon and change per day. A seed-based diet is far too fattening for most parrots. A fresh food diet of vegetables, fruits, sprouts and legumes is good, as is a pellet-based diet with servings of fresh food provided.
Whether or not food is freely available all day (free-feeding) depends on the approach you intend to adopt with your bird. Free-feeding is a perfectly acceptable approach. I, however, offer two substantial meals instead. Part of this is out of necessity, as I feed a purely fresh food diet and work during the day. So once I understood how much food constitutes a robust and healthy meal for them, I started putting that much out in the morning... following up with another like-sized meal in the evening. Between meals they get treats during their training sessions, and they also get a small offering of seeds as an after-dinner dessert.
-How much she should eat each day will vary based on the individual bird and level of activity in a given day. For instance, I have 2 Solomon Island eclectus parrots. The male, Jolly, is an avid flier, often flying loops around the interior of my house for fun. So I can give him a bit more food, as well as offer him an extra nut or so, than I could to the female, Maya. Why? Because though Maya is every bit as fully flighted as Jolly is, she has opted for a more
grounded lifestyle. Which means she doesn't burn off fat as readily as Jolly does.
It's a good idea to get a good gram scale with a perch attachment and tare function so that you can weigh your bird regularly. This will help you in determining how much food is good for her.
- What should you avoid? Assuming you mean in terms of food, in addition to avocado I'd also avoid chocolate (should be a no-brainer, but you might be surprised), alcohol (again, surprise factor), dairy products, excess servings of spinach (can block the absorption of calcium) and, IMO, peanuts. Peanuts are more controversial, as there is nothing inherently wrong with them. Many people have fed peanuts to their birds for years without an issue. The problem is that peanuts can sometimes harbor the fungal aflatoxins that can lead to stubborn, and oft deadly, Aspergillosis infections. Peanuts in the shell significantly increases this risk, and buying only roasted peanuts significantly lowers it. I just choose to eliminate the risk altogether by treating peanuts the same way I do avocado: a toxic food to be avoided.
Another thing to keep in mind is the delicacy of birds' respiratory systems. (There is a reason canaries were used to determine whether there was bad air in the mines. They would always die well before human beings could even sense that something had gone wrong with the air.) As such, you also want to avoid any kind of aerosol sprays near your bird. Air fresheners and all that should never be used anywhere near a parrot. Same goes for scented candles and oils. And MOST URGENTLY, never cook with any teflon pans (or any pans similarly prepped with non-stick coatings)! When heated beyond a certain point, teflon particles are released into the air. Inhaled teflon particles will kill a bird with terrible swiftness.
- If you are looking to have her exercise and forage for some of her treats (which is great for mental stimulation as it more naturally mimics what they would be doing in the wild), just get some good foraging toys. These will be far more effective than shells around nuts for that purpose.
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to ask.
