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[Rani]

Hello everyone,

Most you might remember my earlier posts... Rani did not fly for a good 6-7 months since we have had her. We have now had her for a year.
Before personalities : Calm, mostly played in or on top of the cage. Ate what was given to her.

Now here comes trouble:
We did not clip her feather since we wanted to make sure she was introduced to flying. She will be 2 yrs old in october. She flies all around the house.
Me and my husband both have separate home offices and she will choose where she wants to go and sit in our office while we work. I am ok with her being in the office as long as she sits on her play stand. BUT NO SHE WILL NOT SIT ON THE PLAY STAND. She will sit right in front of my face on the table and look at whats going on the screen. She will sit in our office and even nap.

Basically she will not stay on the cage if me or my husband are home. We are trying to teach her to sit on the stand but of course its not working out well.

Problem number 2
She used to eat when we ate. This was ok as she was eating in her cage and we were on the dining table.
Now she flies to the dining table and only wants to eat what we eat. Which is fine with me as i give her a piece of what we are eating and then her birdie bread. Funny bird wants to eat in a glass bowl go figure......

I am vegeterian so i mostly eat whole wheat bread, veggies and lentils. For the last 2-3 days i notice she lives off of what we are eating.... Is this ok? I do not see her eating her pellets at all for the last few days......
Today i took some rice, yellow lentils and a few green beans and potatoes out before i add salt to our food for her. She seems to love whole wheat bread and Roti (whole wheat tortilla). Is it ok for her to just live of this food?

She is getting very picky on the fruits she will eat as well... Only grapes, kiwi and peach.

We love her very much and want the best for her. I feel very bad when we have to lock her down in the cage and force her to eat the pellets.....

I had just taken her to the doctor and she seems to be doing fine. Please advise what do your female birds eat.

Thank you very much
chrisi

 

[suebee]

what pellets are you giving?? an ekkies don't need an enriched diet like our parrots do, so i think her eating less pellets might be a good thing, but her food needs to be very low fat or no fat, take care what seasonings you use, as some can cause illness

Laurella Desborough's Eclectus Center

and welcome to the world of flyin parrots :09: try placing stand infront of you, rather then behind, but hands on heart, she knows she can follow you now, and i think most importantly she is happy with being able to fly, so personally i feel clipping her might cause other problems??

give her some toys etc to play with when she is in your office, spare washed out key boards may be agood, so while you tap on yours, she has one too you will find a way that works for you all, but in the mean time make sure she is not left alone with anything you don't want her to destroy

 

[Rani]

She is on harrisons pellets.

Trust me we have had a case where she chewed up my husbands laptop keyboard lol...

chrisi

 

[suebee]

She is on harrisons pellets.

Trust me we have had a case where she chewed up my husbands laptop keyboard lol...

chrisi

:11: i am currently having mouse wars with the nut, as she is trying to claim it as hers!! but she is claiming in an aggressive manner!!! lol

 

[critterman]

Just a suggestion Harrisons Pellets makes a pellet that is mashed up to a powder and you can mix that with your table food or other foods that your parrot is eating that way it is getting the benefit of a pellet and your regular food also. I used it for awhile to mix it in my CAGS food until they would eat the pellets on their own. Now they eat the pellets readily but I still mash a few up and mix it with their regular foods, fruits, and veggies. Good Luck!

 

[mtdoramike]

I usually don't like to clip a birds wings once they have been flying for a short while. But in this case, it might be best that you have his wings clipped. He will be easier to manage that way.

I know how you feel, I have had my Ekkie for a month now and he will pick at his fruits and veggies unless he seems me eating them. Then he will want some. So now, at meal times, I either set Mac and my Senegal Tiki up to the table or I pull up a chair next to their cages and they eat right along with me. This way, I'm sure they are eating their veggies like summer squash, butternut squash, all kinds of beans, peas and whole wheat pasta to mention a few of the items. They will dig right in, but if I just put it in their food bowl, they will pick at it.

Mac was used to getting pellets, which I have cut him off of mostly. I do give a little seed mixer as a treat, but it's only a tea spoon or so. But I must admit, that I do spoil him a bit and keep up the cheeto's thing in the evens when we are watching TV. The previous owners did this and I just kept doing it. I love cheeto's too.

 

[MikeyTN]

They should have mainly fruits and veggies as their main diet anyway, along with grains, beans, eggs, chicken, legume, etc.. My ekkies don't like to be left alone, they like to be in the same room as we're in. But I make them stay on their playstand. In the same room where im at. Not in a different room. They're very nosey, they have to see exactly what we're doing....

 

[mtdoramike]

They should have mainly fruits and veggies as their main diet anyway, along with grains, beans, eggs, chicken, legume, etc.. My ekkies don't like to be left alone, they like to be in the same room as we're in. But I make them stay on their playstand. In the same room where im at. Not in a different room. They're very nosey, they have to see exactly what we're doing....

I know what you mean Mikey, my Ekkie will literally climb down the side of his cage and walk around the house looking for me. She will pass right by my wife whose sitting on the couch and head straight for my work room where I spend quite a bit of time during the day and early evenings. that's if he is left on his cage and feels he's being ignored hahahahaha. He spends quite a bit of time with me in my work room and watching TV in the early evenings hence the cheeto's hahahahaha.

My computer is in the same room as Mac's cage. He will climb down the side of his cage when ever I get on the computer and walk over to me and nibble on my toe's until I pick him up and put him on my arm or shoulder. Just from what I have seen from Mac, Ekkie's seem to be very social birds and even though Mac can entertain himself, he prefers to be around us.

 

[MikeyTN]

Ekkies are very social birds. They also care for each other's babies. They believe in free love!!!

 

[Rani]

Working on keeping her on the play stand in my office.... She will play there for 5 mins and they fly on the desk. She gets put back on the stand and 5 mins later she is back on the desk. Hopefully she gets the message soon.

How do you store the food? Do you freeze the mixture of veggies?

chrisi

 

[suebee]

treat the cooked or prepared fresh food as you would your own,

so for cooked food, let it go cool (faster the better) then portion into bags etc and freeze, remember chilling or freezing does not kill bacteria, it just puts them into hibernation, so as soon as it starts to defrost, the bacteria starts to wake up!

if fresh just cut up on day its needed, and keep rest in a plastic food bag in fridge

 

[MikeyTN]

We give them fresh food so we don't freeze them. Like like sue mentioned, do it like that!