How do you know how much to feed?

[Ravennessa]

Ok so today I gave Jacob a huge amount of salad, he went through a lot of it... It was about 60% veggies, 35% fruit and 5% nuts and seeds (and a few youghurt pieces on top) but how do I know how much to feed? does a bird eat just enough or do they tend to get fat? what's the scoop? Cause he has free feeding of his pellets...

 

[Julianna]

I don't think birds get fat really, but I'm not sure how good they are at eating healthily. Actually, I'm beginning to think they're pretty bad at it. I realized that my caique wasn't eating many of her pellets because she always seemed to fill up on fruits and veggies, so I had to cut down on those a bit. I think so long as he has a balanced diet and he's eating everything you shouldn't worry, though. Just make sure he's not picking through and only eating some stuff. Good luck!

 

[SoCalWendy]

Ok so today I gave Jacob a huge amount of salad, he went through a lot of it... It was about 60% veggies, 35% fruit and 5% nuts and seeds (and a few youghurt pieces on top) but how do I know how much to feed? does a bird eat just enough or do they tend to get fat? what's the scoop? Cause he has free feeding of his pellets...

Your feeding 2x a day right, so give him a couple of tablespoons of your mixture and see how long it takes him to eat it. If he finishes it and wants more, then give him a lil more. Do this twice a day, discarding the left overs. He is getting pellets through out the days so that should hold him until next feeding.

 

[Ravennessa]

lol he got a whole cup or so in the morning, and he ate most of the fruit and the squash, the greens not so much but he hasn't gotten them regurarly yet.. The second batch in the evening he picked on his favorites.. and then went to bed.. But that cup lasted almost all day and he went and picked on it through out the day, so I should give him less then I guess..

 

[kiwiS]

I had the same thing! I would give kiwi a bunch of mash and it looked like she only picked out the yummy stuff.

In the end I took out the seeds because she'd eat those up first, then get distracted and do something else without eating hr veggies. She'd do the same with her pellets, she'd eat tthose only and ignore the veggies.

Now for breakfast and dinner she gets a bowl of her mash (half a teaspoon of this and that, total maybe two tablespoons of mash), and half a teaspoon of pellets on the side in another bowl, and she will eat a lot more of her veggies, sometimes cleaning the bowl out. Her seeds I only feed her during her training sessionss. Pellets are there all the time when the mash isn't

Oh, i also pulse all the veggies so they are all shredded and mixed together so its harder for her to pick out her favorites without picking some of the other stuff.

 

[Ravennessa]

Ahhh.... so the trick is to outsmart the parrot!!! LOL
(Im blond so that may be hard)