Yes I have an avian vet not far from me. I'm just so excited. Well definitely post pictures. I'm thinking to keep a little seed, and pellets in the cage at all times. Then giving fresh foods throughout the day such as peas, carrots, lettuce, kale, strawberries, apple, grapes, an occasional egg, past etc. Is this okay or should I go about it another way? I will definitely have a wide range of perches and toys to play with in the cage. We'll have to see if I get a lazy bum who doesn't want to work for food
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Hi and congrats on your new bird! I think overall, your diet sounds like a very healthy one. You will have to wait and see though what your birds eating habits are, and judge their routine from there. Some of them will just dig in to anything you put in their dish and others are much more picky. The fruit and veg. are the MOST important part of a birds diet, as they are primarily fruit eaters in nature, so they should be eating a reasonable quantity of them every day.
We have to give our amazon his fruit first (when he super hungry in the AM) and let him eat a good portion before we give him his other food (he gets a special cooked mix for parrots) or else he will not eat his fruit at all. He is not so picky with his veg. at night, so he just gets that on top of his food. He gets and hour or so to eat at his am/pm feedings to keep him at a healthy weight (certain birds are prone to obesity in captivity) and prevent food spoilage. He also gets portioned meals, a heaping spoonful of his cooked food (which is more filling than dry food) and about 1/8cup of fruit or veg. Obviously, he does not "clean the plate" but he gets ample variety and theres not major amounts of waste. If you are feeding dry food, about 1/4 cup per feeding is fine (seed or pellet). Their dishes do not need to be filled to the brim with food, and all that does is promote overeating, unhealthy weight gain and waste food. We provide a small amount of seed during the day for him to snack on, but he rarely touches it. Just a personal thing, but I like to feed him fruit in the morning because of the sugar content so he will have energy all day and veg. at night so he doesn't get a sugar rush before bed. My parents birds LOVE fresh produce and will devour it before they touch their seed, so they don't need a special feeding routine. And every bird has preferences with fruit and veg, just like we do. He might not like, say apples, but he goes nuts over bananas, and that's ok. Feed him more banana then. You will just have to wait and see how his eating habits are and what his preferences are
As for table food, it is very healthy for birds to get "safe" human food in small quantities. The healthiest birds who live the longest eat off the table regularly. They may primarily eat fruit, but they are omnivores, so small amounts of our food mimics the small amounts of random things they would eat in nature (such as instead of a protien-rich bug they'd eat in nature, they eat a bite of protein rich egg off your breakfast plate). Dairy is one of those things some birds can handle small bites of, and others get an upset tummy from. Parrots obviously aren't mammals and never ingest milk naturally, so many are lactose-intolorent. Though a fair amount (including my boy) enjoy a small cube of cheese or some yogurt every once in a while and suffer no ill effects. Others will get an upset tummy, so be observant if you offer your bird dairy products. Many people actually bring their parrots to the table at mealtimes, as it is a good bonding experience and they thoroughly enjoy all the food. You do have to have a relatively healthy diet though, because if they get used to coming to the table, they will come to expect it and expect you to share. If you eat a lot of processed, fatty, excessively salty or sweets it may be best not to get your bird into that routine and instead offer them bits of appropriate healthy table foods in their dish when you eat them. While an occasional nibble of something that has refined sugar or salt won't kill them, they certainly shouldn't be ingesting those things frequently or in large quantities. Anyways, best of luck!
You can make this more difficult by hiding the food in the toys instead of just around them. As I said my green cheeks are generally too lazy to tear apart toys and want life to be easy. My sun on the other hand rips apart everything. More destructive then the cockatoo at this point!
