New here, feeding questions

[Bridgerunner]

Hi all,

I'm new to the forums, and not yet new to eclectus. I was a cockatiel/lovebird person for years, but have been bird-less for a couple of years now. That was fine for a while--most of my birds had been older, semi-wild, poorly trained birds with bad habits that were dumped on me because I would have them. I admit to having been relieved when someone came along who wanted to take my last pair of lovebirds off my hands.

But now, I miss having birds in my life, especially now that I work about 70% from home, and I'd like to go way beyond the 'tiels and lovebirds. I've been casually looking around for the right bird for a while and it looks like I may, possibly, if things work out, be adopting a pair of adult SI eclectus.

So I'm here reading up as I think through how life would look for me and my family with two new eclectus joining us. One concern is with feeding routines.

I consistently found it challenging to remember to remove fresh foods from the cages in a timely manner. With the apparently large volume of foods an eclectus needs, I'm concerned about keeping the cage clean and sanitary. I'm thinking it might work better to have them eat with/near the family, on a placemat rather than in a cage. I'm also thinking that a good mix of chopped fruit/veg/quinoa is something that could be prepared once a month and frozen in small containers, to be supplemented with whatever fresh produce the family is eating that day.

Aside from all the issues about nutrition, which I've been finding a ton of good info on, can anyone share their food prep/feeding routine? How do you minimize the mess of a bird and large volume of vegetation daily? Where do you feed? What is your prep routine?

I'm usually doing a little fresh produce prep first thing in the morning as I pack school lunches, but I can't really see adding working with four or five more items every morning consistently; I need a backup plan.

How much food do you buy specifically for your eclectus? What do you feed fresh and what not? How much of the bird's diet is just a share of the family's produce? Any idea how much you spend on eclectus food? My guess is it wouldn't be a big added expense for me, except for the the added cost of a few items that I don't currently buy organic but would switch to for sharing with birds.

 

[MikeyTN]

We feed fresh stuffs daily, every morning we cut fresh celery, carrot, broccoli, cucumber, banana, strawberry, kiwi, apple, orange, etc. We also mix whatever is in season, they LOVE pomagrante!!!! Then we feed a table spoon of the small seeds during evening time. We give them filtered water only!!! We feed them in their cage, and YES they're messy messy eaters and you have to scrub the cage often. We also cook for them such as Sweet Potatoes, lintels, egg with shells, chicken breast meat, etc etc. That's done once a week. We also give them a teaspoon full of hemp seeds once a week. They're really simple to care for, not as complicated as you would think. Just cleaning their mess up takes more out of you then anything else cause they like to throw stuffs....lol

 

[henpecked]

Hey bridgerunner, welcome to the forum. MikeyTn has some good answers. you might want to PM "Sodakat", she has a bunch of elkkies also.

 

[sodakat]

Hi! Yes you can prepare in advance and freeze some of their diet, but like MikeyTN said, you'll want to add fresh stuff daily. I would say it's realistic to chop every other day, maybe every third day if you keep chopped fresh foods in an airtight container in your fridg. IME apples, celery, kiwi, cucumber and citrus do not freeze well so those items, plus some others I'm probably not thinking of right now, do need to be served fresh.

Eclectus are known for flinging foods but I've found you can cut down on this by using really wide, low bowls so they can see everything in the dish and by cutting the food into very small pieces (NOT blended mush though).

One of the guys on the forums says something that I think sort of applies here, they you should consider before you take this pair: "I used to ask people to remove their shoes when they came into my house. Now that I have parrots I tell them they may want to leave them on."

I would have many more questions regarding the relationship of this "pair" and any handling and housing they've had rather than worrying too much about food prep at this point.

 

[Bridgerunner]

I would have many more questions regarding the relationship of this "pair" and any handling and housing they've had rather than worrying too much about food prep at this point.

Of course. But those aren't issues the forum can help with at this point.

And yeah, one of the prereqs for getting a larger parrot was moving to a house with no carpeting.

 

[coltfire]

i know you can freeze some of there food but the only food of there's that gets frozen is peas, and coconut. i cut up everything fresh twice a day and night time depending on what im having they get some or all of what im eating, they are a bird that needs a lot of looking after in a special way and if you dont think you can give them what they need then please dont get them, there veggies they get of a morning fruit for lunch if you go back through the food diet i posted some pics and what mine get daily its under eckie breaky and eckie fruit lunch i think.

 

[MikeyTN]

I got my pair with the female that was able to be handled as the male was terrified of people. It took me a week to teach him step up. After that he learned pretty quick but it took him awhile to fully trust me. He does NOT like strangers!!!! He will scream hell if there's a stranger in the house. He NEVER screams and that's the only time he ever will.

 

[Bridgerunner]

I actually haven't met them yet, don't know what their diet has been, etc. Do know that their owner has been a "parrot person" for a while and seems to have a good relationship with them. I probably won't get to meet them for another week at least--there's a bit of travel involved, and then I wouldn't bring them home for a while, would want to visit several times. Hence all the maybe's and possibly's in my op.

But, of course, there's really no way to know in advance how things will go once they join the family, if that happens. So what I'm doing now, aside from waiting impatiently to get answers to the really big questions, is just sort of visualize routines, figure out how to fit the basics in right away, so that when the problems arise, we can focus on adapting to those needs.

I don't think trying to figure out how I will do something is quite the same thing as thinking or indicating I can't do it--on the contrary, I've found through experience that people who take on a bird because "YES! I will do anything they need, no matter what!" without thinking through exactly how they will handle the changes "anything they need" will make to their daily routines tend to be the people who call me a year later because their hand-raised cocketiel bites constantly, hates people, hasn't been out of his cage for six months, and can I just please take him, now, please.

I was really thinking in terms of a two-part system--frozen and fresh-cut. Now i'm thinking more of a three-part system. I cut up/clean an average of three fresh items daily. Portioning those out for three days or so will make it a lot easier to get the wide variety the birds will needs, especially with frozen stuff to supplement. I'm also thinking about freezing berries and grapes for back-up, for when the fresh berries go bad fast.

ETA: Accidentally posted when I just mulling it over. Cannot emphasize enough that this isn't my only concern or issue, it's just a) really important to think through in advance, because it's areas where there's absolutely no slack. Can't just put off feeding for tomorrow because I don't have the right foods available yet and b) It's really all I can think through at this point, aside from cage/playstand setups, and those I have pretty well in hand.

 

[coltfire]

with there food it takes me 15 min to cut it up and get ready and then again at lunch, now if you want your berries all berries to last a lot longer and i mean up to two/three weeks just wash them in vinegar it takes all the crap off them and some how keeps them fresh , once washed rinse very well in cold water.