fiddlejen
Well-known member
- Mar 28, 2019
- 1,232
- 1,157
- Parrots
- Sunny the Sun Conure (sept '18, gotcha 3/'19). Mr Jefferson Budgie & Mrs Calliope Budgie (albino) (nov'18 & jan'19). Summer 2021 Baby Budgies: Riker (Green); Patchouli, Keye, & Tiny (blue greywings).
So last weekend out walking my parrot in Newburyport, I spoke with a woman who used-to breed Sun Conures. She asked if Sunny will eat pellets and if that is what I feed her. Well, in fact she seems to greatly enjoy them as a Side Dish Only. (She gets veggies in her cage, tropical nutriberries (from which she picks out and eats safflowers & possibly some of the dried fruit), and seedmix in her dish. Its a good seedmix with all sorts of other healthy stuff... and she mainly picks out and eats the safflower seed.)
So this breeder chastised me, stating so many people have birds that simply will Not eat pellets, yet mine will, so I ought to have converted her.
Well due to the little mousies who are again attempting to make my home, theirs, I have returned to removing all food in the afternoon. (Around 4:30ish or 5:30ish, depending when my Lunch Break occurs.) (Along with changing papers, cleaning, sweeping, etc etc etc). But then I modified , leaving small amounts of pellets in the dishes overnight. That way, IF birdies want to snack at night or in the morning before I awaken, they have some pellets.
Also I began making sure I add in some extra pellets into the seedmixes. (I was already always doing this. But really the pellets IN the food dishes do not get eaten, neither by Sunny nor the Budgies. They will eat them -- as, "side dish," that is, smaller quantities, from separate pellet-only dishes.) I just restocked Harrison's for this. (I have tried others. The birds all seem most willing to sort-of-nibble Harrison's & Lafebers, moreso than any other pellets.)
Anyway. I know Sunny likes to Play with food as well as eat it. And I know birds can easily "pretend eat."
So I pulled out my kitchen scale. I know, i know, I should've been doing this all along. But this is My first time weighing her. (Really, it's only fairly recently that she was willing to step onto the little perch I'm using on the scale!)
Google tells me the proper weight for a Sunnie is 100-130 grams. My kitchen scale tells me She weighs 98-100 grams. (Mostly settled near 100 - but fluctuated each time she moved.) Now, I do Not have another scale to compare against, so I weighed various kitchen items to compare. (Stick of butter - energy bar - packet of tunafish - 5 packets of sweetener.) Turns out, scale comes up consistently Under by a few grams. Maybe its rounding Up - and maybe half-gram for packaging?
Even so I think it likely she currently weighs slightly UNder 100 grams. (Heh - she weighs Less than a Stick of Butter!)
((I plan to call the vet tomorrow, ask what she weighed at her previous visits there. HOPEfully this is not a weight Loss, I'm HOPEing this is normal for HER. I mean, she is my Only sun conure, so I do not have any others to measure here against. Maybe she is just Small?))
So anyway this makes me a little concerned about continuing to attempt pellet conversion. Ive watched her in the past, examining her cornucopic food dish, playing with her food but holding out for what she really wants. And I'm assuming that I can (?maybe?) be successful with her following a changeover protocol. But. IF she is actually at the lowest acceptable weight, is it worth risking further weightloss, in order to changeover?
She does truly eat SOME pellets most days. So I know she's getting some vitamins from that. And she gets veggies, of which she seem to ingest a reasonable amount. She really enjoys her orange-peppers. (Actually I think she prefers orange-colored food. I wonder if I could get some food-based orange food-dye and dye the pellets Orange?)
Plus the nutriberries. Even digging out the safflowers & discarding the rest, still, they are supposed to be all coated with the good stuff. Like the way, Maryland steamed crabs -- all the seasoning is on the outside, yet in picking out the crabmeat to eat it, you get plenty seasoning inside you too.
Maybe it would be okay and safer too, to just continue letting her have plenty Nutriberries, as I already do? Even though she digs out the safflowers & discards the rest, still, Im sure she's getting pellet-nutrients that way.
So this breeder chastised me, stating so many people have birds that simply will Not eat pellets, yet mine will, so I ought to have converted her.
Well due to the little mousies who are again attempting to make my home, theirs, I have returned to removing all food in the afternoon. (Around 4:30ish or 5:30ish, depending when my Lunch Break occurs.) (Along with changing papers, cleaning, sweeping, etc etc etc). But then I modified , leaving small amounts of pellets in the dishes overnight. That way, IF birdies want to snack at night or in the morning before I awaken, they have some pellets.
Also I began making sure I add in some extra pellets into the seedmixes. (I was already always doing this. But really the pellets IN the food dishes do not get eaten, neither by Sunny nor the Budgies. They will eat them -- as, "side dish," that is, smaller quantities, from separate pellet-only dishes.) I just restocked Harrison's for this. (I have tried others. The birds all seem most willing to sort-of-nibble Harrison's & Lafebers, moreso than any other pellets.)
Anyway. I know Sunny likes to Play with food as well as eat it. And I know birds can easily "pretend eat."
So I pulled out my kitchen scale. I know, i know, I should've been doing this all along. But this is My first time weighing her. (Really, it's only fairly recently that she was willing to step onto the little perch I'm using on the scale!)
Google tells me the proper weight for a Sunnie is 100-130 grams. My kitchen scale tells me She weighs 98-100 grams. (Mostly settled near 100 - but fluctuated each time she moved.) Now, I do Not have another scale to compare against, so I weighed various kitchen items to compare. (Stick of butter - energy bar - packet of tunafish - 5 packets of sweetener.) Turns out, scale comes up consistently Under by a few grams. Maybe its rounding Up - and maybe half-gram for packaging?
Even so I think it likely she currently weighs slightly UNder 100 grams. (Heh - she weighs Less than a Stick of Butter!)
((I plan to call the vet tomorrow, ask what she weighed at her previous visits there. HOPEfully this is not a weight Loss, I'm HOPEing this is normal for HER. I mean, she is my Only sun conure, so I do not have any others to measure here against. Maybe she is just Small?))
So anyway this makes me a little concerned about continuing to attempt pellet conversion. Ive watched her in the past, examining her cornucopic food dish, playing with her food but holding out for what she really wants. And I'm assuming that I can (?maybe?) be successful with her following a changeover protocol. But. IF she is actually at the lowest acceptable weight, is it worth risking further weightloss, in order to changeover?
She does truly eat SOME pellets most days. So I know she's getting some vitamins from that. And she gets veggies, of which she seem to ingest a reasonable amount. She really enjoys her orange-peppers. (Actually I think she prefers orange-colored food. I wonder if I could get some food-based orange food-dye and dye the pellets Orange?)
Plus the nutriberries. Even digging out the safflowers & discarding the rest, still, they are supposed to be all coated with the good stuff. Like the way, Maryland steamed crabs -- all the seasoning is on the outside, yet in picking out the crabmeat to eat it, you get plenty seasoning inside you too.
Maybe it would be okay and safer too, to just continue letting her have plenty Nutriberries, as I already do? Even though she digs out the safflowers & discards the rest, still, Im sure she's getting pellet-nutrients that way.
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