Advice please

Jen

Registered
Hi everyone
Made my babies some chop but they are not eating it. I leave them with out food over night and feed them first thing in a morning with the chop. If i feed them individual foods they pick out what they like(grapes and apple) and throw the rest. They are not keen on vegetables. The love the food they where eating at the rescue but it is mostly sun flower seeds. Please could you advise.
On a happier note both are doing really well. Gary is growing his feathers back. Ivy gonna take some time to trust me(i have all the time in the world) but she loves it when i talk to her. She even squarks when ive finished for me to come back 😍. She now loves the company of Gary and will make her way over to his cage most evenings.
She is not ready to come near me yet but doesn't run away either when i go to talk to her. She loves our chats i think lol,and she is listening to me.
Hope you and your babies are doing well and have a lovely weekend xxx
 
Thing is to keep offering things and adding things for variety. I leave food in 24/7 but they get their fruit and veggies first thing I try to get up before them. The other thing is to have a dish of what they have yourself and show them you have the same make sure you do lots of loud hmmmm yummy sounds on and according to my lot of they steal off my plate it's apparently a lot nicer for some reason
 
Try a little bit of red pepper you can let them have the seeds inside as well or some fresh chillies errr just remember to not let them near your face if they eat those it burns like crazy when you least expect it!
 
You'd be surprised how interested they can get when you keep it from them and make lots of Mmmmm noises!! Once they start to show interest you offer them a piece and if they nibble it, again make lots of Mmmm noises and tell them how tasty it is.

You can offer it cooked in chunks, cooked and mashed up together, raw in very fine pieces, raw in chunks. You just have to get inventive sometimes!
Just remember some veg must be cooked before feeding such as potatoes.
 
Copy and pasted this from a document on my laptop that might be useful 😊 i have also had the diet conversion struggle 🤣 My african grey prefers to eat off of a plate rather than out of his bowl :risas3:

"Try chopped, whole, sliced, diced, shredded, mixed, mashed, skewered, etc or a variation. Some parrots like finely chopped vegetables and some prefer to eat it in big chunks

Arrange your parrot’s meals so that they coincide with yours - parrots are flock animals and would eat together in the wild. You are now their flock. Just make sure that it is safe for parrot consumption and does not contain any artificial ingredients/preservatives or toxic foods such as salt, onions, garlic, mushrooms

Make a big deal out of whatever you are eating so that your bird can see just how much you’re enjoying it

Try offering fresh food such as fruit and vegetables in the morning when your bird is most hungry

Make sure fresh food only stays in two hours maximum to avoid the growth of potentially harmful bacteria

Do not leave food in the cage overnight

Try drizzling a small amount of organic fruit juice over their food

Sprinkle their usual food in/over the new diet - this shows them that it’s edible. Your parrot will have no choice but to dig through the fresh stuff to get to his favourite bits, hopefully trying some along the way.

Serve it warm - warm food is closest to what they’d find in nature rather than fridge temperature. Make sure it is no more than 42 degrees Celsius as anything higher risks your parrot getting crop burn

Serve in the sunlight, or under a UV lamp - in the wild, parrots rely on their ability to see UV rays. Putting them in the sunlight or under a UV light lets them view their food in a much more appetising way and closer to what they would experience in the wild.

Save the ‘junk food’ for treats i.e nuts, sunflower seeds etc

Pretend you don’t want your bird to have some - they are likely to decide that they now want it! Parrots generally want that which they cannot have

Birds who have survived on bad diets won’t recognise the fresh, nutritious fruit and veggies as food, so you’re going to have to work hard to convince them otherwise. Ensure that they are still eating pellets or a high quality seed mix.

Try handing them vegetables rather than simply putting it in the bowl

Make up a plate of safe foods to share - do not take bites of anything that they are going to eat as your saliva is very dangerous!

Vegetables, pulses and grains are more important than fruit. Fruit given in large quantities is bad for them due to the high sugar content


Raw vegetables are more nutritious (potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, pulses and grains should be cooked).

If your parrot will not eat raw vegetables, the next best thing is to offer them steamed vegetables instead as they retain more nutrients than if boiled for example."
 
"Raw vegetables are more nutritious (potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, pulses and grains should be cooked)."

Confused about this as 'thought' it Ok to feed sweet potatoes and squashes raw if so choose? Certainly there are certan people who promote only feeding raw.

I lightly steam mine btw.
 
@plumsmum it may be a mistake then that ive made. I wrote this a while ago and had read online that all tubers should be cooked due to enzyme prohibitors that prevent enzymes from breaking down foods so cannot be easily digested when raw. :thinking:
 
Tonifrax said:
@plumsmum it may be a mistake then that ive made. I wrote this a while ago and had read online that all tubers should be cooked due to enzyme prohibitors that prevent enzymes from breaking down foods so cannot be easily digested when raw. :thinking:
Click to expand...

The only thing I've heard hun is lightly cooking increases the vitamin uptake. I will be on the look out regards what you have said and will follow up if anything worthwhile found.
 
plumsmum said:
"Raw vegetables are more nutritious (potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, pulses and grains should be cooked)."

Confused about this as 'thought' it Ok to feed sweet potatoes and squashes raw if so choose? Certainly there are certan people who promote only feeding raw.

I lightly steam mine btw.
Click to expand...
Dora often snaffles pieces of raw butternut squash etc, but doesn't seem to have any bad effects on her.
 
Yeah butternut squash wasnt included in that and is fine raw! 😊. It was just tubers like potatoes of any kind and yams that as far as i was aware needed to be cooked
 
Tonifrax said:
@plumsmum it may be a mistake then that ive made. I wrote this a while ago and had read online that all tubers should be cooked due to enzyme prohibitors that prevent enzymes from breaking down foods so cannot be easily digested when raw. :thinking:
Click to expand...
plumsmum said:
The only thing I've heard hun is lightly cooking increases the vitamin uptake. I will be on the look out regards what you have said and will follow up if anything worthwhile found.
Click to expand...

Sweet potato
Just to add most parrot recipes quote to microwave, steam or oven cook but it is OK raw. It certainly seems softer, more digestible cooked IMHO and there is the value of making it more interesting by doing so. Don't forget it is a great source of Vitamin B3 (Niacin).

White potato always need cooking but there isn't much in them other than comfort value I feel.
 
plumsmum said:
Sweet potato
Just to add most parrot recipes quote to microwave, steam or oven cook but it is OK raw. It certainly seems softer, more digestible cooked IMHO and there is the value of making it more interesting by doing so. Don't forget it is a great source of Vitamin B3 (Niacin).

White potato always need cooking but there isn't much in them other than comfort value I feel.
Click to expand...


"Sweet potato shows trypsin inhibitor activity. That means it contains an enzyme inhibitor that blocks the action of trypsin, an enzyme that digests proteins. The trypsin inhibitor prevents the digestion of protein. Sweet potatoes with higher protein levels have more of the trypsin inhibitor. This makes raw sweet potato difficult to digest. The trypsin inhibitor is deactivated by cooking.
One way the raw food diet helps people is by supplying food enzymes. Food enzymes do part of the work of digesting the raw food. Enzyme inhibitors increase the amount of work that your body needs to do to digest foods. Enzyme inhibitors force your body to produce more digestive enzymes. This uses up resources that could be used to produce detoxifying enzymes. When animals are regularly fed enzyme inhibitors in research, they become sick. Sweet potato should not be eaten raw."

Theres a lot of information online that says its fine and a lot that says its not. It could go either ways. The great sweet potato debate of 2021 :risas3:

I personally don't feel it raw but as far as I was aware it was just to do with the fact that it is harder for them to digest rather than it being toxic etc 😊

Hoping the advice given helps with your fussy beaks @Jen 😊🤞🏻
 
Tonifrax said:
"Sweet potato shows trypsin inhibitor activity. That means it contains an enzyme inhibitor that blocks the action of trypsin, an enzyme that digests proteins. The trypsin inhibitor prevents the digestion of protein. Sweet potatoes with higher protein levels have more of the trypsin inhibitor. This makes raw sweet potato difficult to digest. The trypsin inhibitor is deactivated by cooking.
One way the raw food diet helps people is by supplying food enzymes. Food enzymes do part of the work of digesting the raw food. Enzyme inhibitors increase the amount of work that your body needs to do to digest foods. Enzyme inhibitors force your body to produce more digestive enzymes. This uses up resources that could be used to produce detoxifying enzymes. When animals are regularly fed enzyme inhibitors in research, they become sick. Sweet potato should not be eaten raw."

Theres a lot of information online that says its fine and a lot that says its not. It could go either ways. The great sweet potato debate of 2021 :risas3:

I personally don't feel it raw but as far as I was aware it was just to do with the fact that it is harder for them to digest rather than it being toxic etc 😊

Hoping the advice given helps with your fussy beaks @Jen 😊🤞🏻
Click to expand...

I always do hun, you're talking to the converted LOL. I just remembered Dr J. Crean, who preaches of feeding a complete raw diet that is all.
 
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