Food Help Please

Fuzion

Fuzion

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Good morning all :)

I am a new parrot owner and have an Illegars Macaw whom I have named Rio. He is 22 months old and is currently on Bucktons Parrot Seed (this is what he was on when I bought him).

I want the best for my parrot and after a lot of reading I have heard a pellet diet is recommended whilst others say a seeded diet is fine depending upon the brand!
I have owned Rio for 5 days now and we are making progress with building a bond. He is taking food from our hands & allowing us to occasionally stroke him.

I am working hard at introducing fresh fruit and vegetables. So far he has eaten blueberries, melon, tomato & carrot. Last night I soaked a bean mix for him which consisted of brown rice, split peas, green and red lentils, pinto beans, barley & chickpeas and I am pleased to say he is eating this.

Bucktons seems to be full of sunflower seeds which can't be good and it also has monkey nuts in it which I know is not good for them due to aspergillosis. Do I attempt to swap him over to a pellet diet or do I move him onto a good seed diet as a lot of people seems to swear by Tidymix parrot seed?? Once he is eating at least 40% of veg in his diet is a seed mix then still ok for him and is Tidymix good?

Any help is much appreciated, thank you!

Zoe
 
Hi zoe, good on you for doing your research. Tidymix no sunflower no peanut mix is brilliant I won't buy anything else now, it's so important to give a good veg diet with some fruit. There are some veg that is really good for calcium levels etc and some things you would think are good but almost no benefit to your parrot. There is a really good bit on the forum about what's safe to feed and I refer to the list all the time to give variety. A good quality pellet is ok but I found they don't keep very long and making chop and freezing it in tubs is way cheaper
 
@Yellowchickenparrot a nice selection for a stir fry there :D General rule being if it's good for us, it's good for them.

@Fuzion I've never been sure about tomatoes. Some say they are okay for birds, others say not. Nice work on the bean and pulse mix though. It is a part of our birds' diet and they love it.
 
Yellowchickenparrot said:
Hi zoe, good on you for doing your research. Tidymix no sunflower no peanut mix is brilliant I won't buy anything else now, it's so important to give a good veg diet with some fruit. There are some veg that is really good for calcium levels etc and some things you would think are good but almost no benefit to your parrot. There is a really good bit on the forum about what's safe to feed and I refer to the list all the time to give variety. A good quality pellet is ok but I found they don't keep very long and making chop and freezing it in tubs is way cheaper
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Wonderful thank you so much for this info and loving all your greens! My budgie who had french moult was an amazing veggie eater he needed no persuading lol so know whats good for them just need Rio to start trying a bit more :) So far anything green and leafy he is not interested in but I will persist! Thanks about the Tidymix I have bought a bag of it as want him off Bucktons asap, when I see him crack into the sunflower shells so much dust comes out it cannot be good!
 
JackAndRob said:
@Yellowchickenparrot a nice selection for a stir fry there :D General rule being if it's good for us, it's good for them.

@Fuzion I've never been sure about tomatoes. Some say they are okay for birds, others say not. Nice work on the bean and pulse mix though. It is a part of our birds' diet and they love it.
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thanks for the info! At the moment I am just trying anything that's considered safe, he wasn't overly impressed with most of it yesterday, a little nibble then most of it he dropped! Bean and pulse mix is going down well though so that's good!
 
Hi and welcome
Tomatoes are fine its the green stalk and the leaves that are a no go area.
Macaws do need more fat in their diet than the average parrot … then again is there such a thing as an average parrot!
I use Deli Nature numbers 61 and 64 for my amazons and my greys you can get it from www.GardenFeathers.co.uk Tidymix is also excellent and you can buy it cheaper direct from them www.tidymix.co.uk they do some lovely single mixes too. The owners of TidyMix have a lovely macaw :)
There's are some pinned post (a post that has a little drawing pin next to it to make it stay at the top of the folder) in this folder that have lists of the things like fruit, veggies, beans, pulses, lentils, safe foliage, flowers et that you can feed as well as a list of things to stay well away from.
 
DizzyBlue said:
Hi and welcome
Tomatoes are fine its the green stalk and the leaves that are a no go area.
Macaws do need more fat in their diet than the average parrot … then again is there such a thing as an average parrot!
I use Deli Nature numbers 61 and 64 for my amazons and my greys you can get it from www.GardenFeathers.co.uk Tidymix is also excellent and you can buy it cheaper direct from them www.tidymix.co.uk they do some lovely single mixes too. The owners of TidyMix have a lovely macaw :)
There's are some pinned post (a post that has a little drawing pin next to it to make it stay at the top of the folder) in this folder that have lists of the things like fruit, veggies, beans, pulses, lentils, safe foliage, flowers et that you can feed as well as a list of things to stay well away from.
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That's lovely thanks so much for your time it's much appreciated :)

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@DizzyBlue Yes, we avoid the stalk and leaf on a lot of things (especially vine items) as I am not sure whether they are safe or not. We always buy carrots with the leafy tops though, as they are safe, packed with all the good stuff and all of our birds go nuts for it - one of the things that our birds love to play with as much as they enjoy eating it.
 
Michael Reynolds said:
the illegars or Blue winged macaw should have a fats in there diet that are provided buy nuts, You have had some great reply's from other members,
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Hi Michael and thank you. The tidymix has arrived today so food will be swopped over. I have some almonds, walnuts and pumpkin seeds which I have been giving him so will buy more of a selection for him as he doesnt like walnuts.

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dianaT said:
:welcome: Zoe and Rio. what a gorgeous bird, we don't see many illiger Macaws these days.

All good advice given, do let us know how Rio gets one.[emoji106]
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Thanks so much Diana :) yes I feel very lucky to have him hes such a sweet boy and considering the short time I have had him he is doing wonderfully on the hand taming so doing it slowly but surely. Tidymix has just arrived so his huge 20kg sack of bucktons rubbish will be going. Thanks for your help :)

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The wild birds may appreciate the Bucktons. Don't waste it . You can sprinkle it out now & then or if you have a park or common take a little there.
 
dianaT said:
The wild birds may appreciate the Bucktons. Don't waste it . You can sprinkle it out now & then or if you have a park or common take a little there.
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Oh dont worry I will give it to my mum and dad as they have loads of bird feeders :) will ensure I remove all the chillies first though ;)

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