Archive for July 26th, 2009
There are many ways to feed our parrots. And there are many very experienced and knowledgeable people, who share their view on parrot food. I am a curious person and always anxious to learn, so I read what they have to share. Sometimes I find something that makes total sense to me. But then my birds show me that it might not.
Recently I was reading that a bird should not be feed the same food more often than once a week. At the same time my African Grey Gilmore started to pick the carrots out of his breakfast. He left everything else in the bowl. So, I started to ad more carrots to his food. He kept eating them for about 5 days. Then he stopped eating the carrots. Did not touch them anymore and ate only the other things.
I really do think variety and moderation is the best way to feed our parrots. And birds, which are used to a wide variety of foods, seem to be able to make right choices. Probably Gilmore needed more Vitamin A at this time and took the right food out of his mix. When he had enough, he started to eat other things and left the carrots. I see similar eating behavior quite a bit with my birds. Sometimes they pick one food or eat more pellets or more seeds and after a while go back to the other foods.
It is good to learn as much as we can. But every bird is different. And I think it is important to watch our parrots and learn to see what they need at any given time.