Food portion advice???

[AngelicalGrey]

Hi all,

I am not a new bird owner but I am a first time CAF owner. I was advised by the lady I bought my grey from to feed my 6 month old, Nutribird and a seed mix. I am also feeding fruit (mango, apple, pear) veg (red bell pepper, carrot) he wont eat anything else I have tried so far.

My question is how much should I be feeding him of the pellets and seed mix and fresh food? I have been guessing so far :-S

Also I was given 'monkey nuts' to give him but then I read that peanuts are not good? Is this true? Also the seed mix has a lot of black sunflower seeds, are they good? he loves them.

Thanks all in advance. :O)

[Pyroe87]

Hi AngelicalGrey, I too am a first time CAG owner to Jasper (12 weeks) and am trying to get my head round when to feed and what to feed. I am probably not the best to advise, but what I have read so far is, in regards to amounts it all depends on the individual bird, keep experimenting and then just make a little more than he actually eats. Fruit will make their poops watery and only needs to be fed twice a week. Veggies are a must and feed daily. Seeds (sunflower) are like chocolate (junk food) and should be fed in moderation (get good quality - some you can buy are like 70-80% sunflower and are not good - all greys love them but not good for them) but dont remove seeds entirely if they dont eat much of the other stuff, slowly ween. Nuts are good in moderation. Pellets and fresh water should be readily available.

If anyone could advise how they feed veggies to their greys, this would help me also as Jasper is fast weening himself onto seeds only :unsure: !!

Hope this helps
Thanks

[AngelicalGrey]

H Pyroe87

Thanks for the reply, its nice even to hear how your doing with the feeding too as any advise is great.

This is what I have been doing so far: (had him for 2 weeks)

Morning: fresh pellet along with seed mix and yes its a high quality but full of sunflower seeds so will be changing that hopefully.

Afternoon/evening: Fresh fruit and veg every day but I try to not feed too much citrus as I read too much is not good.

I guess I am may be giving fruit too often?

With regards to veggies:
My CAF would not touch anything just apple when I got him. He wouldnt go near veggies so I mashed them, mixed in a little apple, even tried baby food but no way he just wouldnt go near them so I watched how he handles his seeds/pellets and realised he likes to hold them and if he gets soft food on his mouth. Sooo that meant he probably would prefer the veg holdable, I cut them into 2 cm wide long strips and left them raw.

First I gave him the carrot, he wouldnt go for it so to be honest I held it up to his mouth saying nice happy things like ooo niiice and out of frustration he bit it to move it away but... he got the taste!!! woopy he then wanted to taste again and picked it up!!!

I now got him eating red bell pepper, carrot, mango, pear, apple. I am working on green veg because thats he least favourite.

I hope this helps. I dont know if theres any fault in my feeding plan so far but trying lke you to find out and find the right feeding plan.

I give him monkey nuts all the time by the way but he mostly cracks it for fun and eats very lttle of it. Just gotta get rid of the sunflower seeds and just use them t train him I guess.

Let me know how you do with the veggies, try my suggestion because its slowly working for me. And the baby food idea HAS to be organic and also make sure theres no veg in the baby food thats bad for birds if you try that method.

:O)))

[JillyBeanz]

There are lots of threads that will help you - but veggies are a must every day, but you mustn't leave them too long as they obviously turn stale and develop bacteria etc. Seeds are fine in moderation. A good pellet mix is a must though - and you seem to have managed that one. You must offer pellets all day, ever day - these are best in a bowl on their own and not mixed with the veg etc.

Monkey nuts aren't advised though - their shells can contain aspergillosis - which can be very harmful to our birds (don't worry - I used to feed Harvey these until I was warned of the dangers).

To try and entice your baby into eating different veggies you could put them on a fruit spike and make a kebab with different things - for example - Harvey's contained birdie bread, carrot, peppers and broccoli this morning.

Other ways to get them to eat veggies are to chop them all up into a bowl and add a bit palm oil - I've found Harvey loves the taste of palm oil so much he'll gobble up anything that's coated in it!

Fruit is very high in sugar and should only be given a couple of times a week too - you will find that the poop is very watery with all this fruit too.

You will find the best mix for your baby - it takes time to realise what their favourites are - but don't get too excited, because these sharp change!! There's also things such as chicken and eggs which give the needed protein to your baby - the list is exhaustive - but, as I mentioned, there are tons of interesting threads to help you out in this regard.

Just make sure you read through all the threads which involve the toxic foods for your babies - the important first step to your feeding programme.

Good luck ~ hope this helps x<br><br>Post edited by: JillyBeanz, at: 2010/01/08 08:18