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“But,
he doesn’t like vegetables!”
“But,
he’s afraid of
showers!”
“But,
he won’t sit on other
perches…he afraid of
them!”
I hear these, and similar, protestations frequently, in
response to recommendations I have just made, recommendations
aimed at improving a parrot’s quality of life, which will in
turn serve to reduce or eliminate existing behavior problems.
These reactions have given me a good
understanding of just how frustrated owners can feel when
trying to introduce new foods and experiences to their parrots. They know that their bird needs showers, and should eat fresh
vegetables. They know
about the dangers of a parrot getting too cage-bound. However,
they often eventually feel powerless in their efforts to introduce
new things or experiences to their parrots, in the face of the
resistance their birds routinely and vociferously offer.
Not only can it be difficult to figure out how to introduce
new things and experiences to a parrot, especially a mature
parrot, but also we find ourselves reluctant to push very far in
this endeavor. I
observe a widespread need among owners to make their birds happy.
This is quite understandable. They certainly bring joy to
us in so many ways. We
want to give back to them and make them as happy as they make us.
Thus, as we live with them we seek to discern what they like and concern ourselves enthusiastically with providing those
things.
The Owner’s Appropriate Role…
Teacher
and Protector
A parallel phenomenon I observe is a reluctance on the part
of the owner to take the upper hand with his parrot, not
in any authoritative manner, but as a flock leader who
actively seeks to teach and guide the parrot during the parrot’s
learning process. I
have often mused at the genesis of this tendency.
We seem almost to sit in awe of our parrots, afraid to
impose ourselves on them perhaps, or to even be a little
physically afraid of them.
In discussing wing clipping, I regularly ask clients how
many flight feathers their bird has clipped.
They usually have no idea.
They not only apparently have no ability to handle their
bird in such a way as to be able to look and observe the answer to
this question, but they don’t even see it as their
responsibility to know this.
And, yet, the number of flight feathers and the way the
wings are clipped are critical to many aspects of the human-parrot
relationship. There is some unspoken barrier there that apparently
keeps many owners from really developing a true intimacy in their
connection with their birds, in both a physical and an emotional
sense. Perhaps
because we know we lack a true and complete understanding of them,
we are reluctant to push too hard, especially if we don’t have
the tools to know how to do this effectively.
Recently, I was astonished to hear a client tell me that
she had never asked her African Grey to do anything he didn’t
want to do. This
woman loves her parrot and wants badly to do a good job with him.
However, she bought him as an unweaned baby, and as a
result of her lack of knowledge of the sort of instruction young
parrots need, as well as her reticence to serve as his
“instructor,” he is now, at the age of two years, a bird that
doesn’t even know how to step up and can not be handled.
And, as you might imagine, the quality of his life is much
less then if she had been less concerned with what he “likes”
than with what it was her responsibility to teach him.
Unfortunately, many parrot caregivers allow their choices
about handling, feeding, and care to be guided solely by what
their parrot seems to like. However, this is
a concept that has very little validity when it comes to our
companion birds, at least in terms of how it should guide the
choices we make about how we care for our birds.
The
Concepts of Like and Dislike
Humans have contrived the concepts of like
and dislike. They are
ideas directly reflective of and generated from our egos. In our crowded and pressure-filled society, in which we
ourselves can feel so invisible, we define ourselves in part by
what we like or don’t like, comparing this knowledge with the
likes and dislikes of others.
In this manner, we build a concept of our own individuality
and an understanding of how we differ from others.
However, parrots have no ego. On the most fundamental
level, their primary concern is with survival, and similarities
with other flock members are much more likely to insure this than
their differences. In
order to insure his physical survival, a young parrot in the wild
is patterned into the ways of the flock, so that he will be best
equipped, as the older members are, to survive and breed. Once he
becomes patterned to the ways of the flock, new things that appear
in the environment frequently spell “danger” and he is
instinctively programmed to react to them with caution.
In captivity, when we experience from our bird an adverse
response to a new item or experience we have attempted to
introduce, in most cases, this response is based solely on this
same instinctive response, not upon any ego-driven need to assert
his own personality. Parrots
live with one foot in our world of logic and reason, and one foot
in their own world of instinct.
This is largely what makes them such delightful and magical
companions. They have the intelligence and ability to think and respond
that allows them to participate in relatively sophisticated
relationships with us. However, much of their behavior is not a
proactive response, but an instinctive reaction, to what we have
offered. Further,
this instinctive reaction is largely influenced by the patterning
the parrot receives during the first two to five years of its
life.
Parrots are fundamentally creatures of patterning.
When living in the wild, they receive their early pattering
from their parents and other members of the flock during the years
prior to becoming sexually mature.
Thus, for African Greys and other medium-sized parrots,
their period of patterning will occur between fledging up to the
age of two or three. For larger parrots, it is likely to extend even further.
Let’s use our imaginations to take a look at what type of
patterning might take place when young parrots fledge and leave
the nest for the first time with their parents. This is when the
most influential patterning begins in earnest.
The first task, once the young fledglings have achieved a
measure of competence in their flight skills, is for them to learn
where to find food, what types of food are to be eaten and how to
manipulate the food in such a way that they can successfully eat
it. Their parents and
other flock members of course, lead these early foraging trips.
Do the parent birds take the babies out to a certain
foraging site and say to them, “Here…take a bite of this, and
if you don’t like it,
then we’ll make the whole
flock fly over there so that you can try something else?” Of course not. Instead,
I feel certain the message communicated would look more like this:
“Here…this is what African Greys eat.
We are African Greys.
Thus, you eat this, and here’s how to do it.”
For young parrots in the wild, the world is as it is.
They learn about it, about their own place within it, and
that is that. Their survival depends not upon individuality and exercising
any likes or dislikes they might have, but upon following the
flock and doing what the flock does.
In captivity, examples of this early tendency toward
patterning are everywhere around us, and especially evident in
second-hand birds when we provide a new home for them. In fact,
our success in helping them to adjust can depend upon how much of
this earlier patterning can be discovered from conversations with
the previous owner or “divined” from observations made of the
parrot himself. An
example: An owner who had adopted an older large macaw was
perplexed and frustrated at his behavior. Enthusiastic about
improving his life, she had provided
him with lots of physical freedom, lots of
time out of his cage, as well as a great diet and the opportunity
to interact with other large macaws.
She could not understand why he had become so aggressive.
Although this is not the whole story, she found that when
she gave him more cage time and kept him further away from the
other birds, he became calmer and less aggressive.
His early patterning in his last home had included life as
an only bird, as well as long hours and often whole days spent in
his cage. Thus, even
though greater freedom and the opportunity to be around other
parrots seemed on the surface to be a real kindness, it created
problems in his behavior because he had been patterned to feel
comfortable with just the opposite. Examples such as this abound.
The fundamental truth is that, as prey animals who derive
their physical safety from living in flocks, parrots are
instinctively “programmed” to learn their survival skills
during their early years before they begin to breed and are fully
independent. Whether
they are in the wild or in our living rooms, they are learning…every
minute…and this learning takes place as patterning. A young
parrot is instinctively programmed to look to a “flock” leader
of some sort to teach him what he needs to know. If he lives with
a loving human who is unaware of this responsibility and works
instead to please him and discover what he “likes” so that he
will be “happy,” it sets the stage for a myriad of
misunderstandings and ultimate behavior problems.
In an ideal situation in captivity, both the breeder and
first owner are cognizant of their appropriate roles in a young
parrot’s life. First the breeder, and then the new owner, take
an active role in teaching him about new toys, bathing, eating a
variety of foods, entertaining himself, and all of the other
skills which will ultimately insure his success in captivity,
whether he stays in his original home or goes to another at some
point.
In fact, this is a major reason why selling parrots as
unweaned babies can be so detrimental to the parrot’s eventual
quality of life. Aside
from all the issues surrounding problems that result from changing
hand-feeders and the inexperience of the new hand-feeder, the new
owner is likely to know little about how to provide the learning
experiences to the young bird that he needs.
In fact, often this same person is working full time.
The young parrot sits in a cage all day, learning nothing,
and in this void, begins to demonstrate problem behaviors, such as
repetitive calling.
It is also important to understand that much patterning
also takes place in a more passive manner as well, in that the
parrot will “imprint” on physical circumstances, such as cage
size and type, diet, cage location, bonds to other pets, the type
of treats shared with the human, etc. This early pattering
dictates later what the parrot will feel comfortable with. Thus,
for example, a young parrot who has a primary bond with a woman
during his first three years may be likely to always prefer
females in subsequent homes.
A young parrot, who lived in a standard powder-coated
parrot cage for several years, may have terrible problems
adjusting in a new home when provided with an acrylic cage.
These examples I hope serve to illustrate the importance of
both intentional and unintentional early patterning.
As most of us know, the ideal scenario described above
occurs in only a small minority of cases.
Most parrot owners are currently living with older birds
that were not patterned when young to have a full set of living
skills appropriate to life in captivity. Usually, because of this, they are dealing with behavior
problems of one sort or another. Even in the best of cases,
usually at least one or two important skills are missing, and the
owners are helpless in the face of the parrot’s instinctive
reactions to remedy this, despite their best intentions.
Thus, we have come full circle in this discussion, back to
the challenge of providing such skills to these older birds, in
other words “re-patterning” them. However, it is not as
difficult as it appears to re-pattern an older bird to accept new
foods and experiences, as long as it is done with skill,
compassion and an understanding of the process.
Further, it is our responsibility to each and every bird
that comes under our care to work to make sure that the lives they
live with us are as full as possible.
Things to Understand before Beginning
Before attempting to re-pattern an older parrot, certain
knowledge is necessary. It is important to understand that it is
the absolute
responsibility of the owner to gently, in a trust-building manner,
work to broaden a parrot’s living skills, in such a way that he
is eating a healthful diet, showering frequently, able to be
handled, etc. Such things should be introduced slowly and with sensitivity
to the parrot’s reactions, and if the parrot shows initial fear
or hesitancy, we must provide constant reassurance and be careful
not push too quickly or too far. However, neither must we waiver
in our efforts. Sally Blanchard has often said that, when behavior
problems are not resolved, it is usually because the owner
didn’t do the right things for long enough. The same statement could be made regarding parrots who are
never successfully re-patterned to have better skills.
Second, we must understand some things about the both the
physiological and instinctive nature of parrots.
For one thing, parrots tend to react to different things in
the environment based upon their visual experience.
Much of a parrot’s instinctive
behavior is based upon his visual experience.
Parrots have vision that is significantly different from
ours in several ways. Most
owners know that parrots are able to see into the ultraviolet (UV)
portion of the light spectrum, while we are not.
Consequently, many objects look quite different to parrots
than they do to us.
I have several times heard African Grey owners on the
Internet state that their parrots hate
the color red. Since
Congo Greys have red tails and the degree of health of an
individual bird could be indicated by the depth of this coloring
and might indicate desirability when choosing mates, common sense
might dictate that perhaps something else was at work in the
reactions these people had observed in their parrots.
For instance, a parrot may react to a red article of
clothing that is made from a synthetic fabric, because the color
on that fabric looks different and startling to them under the UV
portion of the light spectrum.
Does the parrot’s reaction mean that he doesn’t like
red? No, it means
that there was something about the appearance of the shirt under
UV light that startled the parrot.
It was an instinctive reaction, not one based upon color
preference.
Another way in which the vision of parrots differs from
ours is that they have two foveas,
instead of one. A fovea
is an area of the retina most densely packed with sensors.
Most mammals and we have one.
According to Gould in The Animal Mind, parrots have two, so that they are able to look
ahead at what they are eating, while at the same time looking to
the side for predators. Often, when parrots demonstrate a startle
reaction, it occurs when they have seen something “out of the
corner of their eye” or from the side.
I have often wondered if perhaps some instinctive
programming exists which dictates that things viewed from the side
will purposely elicit a more fearful reaction than do objects
viewed from the front.
Thus, when introducing new things and experiences, it is
important to not move too quickly, physically, but to pause and
allow the parrot to view the “scene” or item or room carefully
from all directions, but especially looking at it from their
front.
Secondly, as referred to above, parrots are conservative,
wary creatures likely to respond to anything new in an adverse
manner. Thus, owners
should not give such reactions much “weight” when they are
observed. Again, new
things are introduced cheerfully, with reassurance, in “baby
steps” by an owner who acts with the conviction that he is doing
the right thing for the parrot and that the small amount of
anxiety the bird might experience along the way will not be
detrimental in the long run.
In fact, this is really the true manner in which owners
establish themselves as “flock leaders” with their parrots.
This much-discussed concept is never really achieved
through any type of dominance or control.
It is achieved through the process of the owner assuming a
leadership role, teaching the parrots about new things by
introducing them in an appropriate manner, which in turn, leads
the parrot into depending upon the owner to show him what he needs
to know and reassure him through the sometimes “scary” process
of learning. Thus, a relationship akin to child and parent is established,
which helps to prevent the frequently developed mate-bond type of
relationship between owner and parrot which can be so problematic
once the parrot reaches maturity.
Re-patterning Diet
Most frequently, my discussions with clients of what
parrots like and don’t like centers around diet.
The owner has fed fresh carrots and corn, and decides to
give the parrot broccoli. The parrot takes one look at it and tosses it down.
The owner concludes that the parrot doesn’t like
broccoli. Is that a
valid conclusion? No.
It means that he has not been patterned to recognize
broccoli as valuable food. As
we have said, parrots will react with aversion to many new things
that are introduced. The very qualities that insure their survival
in the wild, will hamper their ready acceptance of new experiences
in captivity, once they have grown past the fledgling stage.
I frequently work with clients to re-pattern their birds to
eat a healthier diet. Granted,
many are the theories about what a healthy diet even is.
This is arguable. However,
for the purposes of this article, we are going to assume that the
healthiest diet includes a vast amount of fresh, raw food, since
this is what parrots eat in the wild.
It also needs to include enough complete protein to satisfy
the requirements for replacing healthy feathers annually and meet
energy needs.
Fresh foods contain certain nutrients that cooked and
manufactured diets can’t possibly include.
Among these are myriads of enzymes.
Enzymes, so necessary for optimal health, are destroyed by
heat and processing. For one thing, enzymes initiate all cellular activity.
Enzymes also break down toxic substances so that the body can
eliminate them without damaging the eliminative organs. Animals in
the wild consume large amounts of enzymes as a result of their
primary raw food diets. IN addition, as I have pointed out in previous articles, a
fresh diet foraged from the wild is also high in essential fatty
acids, which are also destroyed by heat and manufacturing.
Thus, to me, it simply appears to be common sense that a
creature that has evolved to enjoy the greatest health from eating
live, raw foods should, in captivity have a large percentage of
his diet provided in similar form.
Diet and nutrition have grown to be one of my greatest
concerns, because with each passing year I see more and more
frequently a correlation between behavior problems, especially
feather picking, and diet. Thus, I encourage clients to feed a wide variety of fresh,
raw foods, cooked grains, cooked legumes and beans, and fresh
nuts, some seed and some pellets, as well as a source of complete
protein occasionally.
Upon first suggesting this, I am always met with
reassurance that an individual parrot will not
eat what I am suggesting. However,
I personally have converted many, many of my own rescued parrots,
as well as those of clients to this type of diet.
In doing so, I make use of a layered fresh food mix.
The instructions for making this are included at the end of
this article. By
using the recipe for the layered mix and the following
instructions, you will be able to successfully convert any parrot
to a fresh food diet that includes tremendous variety.
The diet itself has several advantages.
First, there's no need to chop fresh foods every day.
Second, parrots are very visual, as well as wary, creatures as we
have said. When fruits and vegetables are fed singly, or in large
pieces, or in small combinations, and you add something new, it is
likely to be rejected solely on the basis of the fact that it is
visually unfamiliar. When you feed a mix like this, you can put
anything into it and it will be accepted because the appearance of
the mix hasn't changed overall.
Third,
this mix is exciting for the birds, and allows them a foraging
experience. They never know what they're going to find in their
food dishes and show considerable interest when I feed them. A
huge amount of variety can be achieved. Greens and the types of
vegetables used vary from week to week. The pasta shapes are
varied (alphabet, whole wheat, elbow, etc.). You can use other
types of citrus instead of oranges, including grapefruit, lemons,
tangerines, etc. Instead of grapes, you can substitute fresh
blueberries and pitted ripe cherries, or fresh cranberries.
Instead of the 17-bean mix, you can use a soak and cook mix.
Instead of grated carrots, you can use cooked and chopped sweet
potato or winter squash. The possible variety is endless.
Fourth, parrots that won't eat pellets, often will when
they are combined into this mix because (1) they are part of an
exciting mix, and (2) they will be slightly softened by absorbing
some of the moisture from the mix.
Lastly,
I leave this in the cages from 7:00 am until 4:00 pm, which you
can't do with mixes that have been frozen or cooked. Since the
majority of the foods are neither cooked nor frozen, they stay
fresher longer. Temperature, moisture, and the breakdown of cell
walls increase bacterial growth. This mix tends to be relatively
dry, because the pasta and pellets absorb the vast majority of the
moisture. Further the cell walls in the fruits and vegetables are
largely intact because they have not been broken down by either
freezing or cooking. In hot weather, it tends to desiccate rather
than spoil.
Directions for Converting a Parrot to a Fresh Food Diet
Using
the Layered Fresh Food Mix
The following instructions have been written with the
assumption that the parrot has had unlimited access to seed,
whether other foods have been fed or not.
If the parrot has been eating a diet of only pellets, then
the instructions should be modified to eliminate the dish of seed
that is provided in Step 1.
1. Begin with four dishes in the cage -
pellets of choice (no dyes or preservatives hopefully), a high
quality seed mix, water and the fresh food mix. The fresh food mix
provided at this time should contain a ratio of 50% high quality
seed mix and 50% fresh layered mix.
Pellets may be added to this mixture, if desired. The
latter will not be eaten for several weeks. Get over it. Serve
this twice a day, in the am and in the late afternoon or evening,
for the sole purpose of creating a pattern of feeding and allowing
the bird to get used to looking at it.
2. The day you see the bird exploring the
fresh food mix in order to eat the seed out of it, you make the
following change in your procedure: Each morning, you remove the
seed dish and have only three dishes in the cage - pellets, water
and the fresh mix, that is still 50/50 seed and fresh foods. Each
evening, you again feed the fresh food mix, but give the seed dish
back. We don't want a bird undergoing diet conversion to be
hungry. A hungry, anxious bird does not make behavioral changes
gracefully.
3. The day you see the bird with a piece of fresh food in his
mouth, or observe that he has eaten some of it, then you eliminate
the seed dish completely. From that point onward, you provide only
three dishes - water, pellets, and the fresh mix that is 50% seed
and 50% fresh foods.
4. A month later, and on each succeeding month, you decrease the
amount of seed in the mix until it is down to between 10 - 20% of
the mix. So, for instance, if you remove the seed dish on February
1, then on March 1, you will begin to feed a mix that is 40% seed
and 60% fresh mix. On April 1, you will begin to feed 30% seed and
70% fresh foods. And so on. The amount of seed can be decreased
more quickly if the parrot is really eating the fresh foods well.
In my personal opinion, the final amount of seed included
should be approximately 10% for New World parrots, such as
Amazons, macaws, Pionus, conures, etc.
For African Greys and Cockatoos, I include 20% in the final
mix fed.
Readers should note that this particular mix is still not
what I would call a “complete” diet, for a parrot should also
receive a large variety of cooked grains, and nuts in moderation.
I believe that, in feeding parrots, the goal should be to
achieve an abundance of variety.
However, this gives the owner a good start toward this
goal.
The Introduction of Showering
Showering a bird is another area of great difficulty for
the parrot owner. Many
settle for misting the bird with a spray bottle, since an initial
attempt at taking him into the shower produced such fear, the
owner was reluctant to try it again. Still other birds demonstrate fear of both the shower and the
spray bottle, and thus do not get bathed at all unless they do so
in their water dish.
I personally believe that showering in the bathroom until
drenched is a necessary life skill for a parrot to have.
For one thing, they need the drenching regularly for good
feather health. Second,
in our environment, they are exposed to more airborne substances
than they would otherwise be in the wild.
For this reason also, they should be drenched until
thoroughly wet once or twice a week. And, I don’t know about you, but showering a bird with a
spray bottle until drenched is not a happy proposition. Everything in the surrounding area gets soaked, it takes a
long time, and my hand gets tired.
Thus, call me suspicious, but I often doubt whether all
these birds being showered with spray bottles are really getting
as wet as they need to be.
Teaching a bird to shower in the bathroom with you is not
difficult, once you understand that it must be undertaken in
“baby” steps. Necessary
equipment includes two shower perches, one for the bathroom mirror
and one for the shower wall.
Please make sure that these have four suction cups holding
them onto the surface. There
are many styles available, and I have tried them all.
I believe that only those with four suction cups are safe.
It is also helpful if you replace a stationary showerhead with a
hand-held model.
Instructions for Introducing the Showering Experience
The following instructions are written with the assumption
that the parrot is even afraid of the bathroom.
The speed with which the owner can proceed to the next step
can be increased according to the comfort level of his own parrot.
1. Take
the parrot into the bathroom and let him look around.
If he seems comfortable and interested, show him the
contents of the medicine cabinet or a drawer.
If he seems nervous and anxious, take him back to his cage
after just a brief look into the room itself.
Continue this once a day until you can show him all around
the bathroom and, by his body language, you can see that he now
feels comfortable being in the room.
This introduction “honors” the parrot’s visual
experience.
2. Take
the parrot into the bathroom and place him on the shower perch
that is attached to the mirror.
If he seems reluctant to get on it, gently encourage him.
If he still persistently resists, tell him, “That’s
okay…you can do it next time,” and return him to his cage. If
he will sit on it at all, but is very nervous, just leave him
there for a minute and then take him off again, praising him
extravagantly and returning him to his cage.
Continue this daily practice until the parrot readily gets
on the perch without protest and can sit there comfortably.
3. Begin
to take the parrot into the bathroom and have him sit on the perch
attached to the mirror while you shower.
This will allow him to get used to the sound of the water
running, the sight of the shower curtain opening and closing, etc.
4. When
he seems completely comfortable with accompanying you to the
bathroom and sitting on the mirror perch, then begin to place him
on the perch in the shower while you bathe.
Make sure that this is at the end furthest from the water
source. Don’t
expect to get him wet. Just
let him watch you. If
he seems very nervous the first time, then after a minute, take
him out and place him back on the mirror perch.
Gradually, his comfort with sitting on the perch in the
shower will grow.
5. When
he can comfortably sit on the perch in the shower and watch you
bathe, begin to allow a little of the spray to bounce off of you
onto him. Gradually, begin to spray him with the hand-held showerhead,
or hold him under the spray, increasing the time you do this as
his comfort-level increases.
I have a variety of species of all ages and backgrounds,
but I have taught them all to bathe in this manner.
Some have come to love it and some only tolerate it.
However, even those who still protest a little and seem
only to tolerate the experience often reward me with a happy shake
and tail wag once the experience is over.
The truth is, they feel better for it.
Breaking Things Down
These have been two examples of introducing new
experiences, provided in detail with the hopes that owners will
see how "doable” these things are.
The introduction of new things and experiences becomes a
process that we learn to accomplish.
We become successful at it with more practice, if we keep
in mind the tendency of a parrot to react instinctively and do not
misinterpret this or take it too seriously, and if we learn to
break new experiences down into very small steps, always
proceeding in accordance with the parrot’s comfort levels,
remembering never to push too quickly.
At all times, what we do should be, to use Sally
Blanchard’s well-contrived phrase, trust
building. It
will not destroy trust to introduce new experiences and foods,
even if the parrot becomes slightly anxious in the process, as
long as we work to minimize that feeling for him and reassure him
constantly during the process.
Jane Hallander once pointed out in an article that it is
often the toweling experience at the vet’s office, if the parrot
has been toweled from above, that triggers phobia in a parrot.
This is quite true. However,
I do not believe that this would be so, if the parrot had been
introduced to traveling in a car and to toweling by the owner in a
safe manner and environment previously.
A parrot who has been “sheltered” and then who is taken
by car to a strange place and is toweled from above is very likely
to have a bad experience. However,
if the owner has introduced traveling in the car in small steps
until the parrot feels completely comfortable with the experience,
and has toweled him herself at home many times, this whole
scenario is prevented. In effect, in the scenario which Ms. Hallander so wisely
described, the parrot was “set up” by the owner to have the
phobic incident because he was already so stressed by the time he
arrived at the veterinarian’s office by all of the other
unfamiliar things with which he was dealing.
Any
new experience or thing can be introduced to our parrots if done
with sensitivity and if we proceed slowly.
And, the bottom line is, as their caretakers, it is nothing
less than our responsibility to keep working at it…slowly but
surely.
Recipe
for Layered Fresh Food Salad
The following instructions will allow you to feed a diet
high in live, raw foods with minimal effort. This diet has several
advantages, not the least of which is that I can feed fresh foods
to multiple parrots on a daily basis, while only chopping fruits
and vegetables once a week. I have successfully used this recipe
to feed anywhere between 12 and 40 birds.
For those of you with only one or two parrots, this recipe
will need to be modified. You
may find it easier to create a similar “salad” every two to
three days, or to try creating two or three smaller containers,
each of which will last two days… giving you a week’s worth of
food. (Bear in mind
that every time you open a previously mixed container and dish a
serving out, you are introducing bacteria. Thus, a salad that is
served over the course of two or three days must be watched
closely for signs of deterioration.)
The size of containers you use will depend upon how many
parrots you are feeding. When
feeding 30-40 parrots, I used seven 2-gallon containers.
Currently, I feed 13 parrots and use seven containers that
each hold 1.1 gallons. My
daughter uses this recipe with her single parrot and makes three
containers that hold 4 cups each.
Some experimentation may be necessary to achieve the
correct quantity, but the end result will justify your efforts.
Once a week, I layer in plastic storage containers the following:
Layer 1 (bottom layer) - chopped greens, which are varied each
week. One week, I'll use collard greens and parsley and mustard
greens, and the next I might use Swiss chard, kale and dandelion
greens.
Layer 2 - chopped (1/4 to 1/2 inch cubes) vegetables, including
any of the following: Brussels sprouts, zucchini and other summer
squash, jicama, red or green peppers, fresh hot peppers, chayote
squash, green beans, fresh peas, cucumber, cauliflower, celery,
anise root, etc.
Layer 3 - chopped broccoli and chopped, sliced or shredded carrots
Layer 4 - a mixture of chopped apples, oranges and whole grapes
Layer 5 - frozen mixed vegetables.
The containers are then placed in the refrigerator (don't freeze).
This
mix stays fresh in these tubs for up to seven days for three
reasons. First, layered salads stay fresher longer than those that
are mixed up. Second, the orange juice from the chopped oranges
filters down and slightly acidifies the mix. The frozen mixed
vegetables placed on top super-cool the mix immediately (cold air
sinks/warm air rises). I do also wash all the fruits, vegetables
and greens with Oxyfresh Cleansing Gele, which not only gets them
clean but also has some anti-bacterial action.
Use: each morning, I empty out one container into a large mixing
bowl. At that point, I add the following:
1. Cooked
beans (I prefer to soak and cook dry beans, which are then stored
in the freezer in bags until defrosted and added to the mix.
However, canned beans can also be used.)
2. Cooked
or sprouted grains. (A
rice cooker is an invaluable kitchen appliance.
Any grain can be cooked to perfection in a rice cooker,
then cooled, and frozen in serving sized portions.)
3. Dry,
uncooked, whole wheat pasta.
4. Other
soft fruits in season (blueberries, peaches, plums, kiwi fruits,
melon, etc)
5. A
small amount of high quality parrot seed mix.
*Sometimes, in order to generate a little
excitement, I'll sneak in some pine nuts, walnut pieces, flax
seeds, Molucca nuts or other item of interest. (Usually, I feed
nuts separately, but I like to use this fresh mix to surprise the
parrots – since it also offers them a true foraging experience.)
When making the mix each week, strive for variety,
alternating the vegetables, fruits, grains and beans that you
include each time you make the mix.
Also keep in mind appropriate proportions when creating the
mix. I suggest the
following: Cooked
beans 15% - 20%, cooked or sprouted grains 20%, raw pasta 5%,
fruit no more than 20%, greens 5%, seed mix no more than 4% - 10%,
vegetables at least 30% - 40% of the mix.
This recipe can be adapted for any number of birds with a
little creativity, by reducing either the number or size of the
containers used or both.
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