im not new to birds, but i just adopted my first quaker his name is Cosmo, i am so happy with him, he is 6 yrs old and well trainedim actually a certified avian specialist and in my 2nd semester of vet tech studies, and work at the humane society so animals and birds specially are not new to me, but this guy sure is

I just want to be sure i am caring for him right ... as far as food goes, he is so not picky, he will eat anything i hand to him and demands whatever im eating. ive had him 4 days and he has eaten 14 different veggies and 6 different fruits, along with pasta, various grains and seed and wheatgrass, barely grass and alfalfa grass (which i grow for my keets) so he is a darn good eater

i give my keets harrisons pellets and ecotrition seeds (but the main source in their diet is fresh foods).

I do not give my keets harrisons everyday, due to the high protein content, they get it every other day and ussually its ground up and mixed in with veggies or the muffins i make them (super healthy)

Anyway, so i bought some roudyrush pellets, and he eats them ... like i said he aint picky. I offered him a pellet and he took it and wanted more haha ...

so i was just lookin for opinions on which pellet you all think is better for him... roudyrush or harrisons ? and he also has ecotrition seeds for cockatiels (i mix in the moulting and conditioning canister, the ecotrition greens canister and tropical fruit canister from ecotrition into the seed mix with dried cranberry, papaya, apricot and mango)

Wow...your little guy is certainly a well fed birdy! Mine won't eat nearly as many different things. I cannot give him any seed at all because if he has seed, that is ALL he will eat, and vet told me to get him off them, so he's been on pellets and fresh foods for a long time now. I actually mix roudybush, harrison's and zupreem all together and that's what he gets. I've heard good things about all of them, and I hate only giving him one kind of pellet, so mixture it is. My guy also loves baked or broiled chicken bits, which he gets if that's what we are having for dinner, and he also really likes scrambled eggs, which he only gets about once a week. Oh yeah, and oatmeal, the real kind, not instant...he loves that for breakfast. I so envy you becoming something avian related for a profession. If I was young again, I'd really want to be an avian vet. I'm 49, and when I was going to school, that really wasn't even something that I ever heard of. Good luck!

yea, my keets eat pretty good but it took alot of work and wasted food cut in various forms to get them to eat them lol ... Cosmo takes ANYTHING i give him, and the only thing he turned away from was a red bell pepper piece, but he had just stuffed himself on fresh mango hahaha a bit later he did eat a few of the red bell pepper pieces.

im trying to limit protein intake, as too much protein leads to gout ad i dont want to have to deal with that, a good friend of mine just lost a bird to gout and it was horrid.

and my keets LOVE eggs florentine, which they get like once a month but they go craaazy over it.

cosmo's previous owners fed him fresh foods which is great but they fed him bird seeds meant for wild birds u know that huge bag they have at walmart for bird feeders, thats what he was getting. which is why im so surprised he is eating the roudyrush pellets so easily, in fact he loves them haha

[I agree with slic. Go ahead and mix harrisons and roudybush. If I could get my guys to eat harrisons, I'd do it, but most won't. Most will eat the roudybush and I feel its a really good pellet. It's not organic like harrison, but a great pellet. My vet said you should give them at least two types of pellets as although the pellet companies all claim they are a complete diet, we really don't know if that pellet is giving them all they need so mixing two is a better idea. Plus it give them variety. I think adding 10% seeds to his diet should be fine. Some will add a larger percentage, but since they are proned to fatty liver disease I wouldn't go much higher on a regular basis.
You are feeding that bird VERY well!!!! I wish my guys would eat like that. Did you hypnotise him????



quote name='helwa' date='Nov 9 2008, 11:11 PM' post='492995']
yea, my keets eat pretty good but it took alot of work and wasted food cut in various forms to get them to eat them lol ... Cosmo takes ANYTHING i give him, and the only thing he turned away from was a red bell pepper piece, but he had just stuffed himself on fresh mango hahaha a bit later he did eat a few of the red bell pepper pieces.

im trying to limit protein intake, as too much protein leads to gout ad i dont want to have to deal with that, a good friend of mine just lost a bird to gout and it was horrid.

and my keets LOVE eggs florentine, which they get like once a month but they go craaazy over it.

cosmo's previous owners fed him fresh foods which is great but they fed him bird seeds meant for wild birds u know that huge bag they have at walmart for bird feeders, thats what he was getting. which is why im so surprised he is eating the roudyrush pellets so easily, in fact he loves them haha
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I would add a little coconut, pine nuts and cinnamon sticks. These are healthy snack foods that can actually help prevent deseases.

Coconut is high in fat - but if you only feed small amounts every couple days and also save the milk for him/her and use it if the bird seems a little lathergic, tired, or just a little off.

Pine nuts in the shell are good food for teaching them to get to the meat of the thing. They are a small enough nut for a Quaker to handle but a bird smaller might just play with it. Still it gives them practice opening hard foods.

Cinnamon sticks are great toys and have more heathly assistantance then any other food I have mentioned. They can help prevent cancer, and a whole flurry of other illnesses.

I wouldn't be with out. Matter of fact I have two coconuts on order and we have been looking high and low for cinnamon sticks as no one here has them right now.

Yes, I would definitely get him on Harrison's, but roudybush is a good pellet too. Basically, all pelleted diets are slightly different and none are based on wild parrot diets (they are based on chickens) so no brand of pellet is really the "best," but Harrison's is the only one that is USDA organic so you can't go wrong there. I also would limit the amount of seeds you are giving your QP. They are prone to fatty liver disease and should not eat as many seeds as you might be giving your keets. I only give Darwin a few sunflower and safflower seeds a day; the majority of his food is Harrison's and fresh foods.

And the coconut, cinnamon sticks, and pine nuts sound great too! You can give him a little bit of hard boiled egg every now and then (with some shell) as well as Kale for a good source of calcium and protein. It sounds like you are doing a great job already!

yea he has had spinach alot and he loves it as well as mustard greens and ive already got him on cinnamon sticks, i use them to make toys for my keets so he has one in there he has been gnawing on

i make my birds a trail mix type thing, with dried fruts and grains and some nuts (pine nuts, almonds and some soy nuts) and it has coconut in it

i bring in veggies to the room and he zooms over, he cant wait for me to get to his cage top haha