Hi there, I bought my new quaker last week, my Kes, (now 13 weeks old) was hand reared and loves fruit and some veg, but won`t eat any on it`s own unless I hand feed it, although it will eat the seed ok in the cage, I don`t want Kes to become a seed junkie when I`m not around, any suggestions? Kes has seperate bowls for fruit/veg and seed.

Thanks in advance,
Linn.

model the behavior you want kes to do. YOU eat it make a big deal out of how yummy it is and don't share. now i know you said kes will eat it but only if you hold it. i'll sometimes hold food for our flock if they are resistant to eating it from their dishes. but only for a second i let them get a taste then back to their dish it goes.

you can also experiment with different temperatures and textures. my CAG prefers his people food to be more lukewarm than warm and will let his dinner sit until it's almost cold. the quakers dig in right away. some foods are more readily accepted raw, some cooked. some more readily accepted almost pureed, some need to be chunkier. some warm, some cold. you get the idea.

just keep at it and i'm sure kes will be more accepting of whatever you offer eventually. louie never used to trust anything i offered. but eventually he realized mama didn't give him ickies, and now he will at least try everything i offer before throwing it away.

kris

Pellets are better for them than seeds so why not mix some roudybush crumbles in with the seed and see if ypur little one will take to them ...Just persurvere with the fresh stuff he will soon learn dice it up small , only offer fruit a couple of times a week(due to high sugar and water) veggies daily is fine, some cooked brown rice or scranbled eggs , mashed sweet potato is good too...check out the recepe forum lots of healthy stuff there ....

Oops! I`ve been giving Kes fresh fruit everyday, but at least I know not to now, I have noticed though that Kes hasn`t been bothering too much with the veg, is this because I`ve been giving it fruit so often? (I don`t know Kes' sex yet, that's why I keep repeating the name).

I haven`t seen pellets at my local pet shop, I`ll definately look into it though thanks.

Linn

try my sweet potato puff recepe my guys love it...
http://www.quakerparrots.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=12437

Thanks for the recipe, I will definately give that one a go.

Thankyou.

Linn.

Can I used normal cooked potatoes or does it have to be sweet potatoes?

Sweet potato is better for them lots more vitamins ...I don`t know what the recepe would turn out like with ordinary mash...
But they can have ordinary mashed potato too my boys get some when we have it and love it I stir through some pellets with theirs also..

Great thanks.

I have just made Kes some sweet potatoe, I have mixed in some sweetcorn and peas with it in her veg dish, Kes never seems to eat out of that dish for some reason, it did have a nibble at the mashed potatoe and I thought that was a great start, but then Kes just went over to the other bowl, do you think I should swap them over or would that just confuse it? Although you have just given me an idea to mix some with pellets when I find some, that might do it hopefully.

Thanks again for the great advice.
Linn.

Have you tried hanging some food on a kabob for her to pick at...apple and sweet corn seem to be good starters with most fids... I have them both on the playstand and in the cages ...woth a try I don`t use the ones in the cages a lot as the boys are mostly out but I do use the one on the playstand daily..




Big pot of mixed veggies and brown rice (diced sweet potato) to freeze into daily portions (night time meal) ..the boys love my cooking days ..




Fresh chopped up veggies morning..


Sunny with mashed tatto mixed with pellets and seed..


Buddy in his old cage..





Just thought I would share some idea`s...

Thanks so much, great ideas and you have beautiful birds. Cheers.
Linn.

Your welcome & Thanks...