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[jennifer steadman]

This might sound like a daft question, am I feeding her properly?

The reason I ask is that I notice that people feed different treats for training and that you speak of breakfast and dinner etc..

This is what I'm doing. Can you tell me if this is wrong please?

I wake Bailey up at approximately 9am and take out her feeding bowls emptying out any food that has been left in from the night before saving any bits that can be salvaged and keeping the crumbs to mix in with mash potato or pasta.

Then Bailey comes out for a play (well, more of a sit around and preen and squawk really) and I clean her cage out and replenish her toys etc....

I put her bowls back inside with a small handful of Harrisons pellets. She wont ever eat anything while she's out.
I put about a teaspoon of seed mix which includes sunflowers seeds and broken up peanuts into her foraging dishes (not too many of either though as I know they aren't that good for her)

She stays out for a few hours, but the very second that I put her buffet ball back inside, she puts herself away in her cage. She rips the paper out of the ball and eats one of two bits of food, but mostly throws the rest away.

I then give her some fresh food, cooked pasta or rice etc.... Most of which she throws away mind you! 

At around tea time, I check her bowl and give her a few more pellets and maybe a piece of apple or half a grape or mash potato etc..

When its bed time, I make sure there are a few pellets in her bowl just in case she gets hungry, re-fill her water bowl then I cover her over for the night.

She doesnt seem to eat very much though, but throws more food out for the dogs or into the bottom of her cage!! she thinks its hilarious when the dogs sit there waiting to be fed by her!!

Does this sound wrong? Should be I doing anything else? She appears to be healthy and i know she's put on weight since she's been with me as her keel bone isn't so prominent as it was when she arrived her 5 months ago.

Thanks guys.

Jennifer

[Tezza]

Hi Jeniffer

That sounds perfectly fine to me 
Tezza

[Lesley]

Sounds like she fills herself up on pellets and is less fussed about the rest?
But you are providing a good diet for her, I think so long as her poops are a decent size then all is good 

I used to worry about Flint eating enough, finally I realised that there are really only two times in the day where he is genuinely hungry - morning and evening.
Especially evening, after a lot of trial and error I learnt that he loves some sort of mash in the evening and will spend a good 30 mins between his mash and his pellets at about 10pm.
The size of his morning poop confirms he has eaten enough 

[jennifer steadman]

   

Her morning poop is masssive!! I'm always surprised at how she can hang onto that all night?? (I'm presuming of course that she doesn't poop whilst she's asleep or during the night?)

She's doing a very decent sized poop several times during the day. (approximately every 10-15 minutes or so.)

I'm just cooking a batch of pasta now and will feed her with it with some carrot crisps I've just made. She can have some later on.

Thank you for your reassurance. It is worrying isn't it if we are feeding them enough but I guess its the same with children, "you cant starve a them if your putting food in front of them!!"

Jennifer

[Tezza]

It is reassuring, yes. Because even though you know you are doing some things right, very occasionally, a bit of doubt will set in, and then you wander if in fact you are doing the right thing! God - that was a crazy paragraph - but I know what I mean 

[Lesley]

Flint does a wee fart when he does his morning poop (a real one not him imitating one), defo a boy 

[Mrs Piker]

Your feeding her what she needs and it's also a good mix of healthy things too.
Every birdie is different.
My Hobbits have a different routine to yours, but it suits them 

Keep doing what you're doing Jennifer because it's working 
Julie

[Polo]

Bird keepers will fall into feeding roulines that suits the owners, i feel as long as they are eating well then the routine is working.

[Pat]

I think that's a good routine.  I wish I had one.   

My routine is Darryl uncovers them then brings me a coffee, I drink my coffee and crawl out of bed...... I go downstairs and take out food bowls let them out for a fly or a walk depending who it is, wash food bowls, change the paper in the bottom of their cage and wipe out any mess.  I do them toast with palm nut spread on it and put that in one bowl, put some pellets in another bowl.......that's them sorted until lunchtime, when they have chop, then at tea time they get a bit of birdy bread or flapjacky things with a few seeds in.  That's it until the morning.  They always have pellets in one bowl.  Oh and then during the day I will give them maybe a grape or two and or a nut and a drink of either freshly squeezed orange or pomegranite juice.  That's it.  See, when I type it out like that it does seem like a routine...yay me!!!

[Pat]

Oh I forgot to say.......... they either eat it, or don't.  If they don't they have pellets.  I don't mess around giving them this or trying that......it's there, eat it or starve.  They eat it, I've never had a bird drop down dead with starvation yet. 

[karen (bella;s mum)]

When I first got Bella i was worried about the amount she used to eat, but again with the size of her poops she must be eating enough

[jennifer steadman]

Thank you all so very much for all of your expert help and advice. I feel happy that I'm not doing anything wrong, so thank you for your wonderful reassurance.

She is currently eyeing up some chop/mash that I've cooked her looking at it suspiciously as if I've put poison in it!! She ate a bit off of my finger, but because I've put it in her poop bowl she's not sure whether to eat it or if she has already eaten it and deposited it in there herself?? (Poop bowl is so named because its the bowl directly under her night perch which seems to catch most of her poop and I don't usually put food in there!!)

Jennifer

[lizduncan]

Nico likes her mash from a ramekin on the kitchen table. She won't eat it if it's in her cage