Post by birdguhl on Apr 23, 2013 17:49:15 GMT
Since Woody got diagnosed with liver disease I have been on a mission to get all the buds eating mainly pellets (Harrisons superfine).
Charlie aside (still in quarantine - he is on a slower programme of change) for almost three weeks now there has been no dry seed available at all which has meant giving the three others fresh food 3-4 times daily. This is most difficult of course when I am out at work all day, but they just get a larger amount in the morning. The temperature is such that leaving it for this long is not such a problem.
A typical meal is a mixture of some germinated seeds, one or two grated/mashed veg (sweetcorn, carrot or peas), a little bit of eggfood as all are moulting, and some Harrisons pellets. The pellets have been both crushed or whole. The crushed pellets are sprinkled over everything and the whole ones are just mixed in with the rest of the food.
(Fixed in clips at side of cage they have also been offered spinach, broccoli, red pepper, corn on the cob, carrot, sweet potato, pear, apple, alfalfa & radish sprouts and for the first time today fresh beetroot.)
As they have to search through the mix in the dishes to find the seeds there has thus be NO ESCAPE from the pellets and must have ingested some even inadvertently.
This week I decided we need to move towards them accepting dry pellets as this is the ultimate aim. So, I have been drying the germinated seeds on a bit of kitchen roll before putting them in the dishes and this helps the pellets to stay drier.
Today when I came back I could only find mostly fine dust in the dishes and few whole pellets. I had put some kitchen roll under the dishes to see if they were chucking them but there weren't really any there. I am hoping the dust means that they are trying to eat them like seeds and although they are probably not getting that much, at least they are prepared to give them a go.
Next stage - fingers crossed - is that they start swallowing them whole.
Charlie aside (still in quarantine - he is on a slower programme of change) for almost three weeks now there has been no dry seed available at all which has meant giving the three others fresh food 3-4 times daily. This is most difficult of course when I am out at work all day, but they just get a larger amount in the morning. The temperature is such that leaving it for this long is not such a problem.
A typical meal is a mixture of some germinated seeds, one or two grated/mashed veg (sweetcorn, carrot or peas), a little bit of eggfood as all are moulting, and some Harrisons pellets. The pellets have been both crushed or whole. The crushed pellets are sprinkled over everything and the whole ones are just mixed in with the rest of the food.
(Fixed in clips at side of cage they have also been offered spinach, broccoli, red pepper, corn on the cob, carrot, sweet potato, pear, apple, alfalfa & radish sprouts and for the first time today fresh beetroot.)
As they have to search through the mix in the dishes to find the seeds there has thus be NO ESCAPE from the pellets and must have ingested some even inadvertently.
This week I decided we need to move towards them accepting dry pellets as this is the ultimate aim. So, I have been drying the germinated seeds on a bit of kitchen roll before putting them in the dishes and this helps the pellets to stay drier.
Today when I came back I could only find mostly fine dust in the dishes and few whole pellets. I had put some kitchen roll under the dishes to see if they were chucking them but there weren't really any there. I am hoping the dust means that they are trying to eat them like seeds and although they are probably not getting that much, at least they are prepared to give them a go.
Next stage - fingers crossed - is that they start swallowing them whole.