weight managment diets?

[mrgoogls]

i have heard from a few sources that "free feeding" or leaving the food in a bowl 24/7 isnt good and can cause obesity. so people only feed their birds a few meals a day. how exactly do you do that? like when do you feed them, how much do you feed per meal, what do you feed each meal, ect. i also heard that some people that do this also leave a little food in the cage all day but in foraging toys or only available via foraging. also, now, i leave veggies on a skewer for the day and change and take it out at night, what would i do with that? im interested in this way of feeding because i obviously dont want cooper overweight, but i have NO clue what it is all about.

[Turquoise]

Well now, I can't really help you with the type of feeding schedule you are talking about. I am one of the folks that think they should have lots of variety and it should be available for them at all times. Plus given my work schedule & little time to devote to an afternoon or evening feeding, I like the 'Leave the dry food in' concept. It works for me and mine are used to this way.

Fresh foods of course don't need to be left in. I feed those in the morning when I add to or change out their dry foods. My kids are all young & very energetic right now, so I don't worry about obesity yet. When they begin to reach an age where they will slow down I should be at the age I don't have to work anymore. So I will be able to change my way of feeding.:th_biggrin:

[Blancaej]

I probably would say if Cooper doesn't have weight issues, what you are doing now is just fine. But if you really want to do something, birds don't need to eat at night so maybe to start remove any food before bedtime and put it back in the am. Such as pellets. :)

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[Pinkbirdy]

I have my birds food out all the time . They eat at all different times [and it would upset me to think they were hungry]. So don't believe what you read on the internet [they only eat at certain times] A big part of birds living to their life expectancy [is their varied diet] I worry they don't get enough. I think they need way more than pellets. I became friends with some Macaw Breeders. They want the healthiest birds they can get [and their knowledge on diets is amazing]. They don't use pellets. My birds get pellets but the also get a lot more natural foods.Tequila my Zon [hes a rehome] .Came to me overweight. The owners even said they fed him what they were eating [lots of Chinese,pizza , and not great food] I switched his diet to my chopmix and fruits and vegs . He slimmed down [and is great]. I let my vet tell if their weights ok . Im not going to judge it by a number im reading off the internet [they think the species should be ] . Im not a vet .