Feeding issues with U2

[Sucre]

Our U2, Sucre, wastes SO much food. It's hard to tell if he's really getting enough to eat.

His bowls are the large metal ones attached to the side of the cage, with the swing doors that lock for easy access.

He is determined to remove the bowls (after a lot of work) and throw them into the bottom of the cage. He may eat a few small bites before doing this, and he's worse about it when I am the one who feeds him (I'm not his favorite person), but it worries me that he isn't eating enough.

He gets pellet and a couple of treats thrown in every morning, with a slight sprinkling of seed on top - this is done by my husband. I would guess about 20 pellets for large parrots. Not sure how much of that gets dumped but from cleaning the cage, I would say quite a bit. He's too busy talking before we leave for work to even think about eating.

Later in the day, he gets a bowl of veggies and fruit - prepared and placed by me, his mortal enemy, and I usually keep cornbread sticks made up in advance to break into pieces for him. He will nibble at the veggies for a minute, throw everything else out except the cornbread, and usually eat most of that.

Then, more pellet sprinkled with seed at bedtime. (He does eat during the night, or he's throwing the pellets in the bottom of the cage - there's nothing left in the bowl in the morning.

I should probably mention that his diet has completely changed in the 2 months that we have had him. He was eating only the cheapest seed blend available at his old home, and I'm pretty sure they were just dumping it on the hardwood and letting him eat it while everyone walked through it, after seeing the house. When I asked the woman what treats he liked, she shrugged her shoulders and said "Sometimes we feed him McDonald's French fries if we don't eat them all." So, he was in for quite the shock when he came to live with me. I mix it up, don't offer the same things every day, partly in an effort to get him the nutrition that he needs, and partly because I am still trying to find out what he likes and doesn't like.

I hate that he dumps his food, and initially thought it was only when I fed him, but my husband was home with him all day yesterday alone for the first time and said he did the same thing when he fed him. He usually doesn't dump his water bowl during the day, but when he does I worry about him going all day without water. Any suggestions on how to keep the bowls in the holders better, but still keep it easy enough for me to access, since he tries to rip my fingers off every time he gets a chance - not leaving me with a lot of time to extract the bowls.

We're going to a bird expo this weekend, in hopes of finding a larger cage. If we can find what we are looking for, maybe heavy ceramic bowls in the bottom might be a better bet.

Any thoughts? Or do they all waste more than they eat, and I am just fussing over something that I cannot control?

Am I overfeeding? Is that the reason he's dumping it? Do they have a specific time of day that they prefer to feed?

[Mare]

Hi, Kim! I'm sorry you're having issues but it sounds pretty normal to me. When Amigo is mad, say he's been locked up for a few days and is bored..he will start throwing his dishes. It's frustrating, especially when you had just gone through all the work preparing it! His seed dish was his favorite one to drop to the bottom, maybe he liked the ring of that one more :). But I think it was because it was the easiest to remove. This might not work for you because it takes a bit of time to remove it but I took a piece of scotch tape and put it over the edge of his bowl, across the ring and attached to the side of the bowl. If you are buying a new cage, I suggest you get one with the side ports that hold the ceramic bowls..easy in and out and no getting chomped!

Amigo is a very picky eater. I mix things up a bit but stick with what he likes, mostly. He loves cooked brown rice, walnuts, thawed frozen mixed veggies (corn, peas, green beans) these are his favorite. I always put in some kind of sliced fruit, Apple, orange, banana. Peppers, either Serrano, green or red bell or the little mini peppers. He doesn't like scrambled egg but my other birds do, you might try that. He loves his oatmeal in the morning, I mix his ground Zupreem pellets in with it because it's the only way I can get him to eat them!

A lot of what he eats ends up dropped to the floor but I think this is pretty normal parrot stuff. I hope this helps :). I normally feed him in the late afternoon, except his oatmeal, and he has a seed bowl all day long.

[Cedardave]

Birds in general waste alot of food.With ours..some also throw their bowls to the floor.Eventually most birds will realize if they throw their food, they have nothing to eat.Try not to give in by keeping the bowls full all the time.If they toss them, put less in and let them get a little bit hungry before they get more.If you pick the bowl up and replace what they have dumped...then it becomes an expencive game to them and you.

[kendrafitz]

Rosie throws most of her food on the floor. She really doesn't have a big appetite. I worry she doesn't eat enough. But I have decided to treat it thd way I did when my kids were little. If they are hungry they will eat. That is really for my sanity more than anything else...

[Mare]

I think that's true, Kendra. I use to worry about how little my birds ate but after awhile, noticed that some days they were ravenous! I think it all evens out. They eat better when they're hungry :)