Food/diet questions For Shamrock..

[Stickvilla]

I am having trouble researching and finding out the diet/food for Shamrock .... and would apreciate some input/advise...

Dry mix...the Small hookbill mix (by sunseed... safflower blend, no sunflower seed) I give the tiels and add some tiel fruit veggie blend to ... and add some of the small mazauri maintenance pellets to.. avaiable 1/4 of day and over night ... pull after breakfast.... and give back after supper is eaten...

Breakfast.. fruit.. this morning small wedge of organic navel orange and some chopped green apple and cantalope.... yesterday was mango, passion fruit and banana..

Lunch... soaked organic seed mix or sprouts... and in seperate dish sometimes a veggie also...planning of giving him a section of a small butternut squash with the seeds today for lunch .. with sprouts on the side...

Supper.. my cooked mix food base (my version of Kitchen sink, 4-6 cooked grains, 6-9 beans[no lima] and peas,collards, carrot and pepper) with whatever veggies handy (broccilo, squash, corn ect) chopped larger for him .. the same mix I feed the tiels..

He is eating all of this well.. except for the seed/pellet mix.. he will sling the smaller seeds out of bowl.. but will pick out and eat the small pellets the same size


He is underweight at present.. but has gained a little in the past 2 1/2 weeks..... and I do not want to start any bad habits here.

I have not been able to find any reference to how much vitamin A he needs. or what will be too much and toxic .....
how often is is save to feed the citrus/orange to him.... some sites/places have said not over 3 times a week to feed citrus to companion birds .. but can find not specific mention of ringnecks of any sort...much less an Alexandrine...

I would like to know if what I have been feeding is the correct /right diet for him.....
and if anyone has any recomendations for a seed mix/size for him...

I finally got his play stand earlier this week.. covered with dust and the price tag still on it and ledgable.. probably has not been used since the original owner died over a year ago..
Shammy recognized it.. and did happy dance..
scrubbed it and disenfected.. and now he is using it during day... for 1/4 of day let him go between cage and stand as he wants, at times he will climb to floor and track me down.. for attention.....
he always goes back to cage to poop... LOL ...
or gives me warning when on shoulder.. by ear nibble and dance.. to let me know he needs to go...

I am getting the loan of a cage this weekend to temp house him in.. and I have a strong avian disenfectant to clean the cage with...Pet Focus...the same I used to clean the playstand with...and the tiel cages...
but worried about his reaction to another cage...

I will have the loan of the cage until I can afford to purchase/get one for him..

[Tiki]

Suz, I'm not sure about the diet for Asiatics as it is probably slightly different to Aussies and Conures. Dani & Clara can help there.

[Archive]

Anything and whatever you are eating. My Indian Ringneck Parakeets will eat whatever I give them...and will try to go for things they can't have. Feeding a ringie isn't usually hard

Whatever you feel like giving go for it...(of course the exceptions to the parrots)

[Catschair]

First off....your birds eat so much better than I do, and markedly better than my birds do! Gelly will eat anything and everything. Her main diet is Zupreem pellets with fresh veggies, beans, millet and seed mix. Now you have me worried....Ah well, my diet is so bad, she will still outlive me :excited:

[Abby]

I'll third things. What you're doing is more then fine Suz.
My God Shamrock is so lucky to have you. If I come back as a neglected bird (and obviously I hope I don't) I want you to take me in.

[Kateykat]

Hey Suz, I replied elsewhere but thought I would post my reply here too :shrug:

I'm sure you've had plenty of great advice everywhere about what to give Shammy, but I'll just put my bit in too
My ringies get the same food as what my eckie Lilly gets and they IMHO are thriving on it. Here is their menu:

Breakfast - Bean and veg mix (every second day boiled/scrambled egg)
lunch - fresh veggies and fruit mix and birdie bread
Dinner - fresh veggies and fruit and pellets/seed
most evenings they get a little bit more Bean/mana mash mix warmed and served to them. They really enjoy the warm bean mix.
and sweet potato balls (based of sweet potato for the vitamin A) every second evening for the ringnecks, where Lilly gets it every day. The ringnecks also always have Roudybush maintenance pellets available to them all day long, they love them and ever since they have been converted from seeds (I did this pretty much the first few weeks they came home) I noticed a marked improvement in feathers and in their beak colour. I don't give them much seed at all, and when I do its just what has been added to their birdie bread. They have birdie bread everyday and love it. I mix cooked sweet potato into the bread mix as well as cooked pumpkin.
Like Sky said I would be giving him more volume of food as they are big eaters, my ringnecks are pigs and simply love to eat. They are always active and burn heaps of energy through play so I don't worry about them getting over weight from eating to much.
I make up a big pot of cut up veggies and fruit and stick it in the fridge, it usually lasts around a week (just check it for freshness when you use it). They get a good variety - fresh corn, kale, red apples, grapes (de-seeded), red capsicum, pomegranates (a big favorite), snow peas, cauliflower, snow peas, broccoli,yellow beans (not sure on the proper name for them but their yellow), golden squash, carrots, parsley, sometimes watercress, hot hot peppers, a mango, lots of corn (some to cut up and others to hang and leave in the purse for them to chew through), some weeks a paw paw (am thinking about getting dried paw paw? anyone tried it?) cherries etc. Like I said I cut it all up and mix it into a big bowl and store it in the fridge, I change their bowls about 3 times a day (because I am home all day I can do this) and refill their fruit/veg mix.
Quinoa is great and has lots of great nutrients in it, try cooking it carrot juice, veggie juice etc and adding some sweet fruits like mulberries, black berries (I buy a frozen berry mix and add) apples and diced peppers,you can freeze it in packets and just warm it up in hot water when you want to serve it to him. The tiels will love it too, I know mine do. The kitchen sink recipes (or mikes mana mash) is good to give them too.
Lol sorry if I have waffled on, I just love to talk about what I feed the fids and sometimes forget what I was supposed to be talking about