What have been YOUR biggest mistakes?
Added 2022-03-23 22:44:01 +0000 UTCHey guys!
I am still working on the diet conversion course, and one of the things I want to ask you is...
WHAT HAVE BEEN YOUR BIGGEST MISTAKES YOU MADE WHEN YOU TRIED TO CONVERT YOUR BIRD TO OUR RECOMMENDED DIET?
Thanks for your feedback!
Comments
Okay, I am converting from a Nutribird pellet and SFS, to SFS and another chop recipe that I wrote down with the SFS as my guiding reference but with the ingredients that are in quality pellets (I prepare and freeze it like a good old regular SFS, I am counting on getting your freeze dried SFS so I can just make one recipe myself and save time and effort in the future). I’ve been very excited which for me means also very stressed about it, I am in day 2 of the conversion and here’s few things I noticed after doing some mistakes which I am glad I have done so I could not do them again - hopefully. Overdoing and overwhelm goes together too easily- I have wrote down a recipe that I am actually very proud of - I studied each and every ingredients and I made my brain stretch quite a bit - yet when I was to order ingredients, I ordered beyond and above what was in the recipe, I was buying 5 types of sprouts instead of 3, I was buying fancy kale, I was bedazzled by the idea of adding fancy produce and add more than needed - I ended up stocking the whole fridge with stuff that I probably wasn’t really needed in the recipe. One thing I am glad I did is weighing Chakko for weeks 3 times a day before and after meals- because my second was mistake is stuffing my bird with the foods while converting, he was fussy all morning today and I thought he was hungry but turns out he was 10 grams above his normal morning weight. The third part is a struggle which I think I am gonna overcome but is hecking difficult to emotionally deal with- the timing is spring, and I feel like my training is not up for success because he’s pretty full, LOL the grumps are HIGHER!
Guy Goldstein K
2022-04-13 13:01:49 +0000 UTCMaybe you can try incorporating the other pellet brands into the birdie bread to give a familiar and likable taste or you can do the same with crushed nuts or seeds to really get your bird into it. I would personally make a list of foods your birds already like and see how you can use them as a tool for diet conversion.
BirdTricks
2022-04-11 21:29:30 +0000 UTCMy caiques, 7 in total, love chopped vegetables. Love it plain and mixed with cooked beans and legumes. They just like small bits of apple and orange (treats). I rarely give it to them as they don’t need all of that sugar and they are major food flinders. Mostly I occasionally give them their beloved berries. I have tried to get them to eat BirdTricks pellets for over a year. I use them in your birdie bread. I use half and half. If I need more moisture I add a little more unsweetened, organic applesauce. I t was suggested I try squeezing some fresh squeezed oj over the pellets, just enough to wet them. No go. My vet said to try taking a very small amount of sugar free organic almond butter and rolling it in pellets. Result was the butter and pellets were flung, not eaten. A friend gave me a small bag of Zupreem naturals and a small bag of Psittacus. Those two brands they will grudgingly eat. My vet said to stop feeding them those pellets. Neither is cold pressed. They both also contain some ingredients I don’t want my birds to have. Psittacus is made with peanuts as one of the first ingredients. My vet said I should give either Top’s or BirdTricks pellets. I’m notgiving up but it is very frustrating. Any and all suggestions are welcome.
Jan Kelley
2022-04-06 17:10:52 +0000 UTCI keep trying, but Spencer is a Cockatoo, and just turns his nostrils up at anything like fresh food.
Susan Engels
2022-03-27 21:17:31 +0000 UTCFor my first bird, the mistake was not starting right away when she got to my house (before I'd seen your 'first day' videos Jamie!). The birds I introduced pellets and SFS to the minute they got to my house converted waaaay easier (although the last rescue budgie is proving a challenge!) The second mistake - a little further down the line - was not recognising right away when the birds had decided that, for whatever reason, they were not into the SFS anymore. I missed the best moment to change it up - include the SFS in new recipes from the cook book and make it a bit more exciting. We got back to enjoying SFS (and I've no idea why they went off it), but it felt like a mini conversion process to get back there. Hope this helps!
Katie Allan
2022-03-27 01:52:30 +0000 UTCAnd both were diet converted to your diet on that idea, but I altered it slightly as I only feed chop and no pellets. Easiest diet conversion from what I hear compared to others but I got lucky with two very compliant and docile macaws.
PandaTit
2022-03-25 12:03:19 +0000 UTCI also make their chop before a meal time so they try a bit then get the whole lot together. Not a fan of the freezing of chop but understand why people do it. But if you have the time the making it fresh, let them try everything and giving them the whole mix for a meal time is great for introducing new things and bonding IMO.
PandaTit
2022-03-25 12:01:19 +0000 UTCNot a mistake but a good thing I have always done with mine from day one. As soon as I got my first macaw who was a rescue to step up she came to the kitchen and saw me make food. After it goes in the food processor she tries it bit by bit on a spoon of the individual ingredient. Something so important for bonding. Now I have two they both fly over and head bob with excitement everytime I make their chop fresh. (one of those who makes fresh chop constantly with whatever is at the shops, considering freeze drying incase of shortages though so i can keep them healthy and fed as the world is a volatile place atm)
PandaTit
2022-03-25 11:59:33 +0000 UTCI didn't initially prepare the chop together with my parrot, not realizing that my baby parrot may not necessarily have recognize the chopped up pieces of vegetables as food. To fix this and not throw out the giant batch of chop I had pre-prepared, I started by offering her all the veggies I had put in their as large chunks every morning (which she would happily eat) and then cut them smaller and smaller until she was eating them in the chop mix I offered 😅.
Tatiana Pereira
2022-03-24 17:48:09 +0000 UTCThe pellets for my birds is the hardest. I've tried adding water to mix them up and sprinkle in your seed mix that I make. Then I would add some dry on top. It is still a struggle. I wish I could just give them the pellets and see them eat it all. They love the seasonal feeding season at least.
heather M couchman
2022-03-24 03:03:02 +0000 UTCI initially had problems with it being too wet and having grains and beans that were too sticky and mushy. The result was pretty gross when thawed. Once I leaned to make it dryer my bird likes it better. Other mistakes that I still catch myself doing is unnecessarily adding a little special something or other to the mix just because my bird is "so good and deserves a treat." Of course adding eggs, leftover cooked veggies, etc when my bird is eating his SFS just fine sabotages us. He gets spoiled and I have to wean him off the special add ins. Acts of service is my love language, and I like to receive by affirmation.
Holden Kendrick
2022-03-24 01:14:39 +0000 UTCI really didn’t like the way the veggies froze. So this time I just froze the legumes, pasta and grains. I chop fresh veggies every four days trying to follow all the rules and proportions set forth in your cookbook, but I give them unlimited veggies. They seem to like this better. With the pellets I’m mixing the seed recipe you recommended in with it about 50/50 at the moment. They don’t seem to be very excited about the pellets yet.
Nancy Yocom
2022-03-24 00:47:23 +0000 UTCStarting conversion before I got them to the point that I could weigh them daily. I was so nervous they weren’t eating enough and losing weight that I caved/gave up. I know you don’t necessarily have to be able to weigh them before you convert, but for me, once I could weigh them, I was way more confident.
Amanda Smart
2022-03-24 00:35:42 +0000 UTCI would have to say I made 2 not converting right away and giving in or becoming overwhelmed
Chastity
2022-03-23 23:57:56 +0000 UTCTrying to convert both chop and pellets at the same time. It’s too confusing and we got discouraged too quickly because we didn’t focus enough on one thing at a time. Also remembering the transition period isn’t a permanent solution! (I.e. mixing things in you wouldn’t normally include in a permanent diet just to get them to eat it!)
Holly B
2022-03-23 23:52:52 +0000 UTCGiving in too soon!
Krystelle
2022-03-23 23:21:56 +0000 UTCNot working to find the best ingredient to mix the chop with for the conversion. My flock love sweet potato and boiled eggs now. But at first they weren’t all that interested and I was getting frustrated and was ready to just give up. Then I decided to start trying other things and work my way around to those two. It’s so true that if at first you don’t succeed then try and try and keep trying til you get there. It is very easy to feel as if everyone else’s birds are getting it but yours are just not going to.
Sherry mathes
2022-03-23 23:06:01 +0000 UTCI got discouraged after making my own version of chop. I threw all my chop away and gave up for 3 months so he was only eating pellets.
Li
2022-03-23 22:54:56 +0000 UTC*gone straight
Renee Vaughan Goertz
2022-03-23 22:53:29 +0000 UTCnot knowing since I had a new bird = new environment I should have just got straight to the new food.
Renee Vaughan Goertz
2022-03-23 22:52:41 +0000 UTC
