Hi All,
Me and my wife are now the proud parents of a blue quaker. We've named him Chibi-Totoro, though we call him Chibi for short. The name is gender neutral, as he has not been sexed. We will call him "he" for now, though I guess if he later lays an egg we will have to change the pronoun!
My wife and I have both owned budgies as kids, and I also had a cocktail when I was a teenager, but this is the first either of us has had a parrot.
As we are new parronts, I wanted to document my experience and seek this communities advice along the way. So, without further ado, here is our little Chibi:
His hatch date is May 10th, 2020, making him almost 4 months old. He arrived at our home on Friday, August 28th. The first day he was home, he kept to himself on one of the corner perches. As the days quickly advanced, he has become more active, vocal, and allows us to approach.
Our primary concern at this time is his diet. The breeder says he has been weened for about two weeks, but he has been refusing to eat his pellets since we got him home. When he is hungry, he has learned that hoping from his perch to the food dish gets our attention. He then looks to our fingers for food, ignoring the pellets in his bowl. I have tried a large variety of fruits and vegetables, and so far the only thing he has accepted was a little bit of watermelon and fresh cooked corn. In fact, he absolutely loves and destroys the corn. My big concern is that this is all he seems to want to eat. I've called the breeders we got him from and they've suggested some other foods, all of which he continues to ignore. They mixed two brands of pellets, so we are awaiting for the second type (roudybush) to arrive.
How safe is it for him to be on a temporary pure corn diet? And is there a limit to how much and often he should eat? I'm afraid he loves the stuff so much that we will overeat. If he is really hungry, he'll run all around his cage and readily jump on me to get me to feed him. And many times if I am attempting to give him something else he will try to bite.
Even though we only have had him for less than a week, we love this little rascal. I want him to be in the best health possible and the two of us would appreciate any advice. As a bonus, I've added a video of him eating his corn. In this one he is being polite. Sometimes he just eats it like there is no tomorrow.
Me and my wife are now the proud parents of a blue quaker. We've named him Chibi-Totoro, though we call him Chibi for short. The name is gender neutral, as he has not been sexed. We will call him "he" for now, though I guess if he later lays an egg we will have to change the pronoun!
My wife and I have both owned budgies as kids, and I also had a cocktail when I was a teenager, but this is the first either of us has had a parrot.As we are new parronts, I wanted to document my experience and seek this communities advice along the way. So, without further ado, here is our little Chibi:
His hatch date is May 10th, 2020, making him almost 4 months old. He arrived at our home on Friday, August 28th. The first day he was home, he kept to himself on one of the corner perches. As the days quickly advanced, he has become more active, vocal, and allows us to approach.
Our primary concern at this time is his diet. The breeder says he has been weened for about two weeks, but he has been refusing to eat his pellets since we got him home. When he is hungry, he has learned that hoping from his perch to the food dish gets our attention. He then looks to our fingers for food, ignoring the pellets in his bowl. I have tried a large variety of fruits and vegetables, and so far the only thing he has accepted was a little bit of watermelon and fresh cooked corn. In fact, he absolutely loves and destroys the corn. My big concern is that this is all he seems to want to eat. I've called the breeders we got him from and they've suggested some other foods, all of which he continues to ignore. They mixed two brands of pellets, so we are awaiting for the second type (roudybush) to arrive.
How safe is it for him to be on a temporary pure corn diet? And is there a limit to how much and often he should eat? I'm afraid he loves the stuff so much that we will overeat. If he is really hungry, he'll run all around his cage and readily jump on me to get me to feed him. And many times if I am attempting to give him something else he will try to bite.
Even though we only have had him for less than a week, we love this little rascal. I want him to be in the best health possible and the two of us would appreciate any advice. As a bonus, I've added a video of him eating his corn. In this one he is being polite. Sometimes he just eats it like there is no tomorrow.
