Food and Appetite???

[cgreenaway]

This is going to be my first time owning a parrotlet and I have some questions about their eating habits. I know that my lovebird eats about 3x as much as my cockatiel and I want to know if parrotlets are also big eaters and I should be prepared to offer him lots of food on a daily basis? I have gotten some ZuPreem Fruit Blend for him and I'm ordering some Harrisons as well because I know he's on seed and I plan to switch him over. Any information you can offer about how to feed him and what I might offer him would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Bokkapooh]

My p'let eats about 2.5-3 tablespoons a day. Not sure, but I would guess around that much

 

[Anneka]

Plets eat a lot. Some are almost obsessed with food.
I'd suggest not to feed him pellets, esp. the colored ones (there is some info about that online).

 

[HelenVanessaDavies]

Pepe looooves his food. He has seed & harrison's pellets.
I can't put my finger on how much he eats but I can say that he does waste alot of food too.

 

[Milo]

Milo eats the zupreem colored pellets, they're the only ones I've been able to get him to touch and our vet says they're just fine. The issue is with some color mutation plets and pellets, but it's just a recommendation and I don't think any concrete research has been done on the issue. It's controversial and a personal choice.

As for the amount of food, I offer Milo 1.5 tsp of pellets, 0.5 tsp of seeds, and then about two tablespoons of fresh stuff per day. My suggestion would be to start out with a couple tablespoons of food and go from there, if he doesn't eat all of it then you can cut back little by little to minimize waste =)

 

[Evelyn]

The only pellets mine get are in Nurtiberris, as a treat. If you P'let is a baby please keep millet in its cage for the first month. They have been know to regress when getting a new home. I have heard about to many staving theirselves to death, try to keep the same food as the breeder has been feeding , as they don't reconize new food as food, try new foods along with their regular, don't start them on something that is strange to them without what they know to eat. Good luck and Congrats !

 

[Milo]

Just read that the little guy is on seeds, be very very careful to monitor weight and food intake when you make the switch. The system that I used on Milo (and he was a stubborn booger) was to measure out how much food he ate, and then started replacing it a 1/4 of a tsp at a time. Once he was finishing that, then I went to a 1/2 tsp pellets to 1.5 tsp seeds, and so on. Let the plet set the pace, there will be waste to begin with, just be more stubborn than the plet!

 

[cgreenaway]

Thanks. I'll try and make sure my friend tells me exactly what he's eating and the brand so I don't switch him too soon. According to the pictures I've received his weight looks fine but I'm more worried about the lack of toys in his cage. I have set up the largest cage with lots of toys and exciting things to do but I don't want to overwhelm him either. I know they are extremely intelligent birds and need lots of enrichment in their lives. Also would you recommend a happy hut or not for a male plet? I did order some Harrison's pellets and I have some of the ZuPreem pellets so I'm going to slowly introduce him to a mixture of those two and hopefully he takes to them like my other birds have. But I do have lots of millet so I will make sure that is always available to him as well.

 

[Milo]

I'm not sure about the huts, but Milo adores swings and toys made out of rattan or loofah material! Admittedly he didn't play with many toys until Bartleby showed him how. Now he's a tiny shredding machine!

I wanted to add that a lot of plets can be picky about the size of food, I have to make sure the fresh stuff is chopped up pretty fine or he won't touch it! Picky booger

 

[HelenVanessaDavies]

I've just got a hut for Pepe, haven't put it in yet!
Pepe LOVES bells and textyres and food!