Momof3litt
Sprinting down the street
- Joined
- 7/22/21
- Messages
- 514
I recently purchased a bag of Higgins International Cuisine, Inca Bean flavour. My GCC adores it, so now I'm trying to figure out where it fits in a parrot diet. Is it chop? Is it junk food? Is it a supplement?
I feed Argo Harrison's high potency superfine pellets (he is 5 months old) and a variety of veggie chop mixes that I make. He will nibble at birdie bread, but has never eaten a whole serving. He has access to other pellets occasionally (I use TOPS and Roudybush in enrichment toys and he eats them) as well as a small amount of my homemade seed mix and individual safflower seeds for training. His high-value treats are sunflower seeds and nuts (cashews, almonds, pine nuts, pecans). I thought he was eating well, but I've never seen him finish a bowl of anything until he tried the Higgins mix. He was so calm and chilled out afterwards, it made me question the way he has been eating up until now. I know he gets nippy when he's hungry or when he's trying to communicate something to his human flock and he has been nippier this week. I also think he was not enjoying the chop mix I had prepared (frankly I don't blame him, it was frozen and thawed, so a bit too wet). So he wasn't eating as well (although not noticeably - there were no changes in weight) and he was grumpier.
So where does the Higgins-type stuff fit in? I am willing to use it or explore making something similar - the beans must make it more filling - but does it count as chop or is it more of an occasional extra? If you serve something similar, how often do you serve it?
I feed Argo Harrison's high potency superfine pellets (he is 5 months old) and a variety of veggie chop mixes that I make. He will nibble at birdie bread, but has never eaten a whole serving. He has access to other pellets occasionally (I use TOPS and Roudybush in enrichment toys and he eats them) as well as a small amount of my homemade seed mix and individual safflower seeds for training. His high-value treats are sunflower seeds and nuts (cashews, almonds, pine nuts, pecans). I thought he was eating well, but I've never seen him finish a bowl of anything until he tried the Higgins mix. He was so calm and chilled out afterwards, it made me question the way he has been eating up until now. I know he gets nippy when he's hungry or when he's trying to communicate something to his human flock and he has been nippier this week. I also think he was not enjoying the chop mix I had prepared (frankly I don't blame him, it was frozen and thawed, so a bit too wet). So he wasn't eating as well (although not noticeably - there were no changes in weight) and he was grumpier.
So where does the Higgins-type stuff fit in? I am willing to use it or explore making something similar - the beans must make it more filling - but does it count as chop or is it more of an occasional extra? If you serve something similar, how often do you serve it?