Update on the veggie problem

[_Lara _]

After eating a ton of raw veggies infront of them Janis and Jim understood that seeds arents the only food item in the world for them!
They have been eating their greens this morning! I do target training every morning and today instead of millet i gave them salad. They huffed and puffed a lil. Then ate it all!
I so what veggie is the best for lovebirds? I only had salad at home but whatever they like i can get for them.
Also i see that Janis bites the feet of Jim sometimes. I believe she doesn't wanna hurt him with that but Jim screams a lil. He never runs away or attacks her or anything. Is this a common thing?

 

[BirdLady13]

Since there is no single right answer, I'll recommend some fruits and veggies based off of what I've had the best luck feeding my flock of 5: apples, grapes (sparingly because of their high sugar content), bananas, mango, carrots, and broccoli. You didn't specify what your salad is made up of, but I would suggest skipping iceberg lettuce due to its lack of nutritional value. At the end of the day there are tons of fresh food options that are safe for your birds; you just need to figure out what they like and steer clear of the toxic stuff (avocado, chocolate, apple seeds, onion, garlic, etc).

 

[Ripshod]

What lighting are you using there?

 

[_Lara _]

What lighting are you using there?

None, its the sun shining trough my roll down curtains and my room light.

 

[Daanmaz]

I have not had much luck introducing any fruits apart from apple, but my birdies love sweet potatoe, carrots, spinach (I've read somewhere that they can't have too much of that though as it may interfere with calcium uptake or something like that), and other dark green vegetables such as broccoli and dark leavy greens. And persistence is key, they sometimes they needed to have an item in their bowl many many times before all of a sudden deciding it was their favorite. Once they start showing selective preference for 1 item I try not offering it too often so they also keep eat other food items.

 

[derin]

After eating a ton of raw veggies infront of them Janis and Jim understood that seeds arents the only food item in the world for them!
They have been eating their greens this morning! I do target training every morning and today instead of millet i gave them salad. They huffed and puffed a lil. Then ate it all!
I so what veggie is the best for lovebirds? I only had salad at home but whatever they like i can get for them.
Also i see that Janis bites the feet of Jim sometimes. I believe she doesn't wanna hurt him with that but Jim screams a lil. He never runs away or attacks her or anything. Is this a common thing?

thats good!

 

[The_Mayor]

I can't speak to lovies specifically, but cutting the seed "crown" out of a pepper is a great way to make that bridge between eating seeds and vegetables. Even my birds, who came already eating pellets and veggies (as well as seed, of course), started by only eating the seeds from the pepper. Then they'd eat the white stuff that the seeds are attached to, and now they're actually nibbling on the flesh of the pepper as well.

Mine love chard and kale (especially dinosaur kale), broccoli, carrots shopped up into various small shapes, all parts of the fennel as mentioned elsewhere, dandelion leaves. Sweet potatoes, winter squash (but they're too little, weak-beaked to eat the seeds). They'll nibble zucchini/summer squash and cucumbers but I don't think they're really feeling it and since there's so much they do I like, I don't bother unless I happen to be chopping some of those up for myself and then I'll give them some. Basically, just wander through the produce aisle (or a farmer's market if you have one you go to) and keep your phone open with the question "is X safe for parrots?" (I found that if I said "birds" I usually got answers for feeding wild birds).

As others have said, persistence is key. Even my birds have days when they're not feeling it, and there've been times when I've taken an untouched pepper crown out of their dining room. Some days they eat so much rainbow chard you'd think they had chard deficiency, and other days they're not interested. The fact that they reject something once doesn't mean it isn't something they'll never learn to like.

Except for fruit. My birds will typically try the things I offer them, but they just aren't interested in fruit. Just not sweet eaters, I guess.