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Roudybush Pellets

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Roudybush Pellets

Postby Michael » Fri Dec 21, 2012 3:01 pm

Roudybush Pellets

This article is about Kili & Truman's pellet of choice, Roudybush, and how I came to the decision to use this as their diet. Photos, videos, and a special cartoon included.
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Re: Roudybush Pellets

Postby CarlosQuaker » Fri Dec 21, 2012 9:42 pm

I agree with you on the "pellets VS vegetables". My Quaker has been on a pellet diet since I got him. I only give him fruit and vegetables as a treat during the day. Thanks for putting this info out there! I'm sure many parrot owners, including myself, will benefit from it :)
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Re: Roudybush Pellets

Postby CaitlinRice413 » Sat Dec 22, 2012 6:41 pm

:hatching:
Last edited by CaitlinRice413 on Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Roudybush Pellets

Postby scvbrad » Wed Apr 24, 2013 6:27 pm

How much do you feed Kili?
We have a very old Umbrella cockatoo who is a picky eater so we leave food for her to forrage through all the time.
I noticed in your time lapse you only feed a set amount. We just welcomed to our family a 14 week old Senegal female Pepper and was curious if leaving her roudybush pellets to pick through or giving her a set amount was better in your opinion.
Thank you in advance for your advice. :senegal: :cockatoo:
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Re: Roudybush Pellets

Postby Michael » Wed Apr 24, 2013 6:48 pm

I don't recommend food managing very young parrots. They are still developing, poor eaters as is, and need the calories. As the parrot matures, food management becomes necessary to prevent it from eating more than it should be eating. When this happens exactly is hard to say but you'll know. I'd guess you want to freefeed pellets to a young Senegal until at least 9 months, then you can go to two unlimited pellet feedings per day till past 12 months. Then if you notice the bird gaining weight over when it was younger, then begin to limit the meal sizes to maintain a suitable weight. To determine suitable weight you will need to consult a veterinarian or schedule a consultation with me. However, until at least 1 years old, you should feed the parrot abundantly and introduce as much variety as possible.
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Re: Roudybush Pellets

Postby TakeFlight » Wed May 08, 2013 7:30 pm

I see you feed Kili 5-10 med. Pellets a serving. But how many servings a day does she get? 2 or 3?
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Re: Roudybush Pellets

Postby Michael » Wed May 08, 2013 7:48 pm

1 or 2. She always gets pellets in the morning and in the evening it's either veggies or pellets after treats or pellets for training. I wouldn't base any other birds portion on this though. Not only are bodies different but mess-factor can vary. Some birds can go through 20 pellets and actually consume less. Kili eats carefully over her dish and doesn't miss a crumb.

You've got to discover the right amount to feed your bird yourself. I wrote about this extensively in my upcoming book which will be out in the beginning of June. In the meantime you can read about why weight management is required for captive parrots.
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Re: Roudybush Pellets

Postby TakeFlight » Thu May 09, 2013 3:10 pm

Thankyou for your reply Michael!

Do you allow your parrots to engage in food foraging for enrichment?
What r your thoughts on this being that you monitor their intake.
I have been under reccomendation. Thoughts?
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Re: Roudybush Pellets

Postby Michael » Thu May 09, 2013 6:40 pm

I think foraging is better than nothing but worse than training. Training is for all intents and purposes the same thing as foraging except the bird interacts with you rather than a toy/device. Training benefits the relationship and molds a better behaved parrot while foraging is purely entertaining feeding for them.

I've also found foraging to be terribly uncontrollable. Sometimes the parrot just can't figure it out (so if you're not providing other food, that can be harmful, if it you are providing other food then it's not sufficiently motivating). Other times the parrot figures it out and gets it too quickly so it's hardly worth bothering with. This makes it difficult to impossible to control or monitor your parrot's food intake.

I did teach my parrots to play with a foraging tower to get a nut but it's more for my entertainment watching them do it than as a useful foraging tool.

So I would recommend foraging activities over nothing at all for people who don't have the time or desire to train their parrot. But then again the amount of time it takes to set up foraging opportunities, you can easily get a few minutes of training in per day. To the parrot, figuring out how to make you give food by lifting its foot (wave) is hardly different than figuring out how to twist a knob on a foraging device. But with the tricks, the parrot looks forward to seeing you, learns not to bite, learns to trust, etc, etc. Why waste that great opportunity?
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Re: Roudybush Pellets

Postby marie83 » Mon May 13, 2013 6:42 am

TakeFlight wrote:Thankyou for your reply Michael!

Do you allow your parrots to engage in food foraging for enrichment?
What r your thoughts on this being that you monitor their intake.
I have been under reccomendation. Thoughts?


Ok I know this question isn't for me but I would like to share how I manage food, fit in training and allow foraging with as much accuracy as anyone else who uses food management techniques.
Training is good of course but sometimes we are not always around and want to motivate our parrots to play with toys etc. in our absence.

Basically I measure out their total food allowance for that day in the morning and split it down into 4 parts. I have small birds so this is quite hard as their food intake is minimal anyway but it is do-able. The 4 parts is, breakfast, foraging toys, dinner and training treats.

In the morning I put their breakfast in and fill their foraging toys with the portion of food I have set aside for this, I leave the toys in all day.

In the early evening is the time I usually do any training, my birds very very rarely don't want to train despite the fact they can potentially eat all the food out of the toys right before training. I've only known Ollie refuse to train once in the past 2-3 years.

In the late evening approx an hour before bed they get their dinner, anything which hasn't been eaten out of the foraging toys gets emptied and put in with their dinner. I only use dry foods in the toys for this reason.

I would say by doing this we don't really get any more waste than any normal food management situation and I still get to weigh exactly anything that is left over at the end of the day.

Please bear in mind that I don't train my birds as intensely as Michael seems to, I don't train every single day, I'm not 100% strict with measuring out every single last crumb of food they get every single day and my birds are on variable schedules which means training sessions aren't always in the early evening etc. but this approach still works for me.
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