New parrotlet mom

[rescuemom]

Hi! I work with a local animal rescue group and yesterday became the proud mom of two beautiful parrotlets. While I've rescued and raised several exotics such as sugar gliders and work with local wildlife I'm not very familiar with birds.

I've read quite a bit on parrotlets over the past couple of years because I've considered owning a parrot. However; because I rescue sugar gliders I didn't want to bring a large, screaming parrot into the house so as not to terrify the sugar gliders. I've considered a parrotlet, but hadn't had the opportunity to own one. Until yesterday.

I now have what I'm told to be a proven breeding pair. I'm not interested in separating them because they're bonded to each other, but I'm also not specifically interested in breeding them.

The female is blue and the male is green. I'm told they've produced all blue babies. This is all greek to me and I've never ben concerned with genetics, etc. in any of my animals because my main focus has always been rescue.

So, I'm totally open to advice and suggestions on diet, care, etc!

[nar1122]

Welcome to the forum!

You have definitely come to the right place to learn all you need to know about owning a parrotlet. :D

Feel free to jump right in and ask questions about anything.

Are the parrotlets tame? Usually breeding pairs are just wild, but you may be lucky :)

[rescuemom]

They told me they were not tame, but I've got two demon parakeets and these guys seem tame to me....LOL.

In fact; they were just sitting on a perch and I was getting out their bowls to feed them and they let me pet them. I could tell they were trying to bite me, but were not aggressive about it.

I'm really excited about having them. I'm worried about diet. Do you have any good diet links?

[Sally]

There is lots of great advise here! Congratulations! Large flight cage with fun toys and various perches is important. 12 hours of very quiet sleep and a great diet. Welcome!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Sally11/PICT0894490.jpg

[LyndaM]

That's awesome that you adoped them! I just adopted a hahn's macaw who is turning out to be a love.

[rescuemom]

Well, I work with a local wildlife and exotic animal rescue, so what's two more critters? LOL We're currently raising 15 sugar gliders, three flying squirrels a non releasable raccoon, two new puppies, two parakeets and now the two parrotlets....LOL. The more the merrier around here!

They do have a large flight cage and they came with lots of toys, but this morning I went out and spent another $100 on millet spray, a holder, cuttlebone, a good seed food (for both the parrotlets and the parakeets) so we're good to go there.

I think I'm most worried about diet. With the gliders, they get a special diet and then I alternate one night of fruits and one night of veggies. I know birds can't have avacado (my gliders DEVOUR it, but it's only a treat because it's so fattening) I read last night that they can have brown rice and pasta. How much should two birds be getting daily? This morning I filled their seed cup so they could munch on that during the day and I put a treat stick in as well and they were making the rounds to all their new goodies! I'll be fine once I get into a routine and know what they require.

[LyndaM]

Laurie, one thing you should know is parrotlets eat a LOT! At least mine does. I refer to him as my little "pigolet.":)

I feed my guy pellets (Harrisons, Roudybush or Zupreem), good quality seed (with no or few sunflowers), fresh veggies (things high in vitamin A are great as are mustard greens, kale etc.), cooked sweet potato & winter squash (Often used as a base for a veggie/seed mash), millet treats and Beak Appetit or some other such prepped mix.

As for fruit, Otis doesn't really like it much. Personally, I think he's nuts!

Not so great are: avocado, tomato (trouble digesting, so only small quantities), spinach (don't know why, maybe too high in iron?) & citrus fruit. There are good references on this site for things not to feed them.

I want to start learning about sprouting because I've heard it's really nutritious! I also want to start making birdie bread -- haven't done that yet and there are some good recipes on the site.

Oh also, I feed my guys 2 times a day plus some snacks. I'm sure you'll get a lot of resonses to this from very knowledgeable members. I'm following their lead, since I've only had my little Otis since October.

Oh, and if your guys let you pet them, they're tame or well on their way to it! Good luck!

[Pado]

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your new Parrotlets - sounds like you have your hands full :)

There is lots of good information in the forum regarding diet and what different people feed their P'lets
http://www.talkparrotlets.com/showthread.php?p=13551&highlight=diet#post13551 (http://www.talkparrotlets.com/showthread.php?p=13551&highlight=diet#post13551) - this one plus many more (this is the first one I came across).

A varied diet is recommended. Try different item to see what they like.

Mine love:
Broccoli
Carrots
Cauliflower
Strawberries
Apples
A good Cockatiel or small Hookbill seed mix (with low sunflower seeds - I usually pick most out)
A good Organic Pellet ( I use Harrison's ) .... FYI its not recommended to keep P'lets on a Pellet only diet especially the mutations.
Birdy Bread (you can make your own, many recipes on the site - I use Momma's Birdy Bread http://www.mommabird.com/ (http://www.mommabird.com/))

This is just a basic idea - you'll see much more posted: As Lynda said Parrotlets eat a lot for their size.

congratulations again and again welcome -

[rescuemom]

Thanks everyone!! I had read that they eat a lot for their sizes!! Darn, wouldn't ya know it I just bought seed today and it's got a lot of sunflower seeds in it!! Can they not eat them?

[Pado]

Oh yeah they can eat them but they should be limited, mine LOVE them - especially my male but they are very fattening. I learned the hard way, my male went from 32grams to almost 40grams from eating them.

When you start picking them out you realize how many are actually in just a small bird bowl. Just from two or three teaspoons you can get between 10 to 20 - it always amazes me :eek:

[Lizzle166]

Yes! Be careful with the sunflower seeds. I think that's how my late parrotlet Chi-Chi developed her tumor.

[chapala]

Parrotlets need a fairly low fat diet, so a dry seed mix should be mostly grains which are low fat, instead of seeds like sunflower and safflower which are VERY high fat (40+% fat). Canary seed is an exception and is low in fat (7% if I'm remembering right!). Red and white millet, oat groats, quinoa, amaranth, canary seed are all good. I would avoid all the commercial "parrot treats". Fresh, nutritious food - mostly vegetables and some fruit - is very important, especially including high Vit. A food daily. I also feed a cooked grain/lentil/sweet potato mix once a day. The recipe is posted if you search for it, and it can be frozen in ice cube trays, then popped into a freezer bag, defrosted as you need it. One batch (smaller than the recipe I gave since I cook for two bigger parrots plus Cello) will last two months.

Good luck with your new pair!

[Sally]

You can have fun mixing things too. Chipper likes cooked sweet potato and carrots. She loves corn on the cob. I made Beak Appetit, bean mixes, sprout mixes, cooking mixes, like sweet and tasty and others from this site. www.parrotsontheporch (http://www.parrotsontheporch).

I have lots of recipes I have gathered from different places.

I homecook for my little dog and I can use some with her. I made a recipe they can share today. I make them alot. Banana's, sweet potatoes, apple, oats. Easy.

You can offer healthful cereals too, little treats. I make avicakes with oats, wheat chex, topper seed, pellets and oats. I use honey to keep it together and cook low.

I make dried sweet potatoes for both pets.

I give Topper seed to Chipper. She doesn't eat it too often so I can keep it in her cage. If they eat seed all the time, you have to give it less often.

Topper seed has safflower seed and she LOVES it. Millet is always in the cage too of course.

Here is a picture of Chipper eating cookies in her tiki hut. Her beak has cookie on it!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v492/Sally11/Cookies.jpg

[rescuemom]

I went in and picked the sunflower seeds out of the bowl. I must have gotten a pretty good mix because out of a pretty large bowl, I didn't get a whole lot of them and didn't find a bunch of shells where they'd already eaten them. I'm definitely going to make up some of the diet treats. I think my sugar gliders can eat most of them too so that would be awesome. I've got three cages with 15 suggies so when I can combine things it's so much easier!!

Thanks you guys! It was so funny last night, when I was taking out their veggie bowl to put fresh veggies in, they sat on the metal ring and "yelled" at me until I put the bowl back!!