hello,
ive been trying to find out how many nutriberries to give my 25 year old senegal. he gets 6 currently, but he seems to be hungry all the time. but i suspect he has eaten only the seeds out of these for years and wastes the rest. (he has fatty liver which would also support this. he doesn’t fly) it’s very frustrating to feed him this quality food and for him to still just extract the ‘good stuff’. thanks for your advice.
Hi,
Our diets are made with human grade ingredients, including fresh human grade seeds with the hulls removed. All ingredients are combined and coated with a nutritionally balanced binder, so that each bite contains the nutrition your bird needs, even if he doesn’t eat everything. Fatty liver is a complicated disorder, but it would not be caused by our diets, even if he did only select the seeds. Because our foraging diets are formulated the same as a pellet, he gets the nutrition he needs and will not over eat. Birds only over eat when they are trying to meet their nutritional needs, but are being fed a food that does not provide the right nutrients, such as a loose see mix. Another thing to understand is why they waste food. In the wild, when food is abundant, they pick and choose a select bite of something, and drop the rest. This serves to reseed the environment and feed ground dwelling animals. In captivity, it is simply wasteful. The way to avoid this is to offer less at a time, and only give more when the food is consumed. If dropped pieces are not soiled, put them back in the dish. However, with a senior bird, not everything may be functioning properly. His hunger may be a result of this. At his advanced age, I would let him have as many as he wants. For some birds, 6 a day is perfect. But metabolism and individual needs can very – I have two birds of the same species, but one eats 6 per day and the other eats 12! So again, for your little guy, just make sure he has food in his cage always. You can offer fewer at a time, but give him more when he is done, even if he does waste a lot. At 25, he is quite the senior – most Senegals do not reach this age.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
