Harrison's, does anyone actually do this?

[jbaxter]

Then what it 'sounds like' and what it 'is' are two very different things. My only connection with Harrisons is the fact that I buy their pellets - and jolly good they are too! 

Cheers,
Julie

[Squid]

I would never feed one type of food exclusively, variety is the key x

[deanouk]

Hi,

I'm struggling to get Harley on Harrison's. I'm feeding him fruity Parrot which contains assorted real fruit, cereals, sunflower seeds, exotic fruits. The problem I'm having is that  he mostly eats and picks out the sunflower seeds, nuts, which are fattening. He has fresh fruit daily, and we give him raw / cooked veg etc and occasionally fresh foods that we eat. But i would like him to convert him to pellets, and eat less the fatty stuff.

Regards,

Dean & Kirsten

[Squid]

Hiya Dean, dont worry too much, he has a good diet, and if you go for seed go for Tidymix or prestige african grey mix, chosse a good seed, mine eat harrisons lifetime pepper course as appros 50% of their diet, and they also have a couple of tablespoons of seed in the evening. Try the pepper course, mine loved it first time, and if your having trouble then try some El paso nutriberries to kick start them. I use nutri berries as a treat aswell as a supplement to their diet. Have you got anyway for him to forage? I have a foraging wheel, Eric hasnt used his yet, but echo loves it, so try that, put some pellets in there and see what happens, I put pellets in a couple of compartments and banana chips and seed in the others. I recently spoken to Greg Glendall about my Eric, his advice was to make Eric forage for "ALL" or most of his food, I am still in the process of setting this up, but it certainly will help when your trying to get a bird onto something they wont eat straight away. Work in progress 

[jbaxter]

When I started Jeremy on Harrisons' High Potency pellets I added them to his Tidymix seed - then gradually cutout the seed until he was eating only pellets. At first he would be very wasteful and only eat a tiny bit of each pellet before throwing the rest to the ground. But now he eats the entire pellet and there is little, if any, waste. It just takes patience. 

Cheers,
Julie

[Squid]

Duchess, indeed, I know exactly what you mean, now i am left with dust instead of chunks, keep at it Dean, it does work 

[jbaxter]

Hi Squid, I think think it's because they treat the pellets as seed intiially - which they tend to throw around willy-nilly. Then when they get the hang of it they sort-of ruminate over every pellet - well, at least Jeremy does. 

My finding is that, eventually, the pellets work out quite economical. And, not only that, there's a lot less mess on the floor! 

Cheers,
Julie

[deanouk]

Thanks for the tips, I will try that foraging idea. I'll get the little bugger thinking my way soon 

[tkessel]

When I started Jeremy on Harrisons' High Potency pellets I added them to his Tidymix seed - then gradually cutout the seed until he was eating only pellets. At first he would be very wasteful and only eat a tiny bit of each pellet before throwing the rest to the ground. But now he eats the entire pellet and there is little, if any, waste. It just takes patience. 

Cheers,
Julie

After about 10 days Wuzzie is very accepting of the Harrison's pellets.  She no longer "holds out" until evening, but will eat them starting mid-morning, after she has had a chance to eat a few seeds, some fruit and veggies.  The past 3 days she has be a "clean plater", and  eaten all (approximately) 30 pellets. I find a couple of pellet chunks in the bottom of the cage, but her bowl is empty of pellets in the morning when I go to refill it.  I am throwing away much less stuff than when she was on a primarily seed diet. 

[tkessel]

Have you got anyway for him to forage? I have a foraging wheel, Eric hasnt used his yet, but echo loves it, so try that, put some pellets in there and see what happens, I put pellets in a couple of compartments and banana chips and seed in the others. I recently spoken to Greg Glendall about my Eric, his advice was to make Eric forage for "ALL" or most of his food, I am still in the process of setting this up, but it certainly will help when your trying to get a bird onto something they wont eat straight away. Work in progress 

I am putting Wuzzie's seeds in a bowl outside her cage, to discourage her from tossing all the good stuff out of the way (Harrison's pellets, fruit, veggies) in her regular bowl.  She does have her own priorities on what to eat first.  When the seeds were in with the other things, she tended to fling away a lot of good stuff to get to the few seeds in the bottom of the bowl.  Now she has learned that the seeds are in the little bowl outside her cage, so she doesn't have to fling away the other stuff.  I would like to move her towards a bit more "foraging"  in different areas for different foods.

[Squid]

Duchess    your on my wavelength

Kessel, you have it right, thats the stage I am getting to with my flock, we need to actually think about what we are doing, make them fend for themselves, even is it means them having climb or fly out to get to what they want, foraging doesnt have to mean hiding something, it means they have to do a little work to get it, its not just given to them on a plate, I hope more people think about this way of feeding

[jbaxter]

Squiddy, I know I'm on your wavelength - always have been. 

But even though I don't have as much birdy experience as you, I do soooooooo understand the foraging idea. In fact I have a couple of toys (tiny kongs etc.) that I feel I must make more use of. 

Cheers,
Duchess 

[Squid]

Its really strange Duchess, I have seen Echo, Eric, and my two little ones really enjoy their food when they have had to fend for it, put pellets in a bowl and they sort of pick at it, but put pellets or anything else you want them to eat in some simple plain paper wrapped up like a sweetie wrapper and they go mad for it! 

[tkessel]

put pellets or anything else you want them to eat in some simple plain paper wrapped up like a sweetie wrapper and they go mad for it! 

That is a great idea!