Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hi! I’m Sarah and I’m here at Extra Care Animal Hospital today, and on behalf of expertvillage.com
I’m going to tell you a little bit about owning a lovebird. When you purchase of adopt
your lovebird, if it’s on an all seed diet it is most definitely possible to convert
your bird to a pellet diet. Birds are creatures of habit and you want to think of them as
little children. If your bird has been on an all seed diet, it’s going to be very
reluctant at first to eat the pellet diet, because of course the all seed diet tastes
better because it’s higher in fat and higher in carbohydrates. When you’re changing your
bird to a pellet diet, you need to do it very gradually. And that is you’re going to be
doing it over a period of anywhere from a month to two months. Sometimes up to three
months if your bird is very stubborn. Generally, younger birds, if you get a baby bird of a
younger bird from a pet store, they convert much easier to a pellet diet than the older
birds do. As far as the recommendations on how to convert your bird, you should consult
with your avian veterinarian and you can do that in your first visit. If you need to look
up a list of qualified veterinarians, you can do so at www.aav.org, which is Association
of Avian Veterinarian’s website. As far as feeding your bird goes, for an average
size lovebird you will be feeding anywhere from one to one and half tablespoons of pellets
a day. That amount may vary depending on the kind of pellet a diet and the size of your
lovebird. It’s always best to consult your avian veterinarian when deciding how much
you will be feeding your bird. As far as your bird’s appetite goes, they may not eat all
the pellets that you put in the bowl that day, so you definitely should throw the pellets
out a the end of the day and put new pellets in there. You don’t want to be just putting
pellets in there and just leaving them for days and days, as this can be possibly harmful
to your bird. The pellets can go bad or be contaminated, so it’s just very important
to only put one day’s rations of your bird’s pellets in there. It’s also good to put
a smaller amount because then your be more closely monitoring how much your bird is eating.
Very often if birds are sick, you’ll see sudden changes in the amount that they eat.
If you are putting smaller amount in there, you’re going to notice that they don’t
eat as much. If you feel that your bird isn’t eating much or if your bird is doing anything
unusual out of the ordinary, definitely contact your avian veterinarian.