Hi,

My husband and I are new to bird ownership and have aquired a Macaw whom, we are told, is relativly young. They say that they can tell this from the length of his tail feathers and that his color hasn't fully come in yet.

Anyway, we've had him for about a month now. When we first got him he would eat pineapple, pears, fresh mango & bananas. No seeds, dried corn or anything like that. Now, he wont eat anything but bananas! Everything else gets tossed on the ground. I don't know if he would eat the mango as it's not mango season where we live and they are unavailable.

I'm concerned that he's going to be overloaded on potassium and that he's not getting enough of the other vitamines & nutrients he needs. I've tried a variety of foods and have kept bananas from him but as hungry as I think he gets, he still holds out for the banana.

We do not have any bird specialists available to us where we are so perhaps there is someone in this forum who can suggestion something?

Thanks!
Morgan

Look up on the net how to make birdie bread, try that.... If you can't find it post so and i'll let you know...

I just posted this for another person http://www.featherlustfarm.com/store.htm if you can call her give her a call. The owner is very good. My conure came from her store and I just recently brought him in to her to be looked at for his feather picking.

YeeeeeeeeHawwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!

ok, heres something you can try, take him out and take other food like fruits and vegis you would eat and show it to him and then take a bite to show him he can eat it. then put it in front of him to try it keep doing this until he tries it and teep working with him until he at least tries it. then if that doesnt work have the bananas in one dish then seeds and other sorts in another. figure out how much he eats in one day and slowly reduce the amount you give him a day just enough to make him a little hungry, and keep this up until you see him eat the other food just a little, even a nibble, then start reducing it more, so then he will eat his seeds and other sorts. it souuld work an avain vet once told me to do this when i was swiching my birds over to pellets instead of seeds. it works, depending on how stubborn the bird is it might take any where from 2 weeks to a month. but it should work.

quote:

then take a bite to show him he can eat it. then put it in front of him to try it

Shadow the only problem with that is there is bacteria in our saliva that can be deadly to a bird. You should never let a bird eat off something that you have eaten, you should also never let a bird nibble on your lips and such. Instead of letting the bird eat off the piece that your eating, let them eat directly out of the bowl.