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The white rice is not an everyday thing. If she wants to pick at my plate and enjoys it, she can have it. As long as it's not bad for her. Like I read that regular lettuce has no nutritional value. She ate that too. She is getting plenty of nutrients elsewhere, so I don't mind giving her stuff that she likes as long as there is no harm in it.

Eating is a very social thing with me and Casper. It is the together time and the bonding that I enjoy with her.

Paca,

I will have to disagree with you on the white rice. It does have nutritional value in the form of carbs. If it weren't for rice, many Asian nations people would have starved after WWII. Rice is the "bread" of those nations. My wife is Japanese.. and she'll argue with you till death about rice As for the nutritional value of rice for birds, they can utilize carbs much in the same way as we do, forming simple sugars out of the carbs. Depending on how you cook rice determines how nutritional it is. Rice that is cooked so dry till it won't stick together IS pretty much useless as most of the starch is washed away or cooked away, but traditional asian cooking methods keep all the starches on and in the rice grains. Brown rice is not really a rice in the first place. It's more of a wild seed than true rice, ditto with what is called "wild rice", which IS a seed.

Sam

chibi-tori wrote:Paca,

I will have to disagree with you on the white rice. It does have nutritional value in the form of carbs. If it weren't for rice, many Asian nations people would have starved after WWII. Rice is the "bread" of those nations. My wife is Japanese.. and she'll argue with you till death about rice As for the nutritional value of rice for birds, they can utilize carbs much in the same way as we do, forming simple sugars out of the carbs. ...

You're absolutely right, Sam, no argument. I should have said I was talking strictly avian nutrition. The problem is that carbs are hard on avian livers if the bird's liver is even slightly overtaxed. And tiel livers too often are. Petite little Woody might have a healthy liver, but since brown rice offers so much more nutrition, why feed him or any bird white rice instead? Does that make sense? I'm rushing to an apptmt so will try again later if I've been too brief.

Paca

thanx for all the ideas you guys!! but i have another question, do you guys know the Kaytee Exact Rainbow food? are they considered pellets? because i just got my cockatiel to eat it and he likes it a lot and it would be so great if they are pellets, i would be sooooo happy!

Yes, it's a pellet:

http://www.petsolutions.com/Cockatiel+E ... 41-C-.aspx

Now that your tiel is eating a pellet, you might want to keep experimenting with even more nutritious food. Many feel that the dyes that produce those rainbow colors are harmful. You could buy a small bag of pellets in natural color and mix a few into each day's helping of the Kaytee. Count them so you'll know when your bird begins eating some. Many tiels love Roudybush pellets.

Paca

ParrontPlus wrote:Yes, it's a pellet:

http://www.petsolutions.com/Cockatiel+E ... 41-C-.aspx

Now that your tiel is eating a pellet, you might want to keep experimenting with even more nutritious food. Many feel that the dyes that produce those rainbow colors are harmful. You could buy a small bag of pellets in natural color and mix a few into each day's helping of the Kaytee. Count them so you'll know when your bird begins eating some. Many tiels love Roudybush pellets.

Paca

thank you so much for answer, it was sooo helpful! i'll try to get something without the dyes Asap!


~~
andrea and peaches!

Well done Parront Plus!

I've just ordered some Kaytee - so hopefully my fids will try it!!! So far I have tried Rhoudybush with NO joy at all. In fact they kick it out of their cage to share with the birds in the garden ... cheeky monsters!! And I've also tried Pretty Bird - a little more success, but not much! Everynow and then they will pick one up, keep it in their mouth and walk over to me as if to show me ... 'look mum, we do eat them!! Honest!!'

Well done Parront Plus!

Oops! Just read back ... should have been Well Done andrearose!!

I had tried the Kaytee pellets earlier on with no success, but just for kicks, I tried the parakeet size pellets, and there seems to be more interest in them than the Lafebers now. I'm going to try the Lafebers parakeet size pellets next time and see how it goes.

My tiel was was on those kaytee pellets mixed with seed at the pet store, and I pretty much have him off that now. He loves the Lafebers pellets and the ones I give him are in the smaller parakeet size---he took to them right away, so now I give him that plus a seed mix that has no sunflower seeds in it---but I still give him sunflower seeds as a treat. If he wasn't so petite I would probably cut those sunflower seeds right out.