quaker not interested in his food!!!!

Question
hey,chrys,my quaker hasn't been recently taking interest in his food,i have been only feeding him brown rice with mixed vegetables,when i used to go to work and come back more than half of his container would be eaten,but now a little less then is eaten by him.Is it because of this that i am been only giving him rice and vegetables?can you please tell me some other healthy food that i can feed him except macaroni   he didn't like did it.THANK YOU

Answer
Hi, Usman.

It could be that the bird is bored with just the brown rice and mixed veggies every day.  Some days my parrots won't eat their carrots, but will eat their other veggies, and the next day they won't eat their other veggies, but will eat their carrots.  This is normal.  You can feed your quaker any type of food that is healthy and nutritious for humans.  Exceptions are chocolate, avocado, citrus seeds, sugar, salt, caffeine, coffee/tea, soda, fast foods, fried foods...foods that aren't nutritious for us are also not nutritious for parrots.  

Parrots won't eat foods they don't recognize as food.  In other words, when you put a new type of food in the bird's dish, the bird doesn't know what the strange stuff is!  Therefore, it can take several offerings of a new type of food before your quaker might try it.  Just keep offering a variety of different types of foods, and try offering foods in different sizes, shapes, etc.  For example, offer apple slices, however, if your bird won't eat them this way, you might need to dice them instead.  Some birds don't like fresh banana slices, but will eat dried bananas.  Kiwi fruit - if the bird won't eat sliced pieces, offer them cubed.  You can also try offering corn bread, different types of nutritious breads (like whole wheat).  

You can offer your bird seed occasionally, as well as offering pelleted food that contains bird vitamins/minerals.  

Sometimes when a bird goes off feed or doesn't eat the same, this could be beginning signs of the bird not feeling well.  Is your bird showing any signs of not feeling well? Also, only provide an amount of fresh food that your bird can consume in an hour or so.  You don't want the fresh food sitting all day growing bacteria after several hours.  Your bird could eat bad food and become ill.  This is another good reason to get your bird used to eating pelleted food...you can leave pelleted food in the cage 24/7 for the bird to eat (it doesn't spoil).  Once your bird has eaten its soft/fresh food, if it gets hungry before you get home from work, it has the pellets to eat.

Chrys