african grey switching over to a complete pellet diet

Question
Hi, my parrot Ruby is nearly 5 months old.  Ive recently purchased a training video which recommends a complete pettet food and a training food diet, but offers no information on what to do.  Any advice would be grateful.

Ruby has bonded with my husband, but tends to ignore me, even bite me on occassion.  Do you have any suggestions on how to develop my relationship with her

With regards

Yvonne

Answer
Hello Yvonne,

Congratulations on your new pet! My first question to you is has your bird been seen by an avian veterinarian? I am concerned that this behavior is due to an illness, especially since you say she is not on a healthy diet. If you have not already done so please make an appointment with your avian veterinarian immediately.

A healthy diet consists of pellets, fresh fruits and veggies provided daily. Nuts and seeds should be used for training or as treats only. If the video recommends pellets only as a complete diet I will outright disagree with this. Parrot diets are much more complicated than that. They also need a variety of fresh fruits and veggies.

If your avian veterinarian has declared your bird healthy, then at this age your bird is mostly likely biting out of fear or because she has been trained to bite. Training sessions will help you build a trusting reletionship with her.

Here are some links to my past answers that will help you understand her behavior and about training.

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Parrots-1638/Timneh-Parrot-Please-help.htm

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Parrots-1638/facing-problem.htm

Since you sound like you are new to bird owning I highly recommend that you conintue your own parrot education. In fact, never stop learning about parrots, this is the best thing you can do for your bird. Here's some resources to start:

1. Buy the book The Companion Parrot Handbook by Sally Blanchard.
2. Subscribe to a monthly magazine such as Bird Talk.
3. Visit my website, I have several excellent links to parrot resources.

Best wises,

Jennifer
www.feathersandscales.com