I don’t know about you all, but it’s been a hard summer, for me—like, generally, not specifically in relation to Luxie. Though her getting sick is a straw in the pile on the camel’s back, so-to-speak. Related: you know Seasonal Affective Disorder that some people get in wintertime? Apparently, there’s a summer version
”It okay dadther, i loves you and the millets you give me whether you are sad in summer or not”
But I am on the upswing (probably in part because we’re moving into fall), and with that comes me doing some fall cleaning, baking (having an actual working oven helps too), and taking stock of some long-term goals for Luxie’s health.
Got a grape-branch perch recently for Luxie from an Etsy sale. She‘ll sit on it occasionally, but not much right now. Maybe if I find a way to get a toy near one of those branches…
Specifically, I’ve noticed that Luxie hasn’t been eating her pellets anymore. Historically, when she’s hungry but out of seeds, she’s made her way to the pellet bowl and eaten from there, but she’s stopped doing that. I was preparing some food for her the other day, and when I smelled the pellets, they smelled—rancid. If you’ve ever had grains go bad, you know the smell I’m talking about. Luxie seems to have known they had gone bad long before I noticed.
Here’s the thing—Harrison’s used to have a suggestion on their website to mix Red Palm Oil with their pellets. I did this with my first batch, and all seemed fine. When I got my second bag, I needed to look up the ratio of palm-oil-to-pellets that I had used. I found at that point that Harrison’s had removed the suggestion from their website, as far as I can tell. I did manage to find an archived version of the suggestion, and mixed up the pellets again. Luxie was exceptionally interested in eating them when they were fresh, so I think the palm oil was doing its appealing job. However, at this point, I don’t quite know whether it was the palm oil or it was the pellets themselves that went bad, and my confidence in the mixture has waned with this recent pellet rancidness plus the disappearance of the suggestion from the Harrison’s website.
So this is the thing that’s been weighing on me of late about what to do next. Order more Harrison’s and do smaller batches of the palm oil mixing? Skip the palm oil entirely? Or try a different kind of pellets?
Me contemplating pellets. Luxie stretching.
I ultimately decided to give a new kind of pellets a try, since I was worried she wouldn’t eat plain Harrison’s due to previous experience with those that had gone bad, and I have to do a cross-country Harrison’s order if I am going to get new pellets. Instead, I decided to see how she liked the Zupreem fruit-blend pellets that many here on the forums have had success with. I like many here are not keen on the sugar content I’ve heard they have, but it also seems like there is a greater number of positives than negatives for them.
When I got Luxie, the pet store had given me a sample of the Zupreem, and they
were the budgie-sized ones (“for Small Birds”). BUT Luxie never touched them. They’re too big. I’ve seen on the forum the Canary-sized (so “for Extra Small Birds” size) ones work much better for budgies. According to this week’s experience, this is absolutely true. Luxie was eating the Zupreem within one meal, and I see her back at the pellet bowl regularly now. Her poop has turned significantly browner, more than I’ve seen even with the Harrison’s, which is also a good sign in that it means she is actually eating enough pellets to make a nutritional impact.
Note the corn that has been dropped into the pellet bowl. She loves to eat her corn “take-out” style, carrying it with her all over and dropping them frequently anywhere but on the plate.
Luxie also seems to really like the sweet potato “dig sites” I make for her. I press corn, Harrison’s mash, pellets (now Zupreem), and seeds into the sweet potato and specifically mix it so she’s got to dig for the seeds. I saw a mention on a casual bird group that budgies specifically can enjoy digging; it makes me think of some forum members having forage boxes, or bead/toy boxes for their budgies to dig through. (I did make a little button pile for Luxie to play with recently, but she had zero interest.)
With regards to the sprouted seeds themselves, I’ve also recently tried letting them soak two days instead of one. Luxie seems to eat them more thoroughly if I do that—she seems to really like chewing on the wild rice in particular, and it gets softer and kind of “bursts” more if it is soaked for two days. She also seems more interested in the lentils if they’re soaked longer. I wonder if I should try cooking the lentils instead.
Next on the agenda: Quinoa. Maybe after this week’s heat wave, though 😑 I also have in the queue trying the Twin Beaks Aviary Herb Salad mentioned in many places here on the forum.
Luxie proudly showing off her “morning poop.” “Here’s what I think about your heat, summer”
