Pet Forum / Birds / Parrots / July 2003

"Feed Me!!!" she says, banging on her hanging food dish.

My female tiel Loreena has taken to the habit of sticking her
head into her food dish and banging her beak repeatedly back
and forth against the sides.   She'll do this in the morning before
her seed dish is filled and in the evening when she's hungry
again.   I put just enough (about 2 tablespoons of seed, pellet
mash and dried greens mixture) into her dish twice a day (same
for the male).   She's eating much more than the male and it
seems that before the evening feeding she's banging her dish
a bit early.    She's not undersized, nor is she skinny by any
means, so I know she's getting enough food.   She has access
to lots of spinach, grapefruit, broccoli, raw sweet corn, dry cereal
and a millet spray ALL day.   She eats her share at least of all
those things and still wants more.    The only thing I can think
of is that she was fed on a much different schedule at the store
we bought her at.   Until she's fed (meaning we give in), she'll
stalk around the cage and harass the male, try to destroy her
toys and squawk at me defiantly while hanging on her cage
side.    Put something in her dish and she's an angel again.