Eating

[InTheAir]

I have been pretty amused lately by watching different responses my boyfriend and I get from the birds when we are eating.
When I eat, the birds will usually take a knee each to sit on and I give them little tidbits. It didn't take much effort to teach them that is the easiest way to score my food.

When Dave eats both birds dive into his plate or climb down his shoulder to intercept the food before it gets to his mouth!

They definitely know how to work us!

[liljo202]

I have been pretty amused lately by watching different responses my boyfriend and I get from the birds when we are eating.
When I eat, the birds will usually take a knee each to sit on and I give them little tidbits. It didn't take much effort to teach them that is the easiest way to score my food.

When Dave eats both birds dive into his plate or climb down his shoulder to intercept the food before it gets to his mouth!

They definitely know how to work us!

Their sure do Their so smart liljo202

[TiffandKari]

That's so sweet and clever

[AJPeter]

How does David react to having IRN for dinner? Did you traing them ot sit on your knees?

[InTheAir]

How does David react to having IRN for dinner? Did you traing them ot sit on your knees?

Of course I trained them, their natural response to humans eating is to mob the person, hence why Dave has such fun
Simply put: I just targeted them or stepped them up to my knees and shared my food with them there only whenever they flew over to raid my plate. There obviously is a bit of timing involved in the treat dispensing, so they understand that they will only be rewarded for being there.
If Sapphire is intimidating Nila off my knees, then Nila is allowed to perch on my shoulder if he sits nicely and leaves my mouth and cutlery alone.
Most of the time I have breakfast and lunch while sitting on a beanbag, so my knees make good perches.

When we have dinner with them they have their own plates at the table.

[pards007]

If only we could train em to cook!

[AJPeter]

How different they are from each other, Billie sits on the door of her cage and breathes down my neck until l pass her some morsel, but she really enjoys eating her porridge (made with water) off a spoon which I hold for her in that way she lets me eat my porridge made with milk, golden syrup, plus extra sugar nuts and raisons, the whole thing sprinkled with grape nuts.
Dinner time she gets her own bowls of raw veg and cooked veg, swede is a favourite both cooked and raw but the high light of her day is a little taste yogut off the tip of a teaspoon, but alas l have to put her on a diet, she has swelled up like a babboon and smells like one too!

[Donovan]

So I read this wrong at first glance, got a kick out of it

I have been pretty amused lately by watching different responses my boyfriend and I get from the birds when we are eating.

I read it as responses we're getting from birds we're eating. you're not raising irn's for chicken tenders are you?

and then:

When Dave eats both birds

okay, sorry, i'm done now haha


alright.. on feeding birds from your plate... I'm getting a new bird soon and I'm not going to make the mistake of teaching it that my food is an option. Mr. Bell once stole a whole pork chop from me. A piece of meat bigger than him and he flew off with it, for a couple feet then dropped it on the floor. Plus I don't always eat stuff that a bird should have. When I get the new bird I am going to attempt to make it like seed sprouts which is supposedly the mother of all health foods.

[InTheAir]

Donovan, I actually eat suitable food to share with my birds. It's a good way to encourage them to eat their greens.
And I very much doubt that I am the first person on this forum to use incorrect punctuation or forget a crucial comma occasionally.

[MissK]

Liking to share with birds is a good way to get humans to eat better foods as well.........

[Donovan]

InTheAir, i wasn't criticizing I promise.. i was just entertaining myself really ..

[pards007]

Since I'm a new IR owner you've given me food for thought on this one - bad huh?

[AJPeter]

MissK reckons we should sample our bird's food, but l have to say that l am not keen on millet.

I do not allow Billie to eat off my plate, she has to sit on the door of her cage and breath down my neck, l can hear her gasp as the best morsels go down the hatch. Sometimes l relent and feed her a spoonful.

[sanjays mummi]

We have Starlings in town who brazenly accept food from my hands. Sanjay adores yogurt, especially Greek style with honey and nibbles it from my finger. I am sure the check out assistant at my supermarket thinks I eat an uber healthy diet, from the amount of fresh fruit and veg I buy. Most of it goes down Sanjays little red road!.

[AJPeter]

Billie enjoys Greek style honey yogurt too Sanjay's mummi but Asda did not have our favourite brand and put some twin pots on the shelf l offered some to Billie but she just turned her nose up at it and again l offered her some twin pot tonight but she ignorred me. It was a different story with the shepherds pie, l put some in her dish and she ate the lot!

Starlings make a horrible mess with their droppings, just like Mynah birds.

[sanjays mummi]

They are a lot cuter than pigeons though!, and lovely colours in their plumage, Sanjay can be a fuss pot, if I dont get the right "sort" of walnuts he chucks them over the side, and I thought a walnut was a walnut!.

[AJPeter]

You are lucky Billie won't touch walnuts, does not like brazils, doesn't know what to do with hazel nuts will only bite almonds if l persisit in picking them up after she has thrown them on the floor. She hates peanuts l have not tried any others. She does not like her porridge sprinkled with grapenuts either/

We do not have many small wild birds around here the cats get most of them. But the cats do not touch the magpies, gulls, crows, pigeons/

[sanjays mummi]

Sanjay Loves walnuts, and Peanuts in their shells. He wont eat Brazil, Hazel, or Almond nuts.

[MissK]

Rocky won't have Hazelnuts either, but Ranchild's Quaker just loves them. Rocky's fave seems to be Pecans, but I confess they may be his fave because I love them too, so they're most of what I buy...... He does so enjoy prising Pistachios & Almonds from the shell, but the little scamp needs the shell cracked first or he drops them. Now just WHERE did he learn to be so LAZY????

[AJPeter]

Bille has gone off yogurt wont touch the stuff now. She does not like Tesco Corn on the Cob either. Still wont eat peanuts, but quite likes raisons in her porridge. Her tastes change all the time.

[sanjays mummi]

Typical, fickle female!

[ranechild]

The most prized nut in the the house is definately the pistachio. Everybody likes them.

Yesterday Fats tried to drink my beer as I brought the bottle to my mouth--ugh. I had to put him away.
Camo the QP will drink out of a glass--water, juice, milk. He will stick his head all the way in if he needs to. Fats sticks his head in the glass and starts talking. He could care less about the juice.

[MissK]

Do you think he would have drunk it or just hollered "Drink! Drink! Drink!" for the echo effect?

[Donovan]

My bird likes licking condensation from cold beer bottles and glasses. I guess he thinks he's getting what I'm getting.

[AJPeter]

Try the new sensation parrot flavoured beer!

I have Billie well trained she has her own bowls and does not come on my table. If l am eating something she wants she stands on the cage and leans forward and make a big song and dance until l give in and give her a bit. She has discovered that her portion of porridge does not have Golden Syrup in it and she sits sqwaking until I mix a little of my porrdge into her bowl.

She has turned her nose up at the pomegranit so l tried a little. YUK!!!! Its ghastly no wonder she wont eat it but just to prove me wrong she ate it tonight.

I love the ways she yawns, she opens her beak and waggles her tongue, makes me want to yawn too.

[sanjays mummi]

We had a German Shepherd who liked beer, especially lager. We were at an outside show one day,my husband put his glass on the ground beside him, where we were sitting, and she sank the lot!, sailed around the show ring on a cloud and won her class!. I don't drink beer, but I love fruit flavoured cider now and then, Sanjay is Not getting a look in!. Last year there was an article about some inebriated wild parrots, in Parrot magazine, they had snacked on fallen fruit which had gone over. In the picture they appeared to be leaning against each other!.