Food is served in the cage. This is to keep the rest of the house clean. He knows the instruction "Go Back", so after sitting on your shoulder begging for a chip, he'll fly back to the top of the cage to eat it.
Spikie is vegetarian. No meat, although sometimes a little white fish or tinned tuna. There's no point giving him things he needs to chew, because in case you hadn't noticed, birds don't have teeth!
Spikie always has a supply of fresh bird-seed and water in the cage. This typically includes larger seeds such as sunflower and water melon as well as some hot chilli, although sometime, just sunflower is sufficient. This I supplement with a few extra monkey nuts which he seems to enjoy.
I often drop a half a wooden cloths-peg, stick or twig into the cage to provide something for him to chew on. There are also his toys, which are flavoured and brightly coloured wooden blocks, especially designed for chewing.
His water should be cleaned and refreshed every day, but can be left a few days if away for the weekend. He will sometimes put food such as biscuits or crisps in his water to soften it and remove the salt.
I only 1/4 fill the seed dish, and replace as required (usually every two or three days). If I'm leaving him for a day or two then he gets more.
There is pelleted food available, but he wont touch it. Neither would I !
What he really enjoys is the sort of food we eat.
Corn on the cob he would die for! I get the frozen bags of mini-cobs which I cook in the microwave (in a mug) in about three minutes. Let it cool in water for a few minutes and then chop into 3 or 4 pieces. He then gets a piece a day.
Chop fruit and vegetables up into small pieces. His favourite fruit is banana and pear. His preference seems to be for fairly soft and ripe fruits. Other fruits including apple will get eaten sometimes.
In the summer he has edible berries, but he only gets these outdoors in case they get launched across the room. Raspberries don't look good on the wallpaper! He loves strawberries with cream or ice cream - so he isn't daft!
Vegetable includes anything fresh and crispy: Cauliflower and broccoli florets, carrot sticks, baby corn, peas. I tend to give him raw vegetables, although he does like cooked vegetable too.
No Kiwi or Avocado, as ist's bad for him (don't know why).
All things bread based: Toast, B&B, Pizza, Jam Sandwiches, cheese Sandwiches, Bread sticks. What's strange, is he likes the soft or buttered side, so will often "peal" the bread, leaving a thin slice of dry bread to drop to the bottom of the cage.
He also likes potato in all forms. He likes his chips and will often day "Spikie want chips!" or "Spike want a chip".
He'll usually have a little of what where eating. This includes curry sauce and rice, cheesy pizza, quiche, all types of pasta, salads, beans on toast, and ... well almost anything.
Salad is especially good for him, and he loves his slices of cucumber. That must be one of his favourites, although he cant say cucumber (yet). He likes boiled egg, sweet pepper, chilli, radish, springs of mint, and probably much more.
He also likes cheese (another word he knows). He prefers the soft chesses like Brie to the harder ones. He eats the soft part and drops the rind to the bottom of the cage.
Salt should be avoided, but he does like a few crisps, Bombay mix, or hoola-hoops when I have a packet open. He seems to like most strong flavours, and will normally eat the snacks in preference to anything else.
No Chocolate which is bad for him, but he does like those little white milk buttons. He'll often call out "Chocie" and that's what he's asking for. He also loves chocolate biscuits, and chocolate coated peanuts, but its usually the nuts he's after..
As snacks can be bad for you, the amount he's given is kept quite small.
He doesn't seem to drink much, and when he does, it's usually water.
No - He doesn't like beer and spirits, and certainly should have any!
Whenever the ring pull is pulled on the can he will be there like a shot to see what's going down. If it's a soft drink I'll usually let him have a taster. He seems to like ginger beer - perhaps he likes the strong flavours. If its something he doesn't like, then it gets sprayed from side to side.
Spikie also likes a very tiny glass of milk in the evenings!
Spike will often call out the following when hungry.
Sometimes he'll prefix the word with "Spikie want ...", "do ye' want some ..."
or Spikie want some ...":