Feeding regimen?

[Kestrel]

I'm finding it difficult to pin down a regular feeding regimen that is generally widely accepted as a good choice for a single bird. Here is what I know:

Pellets are good, I should get ZuPreem Avian Maintenance diet for her.
Fresh foods are good, I need dark green veggies and an assortment of varied fruits and seeds.

Pretty much all that I am finding are lists for good foods to feed and bad foods to feed, but not really quantities and frequency.

Are pellets to be left in a cup inside the cage at all times? How often should I feed fresh foods? Am I supposed to pick one fresh thing to feed at a time (IE, like... shredded carrot in the morning, collared greens in the evening, and just kind of rotate what things she eats every day)? Or am I supposed to get a bunch of things, dice them up and toss them together in a "salad" for eating every day? How much seed should I offer? What are popular treats?

I bought a water bottle for my cage. Will she know how to drink from it? Do I need to offer a cup of water? I have a mister bottle for my geckos already, so for baths I figured I would mist her.

What are some of you guys' feeding regimens? What are some foods that are generally most widely accepted by most birds, and at the same time, offer balanced nutrition?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[Aly]

Mine are on a seed, veggie, fruit, etc diet. They don't get pellets that often just because I like them to get fresh things. Their seed stays in their cage at all times since they always pick at it. Fresh water and food is something they should always have. Their veggies and fruit stay in their cage about an hour and I remove them before I leave for work. I vary them daily and do a chopped salad type of thing on a little plate. Sweet peas, green beans, carrot, brocolli, sweet pepper (with seeds), corn, bok choy, strawberries, rasperries, blueberries, sweet potato...whatever we have around. They also occasional foods like hard boiled egg about once a month. Other things that they eat would be grilled fish and chicken, corn on the cob and that's about once a week when they sit with us at the table. As far as their treats, they love fresh parsley springs , also chilli peppers (I also cut a small hole in them and stuff them with nutri berries which they love since it turns into an edible toy. They also like millet, birdie bread, peanuts and honey seed sticks. Keep things intresting, double check to make sure it's safe, pick snacks that are healthy for them as well as fun. Foraging is important for their health so think like a tiel and make up different ways of feeding.

Any questions, just ask!

[Bea]

My guys are on a similar diet to Aly's. :) No pellets here, simply because they're expensive and a pain in the you-know-what to find in Australia. Each tiel gets 2 tablespoons of seed each day, so in my cage which has 4 tiels there are two seed bowls each with 4tbs seed in them. Very little seed gets wasted by measuring seed out.

For vegetables i provide them with birdie layered salad.
http://www.aviannetwork.com/articles/salad.htm
They all LOVE this salad, it's super easy for me to make (i'm majorly lazy, so 20mins veggie prep time each week suits me fine) and it keeps really well. They get lots of variety each day this way as well which i like.

[skthurley]

I love that hot pepper idea! I'll have to try that with my parrotlet!