Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a friend who has several neophema splendida, and she has offered me several (4-6) handraised young. They will be ready in about 2 weeks.

I have researched them carefully and have listened to her advice about them, and would like some more input from owners.

I plan on building a large flight cage, but when they are very young I will be keeping them in a 2x2x2 storebought cage.

I want to know what toys they like best and what foods they do best on.

Beth

Okay foods first. They seem to do better on a regular parakeet seed/pellet mixture as a basis for their diet although they need plenty of leafy vegetables and fruit. They seem to like sprouted grasses. You can of course buy the sprouted grasses although growing your own is usually quite simple. Canary grass is a good choice for sprouting. They will usually enjoy millet seed for treats which is good for them as long as they have a wide variety of other foods they are eating as well. Birdie muffins or veggie/fruit skewers seem a good way to introduce more variety into their diet. A cornbread base muffin with baby food vegetables and grated vegetables added usually goes over well but may take several tries before they are accepted. Be patient and keep offering the foods as many people give up quickly and decide since they won't take the food immediately that they never will. It may take several days before a new food is even approached and a little longer before it is actually eaten.

For toys. They seem to like toys made of natural woods especially if you can get them of different varieties and diameters. Fruit tree branches would work great as both perches and cut into shapes and sizes for toys. Making your own toys would work well. They usually also like paper type toys such as adding roll paper. You can either incorporate this into other toys or make or buy a hanger for the paper on its own. Since they do seem to like chewing on the paper this is sometimes a good way to introduce new items. When placing a new toy in the cage sinply tie strips of paper around it or even loosely wrap it in some paper and they will have accepted the new toy by the time the paper is destroyed. Other soft woods are usually a good idea as well. Popsicle stick toys work well but are usually destroyed pretty quickly as long as they are "taught" to play with toys. If you do go with fruit branches or eucalyptus branches make sure they are "clean" and have not ever been treated with chemicals.