Merlin & I are fighting!!!!

Its week 2 of the diet makeover in our house. We have had numerous dumping of the pellets & veggie bowls, days of constant screaming, days that mommy is not his favorite person anymore. I've heard that you can't out stubborn an amazon & I'm believing it.

I have eliminated the seeds during the day, he's allowed seeds for breakfast & b4 bedtime. The seeds are out of site the remainder of the day. Fresh veggies & pellets (including occasional nutriberry) are available all the time. He is no longer eating pellets at all, ignors the veggies most of the time. He won't even eat the veggies that he previously liked. I don't think that he is eating anything during the day, he is drinking water, so I'm not worried yet. I thread kale & greens threw his cage bars, thks SB! I put pieces of carrots in his favorite eggs. This week he will not touch it.

Am I on the right course? Anybody have any ideas.

Did you gradually switch over or just did it right away?

I have for the past couple of months tried to gradually increase pellets & decrease seeds. I think my husband may have interferred w/this. But 2 weeks ago I just did it. He is still getting seeds, but they are limited to am & pm.

Have you tried "monkey biscuits" they're sweeter than pellets and sometimes make a good transition food, have tried wetting the pellets? just don't leave them out for more than an hour be cause they spoil quickly. good luck

What are monkey biscuits? I have wet the pellets & hand fed him.

They're like monkey treats , like dog treats.Treat them like a chew toy and he'll get used to chewing them up and the taste of dry food, which is a lot of your issue.

oh the joys a food tantrums!!! good luck i still get them with nut, she'll eat her pellets every now an again, and other time throw them all out of her bowl, cage etc

I know, at least he's making up w/his daddy. We've been having territorial issues lately. Right now daddy's the favorite. He's been really sweet today, I was out for a few hours so I don't know if he ate his pellets. We will continue....

hows this going?

I just did this switch with Nacho (was surprisingly easy for me, but then shes a pretty easy going girl).

I decided to go with "Natures Best - Special Parrot" as a base diet for the switch.

She was previously on another version by the same brand, but it had sunflower seeds (which i use as treats, so i had to pick them out all the time) and no pellets or fruit. (dont judge, this is how she came to me. she did get fresh fruits and veggies in addition though)

with the special parrot mix they add in a a 50% mix of pellets (brightly coloured, for now) and dried bits of fruit, while taking out the fatty goodies like sunflower seeds and peanuts.

I offered this in her main bowl and her old mix in another bowl placed inconveniently in her cage and it was only two days before she stopped bothering with the old mix.

it took a few weeks before she started trying the pellets (remember, still seed in the bowl), but now she is eating them just as readily as the rest of the seed.

given her weight, the vet said to continue a similar base diet with her unless she starts getting chubby, so I'm not going for the 100% pellet diet, but the next move will be to move to the same mix but with undyed pellets.

She also gets a cooked diet meal or fruit every other day and a bowl of green veggies daily.

as far as the territorial issues, bear in mind its starting to get warm again so the hormones are surging. make sure he's getting 12 hours at night. When nacho starts getting a little feisty I'll usually give her a few days of 12.5 or 13 hours a night and she calms down.

let us know how it progresses!

Mike

Its still going... I'm still allowing him seed only am & pm. He has starting eating his veggies again, but he still looks @ me like I'm punishing him. I also give human grade dried fruit (organic). I've never had good luck w/him on fruit, theres something about the texture he doesn't like. He loves dried banana chips, but will only put his tongue on a banana. He's very picky. I caught him eating pellets the other day & I told him good boy & he tried to pick up the bowl to throw it. lol He's a man w/strong opinions about what he eats. But I'm going to try to stubborn him out, he's not really suffering. He just thinks he is.

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Merlin's one stubborn bird!!!! You know you got that bird rotten just admit it.

I admit it. The world here just revolves around him. lol

I just knew it!!! LoL!

red heads are such drama queens...

Nacho and I have been working on harness training and when i put it on her you'd think she was moments from death. five minutes later (harness still on) she doesnt remember a thing.

good luck!

Wow, I'm impressed. I haven't had the courage to try a harness yet. Merlin rarely bites me (bites me hard), but I imagine that might be one of those times. I'm home this summer, so I might have to work up the courage. It would be great to be able to take him outside w/o his cage. He would love it & I wouldn't feel bad about being in the garden so much.

I am supposed to be a smart person, but sometimes I wonder. This morning after cleaning off the floor the 100th bowl of fruit pellets, I thought "MAYBE HE DOESNT LIKE THESE ANYMORE". I went to the petshop & bought Zupreem (dont beat me up, Beckley doesn't have the variety you guys have) Avian Entrees. They are a spicy pellet w/dried peppers & tomatoes. Guess who is sitting @ the table & eating PELLETS???? I hope its not a fluke, I'm ready to give up. Its way too hard to fight him & for some reason my husband is on his side. Tom eats more junk food than he should maybe empathy???

Demonspawn is actually eating pellets right now. We had a little health scare a couple of weeks ago, so I backed off on the pellets. I just included them in his seeds, he ate the seeds & left the pellets. I even counted them... Then I felt like it was starting over again. He did steal a strawberry out of a basket today. So he's a little more flexible. Still we are still getting bowls of pellets & veggies thrown daily. He started a little trick of flying w/the offensive pellet bowls & bombing areas away from his cage. lol

Wow and to think I get slightly annoyed when food hits the floor outside the cage. I can't imagine getting bombed with the entire food bowl!!!

Demonspawn, LOL!!

Hang in there!!

Some signs of progress today. I skipped his seed brkfst & left a 1/2 cup of carrots & broc, fresh. He actually ate the whole bowl. He's always ate these, but more just tasting rather that consuming. Still not a big fan of pellets, he will eat them occasionally. He has been going hungry the past couple of weeks during the day, holding out for seed dinner.

Anyone w/a baby bird, go thru this now while they are still trying new things. Its a real trial to break bad habits.