advice on getting parrot to eat fruits/veggies

[lettie]

my parrot shows no interest in fruits or veggies.

i put bananas in his cage, in a little tray, but he shows no interest.

i have read the advice on eating it in front of them, but he's too scared if i get close to let him see i'm also eating it.

he was on a mixed seed diet when i got him, so he really only shows interest in seeds.

right now i have him on a nutriberries diet.

how could i get him to eat?

he doesn't even really look at the tray. should i try mixing it into his food? but then i would have to throw his food away after 2-3 hours. so if he doesn't touch it, it's kind of a waste of his food and the fruits. :C

 

[Scott]

Try preparing identical bowls of veggies/fruits and begin eating from yours. Be really demonstrative, making "mmmmm" sounds and bob your head. A good chance your IRN will be tempted to try his. Be consistent and don't give up!

Try this from a reasonable distance and gradually decrease until next to him. You'll need to try a wide variety as most will initially be shunned.

 

[ChristaNL]

Hang them up like toys.


Leafy greens make gread shredding toys and for fruit&vege you can buy (or make) those kebab-like contraptions.
(A long spike where your spear fruit and veges on and hang from the ceiling or the bars)


LOL the first time I offered Japie some very large green leaves, he threw them down and afterwards was parading endlessly all over them on the bottom of his cage...having a blast! Not eating but so much fun. He loves the feel of the leaves under his feet.

That is when I learned to pin them in place for him - he does not want to hold them with his foot, but loves to shred.
(I use wooden clothespins sometimes - he also shreds those, but stay there when they play - the metal is not completely parrot-approved or safe)

 

[lettie]

Try preparing identical bowls of veggies/fruits and begin eating from yours. Be really demonstrative, making "mmmmm" sounds and bob your head. A good chance your IRN will be tempted to try his. Be consistent and don't give up!

Try this from a reasonable distance and gradually decrease until next to him. You'll need to try a wide variety as most will initially be shunned.

this is a great idea! i'll definitely try this. he always eats when i eat at my desk, so i will definitely give this a try

 

[lettie]

Hang them up like toys.


Leafy greens make gread shredding toys and for fruit&vege you can buy (or make) those kebab-like contraptions.
(A long spike where your spear fruit and veges on and hang from the ceiling or the bars)


LOL the first time I offered Japie some very large green leaves, he threw them down and afterwards was parading endlessly all over them on the bottom of his cage...having a blast! Not eating but so much fun. He loves the feel of the leaves under his feet.

That is when I learned to pin them in place for him - he does not want to hold them with his foot, but loves to shred.
(I use wooden clothespins sometimes - he also shreds those, but stay there when they play - the metal is not completely parrot-approved or safe)

ooo great idea. kiwi loves shredding, so this might actually work! ^_^

do you know what is safe to use to hang leafy greens from his cage?

 

[chris-md]

Try preparing identical bowls of veggies/fruits and begin eating from yours. Be really demonstrative, making "mmmmm" sounds and bob your head. A good chance your IRN will be tempted to try his. Be consistent and don't give up!

Try this from a reasonable distance and gradually decrease until next to him. You'll need to try a wide variety as most will initially be shunned.

Also understand that according our overlords laws, he will want to eat from YOUR bowl in the process, which is in fact his bowl. :09:

 

[Scott]

Try preparing identical bowls of veggies/fruits and begin eating from yours. Be really demonstrative, making "mmmmm" sounds and bob your head. A good chance your IRN will be tempted to try his. Be consistent and don't give up!

Try this from a reasonable distance and gradually decrease until next to him. You'll need to try a wide variety as most will initially be shunned.

Also understand that according our overlords laws, he will want to eat from YOUR bowl in the process, which is in fact his bowl. :09:

Truer words were never spoken!!

 

[sannwi]

HI
Personally, what I do, is mix up their favorite foods with the "new" foods. This seems to work quite well for us...at least most of the time. Sometimes, there's just foods some in our flock just don't like no matter what I do. What else also helps, is sometimes I will take a small amount of warm organic coconut oil and mix the food in that—I've see this work in our flock many times Hope that helps a little bit Good Luck and Keep Trying Sometimes, it just takes them a while before giving something new a chance and then they find they love it!

 

[wrench13]

Parrots and food. One of the most discussed problems, especially with birds who have been on a seed diet for X amount of time. Our subforum on diet has an exaustive amount of information on this.
But some quick tips:
1) DONT GIVE UP- a lot of folks quit offering fruit and veggies after a few trys.
2) Try different presentation - some birds like chunky veggies, some like them finely chopped, some like them pureed.
3) Eat the same thing as you are offering to your birdy. Salty always eats dinner with us, we are sure to have some of the same thing being offered to him. He actually will check our plates to see if it's there.
4) Temperature matters. We dont reccommend this with young parrots, but Salty loves to eat fozen peas,, mixed in with his chop.
5) Most parrots will respond to extremely hot peppers, Jalapeno's or hotter. They have 1 taste bud for every 30 we have, so a really hot pepper is onlymildly spicy to them, and peppers are a good source of vitamins.

Much much more on the subforum.