Avoiding bad/obsessive food habits

[Psittaciformes]

Hey guys!
So Floofy, my RSE, discovered his love for apples yesterday, so for supper he just cleared the bowl of apples and didn't bother with the rest of the chop.
This morning for breakfast he kept looking for apples too, he'd grab zucchini thinking it's apple, then just drop it when he realised it wasn't ...
It took him a while to start eating the veggies in there.

My questions are; how can you avoid obsessive behaviours like this?
I'm gonna buy more stuff for chop today, should I just leave the apple for another day?

 

[camo]

My girl Pebbles is the same, her theory is why eat the other stuff when there is my favourite food around, she would throw everything else out of her bowl.

What worked for me so far, was cuttting my chop very fine (with a food processor, the fine bits stuck to her favourite bits eg. wild rice, oats). I also have to give her just her chop for about 1/2hr before adding any foraging or treat foods (in the morning, she is the first in the house to be fed, and then I wait till the last minute before putting her other foods in the cage.

Pebbles still has her favourites, so I haven't stopped the obsessing, but this has at least forced her to eat the diversity of foods I want her too.

Cheers,

Cameron

 

[Psittaciformes]

Good idea, I should probably invest in one anyway, it'll make it way easier making big batches of chop.

 

[Flboy]

I just ordered one of those oxo salad choppers, same as at Subway. I love my salads chop style too. I saw one for the first time a few month ago, and when I saw it in action, I tried to get the kid to sell it to me! Well manager was there, heard me, and......
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AEH634?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=od_aui_detailpages00]Amazon.com: OXO Good Grips Salad Chopper and Bowl: Kitchen & Dining[/ame]

For a course to medium chop, this thing should be great!

 

[Christinenc2000]

I just ordered one of those oxo salad choppers, same as at Subway. I love my salads chop style too. I saw one for the first time a few month ago, and when I saw it in action, I tried to get the kid to sell it to me! Well manager was there, heard me, and......
Amazon.com: OXO Good Grips Salad Chopper and Bowl: Kitchen & Dining

For a course to medium chop, this thing should be great!

Let me know how you like it.
I just use a knife right now . I have a processor but don't use it. LOL

 

[Anansi]

Camo's idea about grating things up very fine definitely works. I don't do it with all of the food. (Like Christine, I do my chopping with a knife.) Just with the stuff I need them to eat that they don't necessarily want to. Like raw carrots get grated. They must have that vitamin A. Same with dandelion (though Jolly LOVES dandelion, which is awesome!) and broccoli.

Another thing is that I try to consider some of the fruits as more of an accent. Fruits like grapes or apples have less relative nutritional value than their vegetable counterparts. So I'll dice up a few in there for flavoring, but never enough for them to fill up on.

This is less a worry with superfood fruits such as blueberries or pomegranates. But balancing out the amount of each type of food insures that even after picking out and eating every last one of their favorite bits, they still need to eat much of the rest.

 

[Psittaciformes]

I'll take all this into consideration, thanks guys!

FL: Please update us on how you like it!

 

[Scott]

This is a serious challenge! Long ago I gave up placing the more nutritious items on the top of a bowl, as they would invariably toss overboard to the level of getting the "good stuff!" I've also tried hand-feeding them the essentials before placing the bowl in their cages, but they understand the significance of Chop Day and know more is coming.

Now I go with the flow and give them smaller quantities of lots of different veggies/fruits and try to rotate it over the course of a week. Like people, some birds naturally gravitate to the healthy foods while others would become junk-food junkies if able.

 

[obeck]

My Ekkie does the same thing with pomegranate and bananas (he also loves Apples). I stopped adding this to his chop and he only gets them for training treats. Works great for us because I can get him to do just about anything I want him to do with a banana.