Complete reversal of diet.

[jugoya]

My green chicken has decided he only wants to eat sunflower seeds again.

I started giving him a bowel of seeds a couple months ago and I've noticed he eats less and less of his pellets until now he finally refuses to eat them period.

So...I've had to pull the seed mixture out of his cage and give him the parakeet mixture instead.

((Its just a millet and pellet mix I give the budgies as a treat.)

I place this at intermitten areas around the cage.

He likes millet just not in huge quanitites.. so now he's forced to go to other bowels for his foraging...

One is a bowel of dried fruits and some small nuts, the other his veggie and fruit mixture.

The other is a bowl of pellets;

No sunflower seeds in his diet period at the moment... lets see if I can nip this reversal in the bud shall we?

 

[DallyTsuka]

well, here's what i do, since sunflowers ARE healthy in small amounts...

Sunflower Seeds - Just Cockatiels!



what i do is buy budgie seed mix. no sunflowers in it.


then i buy human grade raw unsalted sunflower seeds from health food stores (i buy unshelled because of munch's habit of turning the shells into nest material). i give them all FOUR sunflower seeds each a day in their seed bowl. thats it. once they eat them, that's all for the day. otherwise, dally is a sunflower seed addict and will ONLY eat the sunflowers lol it works for me. this way they get a healthy amount of sunflower seeds as a part of their diet, as well as keeping it so they dont have too many.


too many of them is not healthy, for fattening reasons, however, in moderation they make a healthy snack for them.

 

[Kalidasa]

You could also sprout them, as they're much more nutritious and less fatty if sprouted.

 

[DallyTsuka]

sprouting is amazingly healthy, however i lack the knack for it and fail every time i try. seeds sprout for me, but they go bad and it has done so no matter what method i try lol i dont have the talent for it, so i dont risk it myself. both my lovebirds wound up on antibiotics 2 years ago from my sprouting, so i dont chance it myself anymore. but if you are capable of sprouting, go for it

 

[jugoya]

I could sprout them...but I don't have time to keep it up.

lols.

Nope best way is just to take them away altogether.

Its not like he's gonna starve; he gets a measured amount of fresh food three times daily; some of what I eat; some pellets and his pine nuts... (3 a day) The seed is just an added bonus for foraging.

aka.. I need to find something else to put in his foraging centers.