Getting your bird to try chop.

[HisAngel]

So, Rosa is an extremely fussy eater. She's been on pellets (Zupreem and Life Granules) her whole life. She obviously LOVES her almonds and her Sunflower seeds, and will pretty reliably eat apples, grapes and blueberries. But that's it. Even if we are eating something and offer it, she'll take it, shred it and toss the bits to the dogs.

I made a batch of chop this weekend, and Ive been offering it to her for 3 days now, in the mornings. I warm it up in the bag in warm water and offer it that way. I put 1 or 2 seeds in it, all mixed in and leave it for 1.5 hours. She fishes for the seeds and ignores the rest. *sigh* Its a decent mix I think!

apple
Blue berry
Raspberry
Coconut
Strawberry
Yam
Kale
Carrot
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Snap Peas
Lentils
Brown rice

The first day I didnt expect her to eat it, and offered her the pellets after the time was up. The next morning I woke up to really dark poop. It admittedly freaked me out, and I have been watching her like a hawk. She's fine now, poo back to normal, eating the pellets but shes still refusing the chop. She will fish out the seed and then go play elsewhere in her cage.

She's had 9 years to become this way, I know this in my brain. Im just curious how likely it is that she'll really grow to enjoy the chop. I normally give her an almond at bedtime, and Ive stopped that in hopes she'll be a wee hungrier in the morning (She has her pellets overnight too). She's annoyed with me for doing that. Not quite death stares but lots of 'MOM! what the heck???' facial expressions when I close the cage and cover her up.

The IRN baby coming home will likely enjoy it, as they offer chop once the babies are ready, and so hopefully he'll eat it with gusto. I hate fresh food waste in any capacity lol

I give her 2 nice rounded tbsp every morning, and Ive got like 95 tiny sandwich bags in my freezer. My husband thinks its hilarious that shes refusing it after I spent hours hand chopping everything.

Any tips or am I doing this correctly?

 

[Weezerj]

...same thing here. Loki likes to pick thru the chop and eat the things he likes, none of which are green.

I hope he gets some greens by accident, but not counting on it. I try fresh cucumbers and zucchini, dandelion leaves, etc. He seems to play more with them then eat them, again hoping he accidentally swallows some of it.

Lastly, after seeing this on here, I tried baby food. That he will try a few bites of. So now, in the morning when he has chop, he also has baby food. He eats some, not a lot. He will then notice that I haven't put out any seedless macaw mix and will start to scold me, so I have to get out of the room if I want him to eat some more.....

Hope you find a way, cause I'm about out of ways to try to trick him into his vegetables....(why do I feel like I'm raising another child?)

 

[HisAngel]

As a mom of a 5 and 4 year old... She's almost as bad. At least shes reliable in some ways and is eating pellets. My skin kids are living on carbs, yogurt and oranges at the moment. *sigh*

 

[Dopey]

Mine L2 was used to Cheetos and cracker jacks. He went willing to pellets and a couple of weeks later I mixed pellets in with the chop.

I would mix the pellets and chop together for a while.

Your chop sounds good to me.

 

[SilverSage]

Some birds don't like it once it has been frozen. Plus it stays good longer fresh rather than frozen, which is why I chop fresh each morning.

 

[HisAngel]

Silversage, does it matter that she wont eat 98% of that on its own when it is fresh?? She'll eat apple and blueberries. That's it. Putting it like that it seems ridiculous that I would even think she would eat the chop at all. LOLOL

Maybe I will try putting a few pellets in there with the chop and have a peek through after and see if shes eating those and maybe tasting some of the chop...

 

[Weezerj]

...I'd like to know how much to force the issue.

With Kids, they didn't get anything else unless they tried their veggies. Of course, that worked because my kids were unwilling to stave themselves to make a point.....

Loki on the other hand....not so sure on that one (I have a scale on order just to put my mind to rest).

I haven't been too forceful on this....I just put his chop out 1/2 hour before he gets anything else.

 

[SilverSage]

I'm in a bit of a rush right now but I just wrote a longer post on a thread about cockatiel diet Nd a good way to transition them using sprouts. Can you find that and read it?

 

[HisAngel]

I will find it! Thanks silversage!!

 

[itchyfeet]

I have a super fussy teil. I chopped up her chop really really fine, and mixed it in with her normal seed. I used a couple of more juicy items in the chop, and so she ended up with tastes of it each time she cracked a seed. I did it for a couple of months, and then separated her seed and her chop and she willingly eats from both

 

[HisAngel]

Well, today we had a sort of break through. Rosa actually went through the bowl and spent a good 15 minutes rifling through it and tossing 90% of it on the floor. Which is better than completely ignoring it. Right?! Lol

 

[Bartleby]

What worked for mine, though admittedly only one conversion attempt here so maybe he was "easy", was using a processor to make all the healthy/yucky stuff super fine and leaving the stuff that they will actually eat in larger pieces. That way the finely shredded greens adhere to the larger pieces and get eaten by accident. To this day neither of mine will eat leafy greens if the pieces are any bigger than pinhead size, so I process it tiny and mix it in with the larger dice and they eat it all up.

I also would not deny her the almond at night, it has decent calcium and calcium for a hen is important, plus a single almond is not very filling for a bird the size of a U2. Does she eat the pellets overnight? I took out the dry mix at bedtime so Sterling, when I knew he was healthy and capable of eating....just being a stubborn Zon, was hungrier in the morning. Then I put his chop, and only his chop, out for him for breakfast. A few hours later I removed the chop and gave him the stuff he actually liked.

Another thing, start smaller. Instead of making a smorgasbord of hugely varied stuff, make a mix of the stuff she will eat and only introduce 1 or 2 new items into the mix. Sometimes such huge choices can be overwhelming, when the options are more limited they are often more eager to give it a shot.

My trick, and what I help the rescue do, is birdie bread. Served warm, slathered with a tiny bit of coconut oil and/or red palm oil or even almond butter and the birds, even the most staunch seed addict, go nuts over it. Just a small portion, not even a full meal, and then over time add the yucky/healthy stuff in progressively larger pieces so they can't help but start to try some of it.

Also a mash, mash up anything that can be mashed, sweet potato, banana, really ripe fruit, steamed carrots, squash etc mash them to the consistency of pureed baby food, serve a little warm and then mix in the treats that they will eat so they, once again, have no choice but to taste the foreign food. It's all about finding a way to initially get them tasting/trying it....even in tiny quantities. Once they are accustomed to consuming it one way then you can start to branch out. This is a long process, tons of waste and lots and lots of days where they make zero steps forward. Eventually, though, even the most stubborn can have their horizons expanded.

 

[HisAngel]

Thank you so much bartleby!! All of that makes perfect sense, I'm going to try and make birdie bread in the coming weeks, also. I'll try your suggestions also!!

 

[kalypso123]

I really needed this thread. My tiel is so stubborn. I have got her to eat some corn and thats the extent to it. She will eat dried chili pepper sprays but she refused to try the jalepeno. I am determined to get her to eat something healthy besides her pellets. Do you have a recipe of birdie bread?

 

[JerseyWendy]

My fids LOVE sharing food with me. So whenever I'm making them something, I make sure they can see me. I make a huge fuss over how yummy it is (even if I don't like it), pretend to be eating it, and that has always worked for me. Since I do allow my fids on the kitchen counter, they take turns taste testing.

 

[gracebowen]

Also patience. I fed my fids fresh food every day for weeks but they wouldn't eat it. I tried cooked and they ate it. First it was just carrots and rice. Then they started trying other things after weeks of throwing it. Well a couple weeks ago I was lazy and didn't cook. They ate spinach lettuce and carrots. They threw broccoli and cauliflower. Now about 2 weeks later they eat it all.

Oh and I no longer give them unlimited access to seeds. I just give them some in the evening.

And mine too think whatever I'm eating is better than what they got.

It's not my ideal but someone here puts a little bird food on her plate so the fids think she is sharing her food.

 

[HisAngel]

SO cute JerseyWendy! Hehe! I love that they get to taste test! Rosa does like to share our food too, but she is more apt to toss it to the dogs (we have a great dane, a pomeranian and a yorkie) to watch them scramble for a piece than eat it. LOL

Rosa actually ate a bunch of the chop today! Woohoo! She particularly seemed to enjoy the lentils (who knew?! lol) rice, and the berries. A bunch still ended up on my walls and floor (Forgot to cover the wall sides of the cage ) but she ate it!!!! When she was done I made a big deal and let her out asking if it was yummy. She then proceeded to rub the bits on her beak all over my shoulder and back of my neck. So, I think Rosa might just be becoming a chop convert! So, she'll get that in the AM with a few pellets and a couple sunflower seeds mixed in, and then pellets at lunch time for the remainder of the day and Ive reinstated her evening almond. LOL I couldnt handle the guilt anymore.

Patience for us, and time. I had made a small batch of chop when I brought her home initially, and she absolutely refused it, and now that I think about it, it seems obvious that she was just overwhelmed. Happy to be getting lots of attention and toys and a huge new cage, but just overwhelmed in every sense. New food was just not even on her radar of wants.

 

[JerseyWendy]

HAHAHAH!!!! I hear you about having someone other than yourself feed the dogs. All of my fids do that., too, and FULLY intentional - I swear! (I have an American Bulldog and an AmBull Pit Mix)

 

[zelliegirl]

My birds won't eat pellets or whole vegetables at all. So I grind up walnuts, sunflower seeds, and pellets and toss with their veggie chop, about 1/4 pellet mixture to 3/4 frozen and fresh chop mixture. Over time I will reduce the amount of sunflower seed and increase pellets. I freeze in mini-muffin tins, remove and store in a freezer bag. I then thaw in fridge or microwave for about 30 seconds and am very careful to let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. They love it.

 

[dhraiden]

I've been slowly transitioning GCC Mochi fr Zupreem naturals -> Goldenfeast (SA Preserve)...she still goes thru the stock of Zu's I've got at work (and when at GF's), but at home I just give her a small amount of Golden only...so far she's definitely ignoring the corn (which is fine, as a parrot food it's not that great anyway), but definitely going after the raisins, brown rice, nuts, etc, so it's going good....somewhat off topic but for my convenience/budget atm GF is pretty much my best alt to chop, which I may try down the line time allowing.