hard time going to pellets

[Daddy]

Adam is having a rough go changing his diet. he throughs all his food out of his bowl because we are changing him to pelleted food from a all seed diet that he has been on for years. is there a way to ease the pains of this poor guy is down right mad about it to the point he would rather go hungry. any help would be great. i have been mixing it with seed and cutting back on the seed every day but he will eat the seed and through everything else out to the floor.

 

[Riley's mom]

I went through the same thing with one of my macaws, it's tough. I did what you are doing with mixing, but I tried different kinds of pellets. I will never cut seed totally out of any of my birds diets. They do need some seed. But they don't get that much. Lots of fresh fruits and veggies and pellets plus they eat people food too. Good luck and be patient.

 

[Auggie's Dad]

You could try moistening the pellets - time consuming and messy but could work.

Many birds will dunk their pellets before eating them anyways - perhaps when they are dry they do not seem edible so he doesn't realize they're food.

 

[antoinette]

Riley's mom and AD have given great advice.....
Mishka my AG would not eat the pellets dry.
I had to dunk them in water then give them to her.
Shortly after, she dunked them herself.
No more dunking today.... she eats them... then sees how far she can throw them.
Good luck
Take care

 

[Daddy]

tonight i saw him eating some of the pelleted food but now he wants to threaten me when my wife is around so i guess the honeymoon is over by the way he has not liked my wife from day one. i think his hormones are kicking in overdrive or he is realy mad at me for the food deal.

 

[BlueToast]

Do you think the dunking has anything to do with softening them up?

 

[william]

Good Gen. that. Had the same problem with a Sulphur Crested Cockatoo. Some sprinkling of the pellets with Mango juice worked a treat.(the no preservatives added stuff) Agreed, I also think that a seed and pellet mix is a good thing and not only pellets.
My Congo Grey shares my own food with me on the same plate if what I am eating is appropriate for him.
I know that I am going to get flamed for this. But I found that if I try and introduce something new to Gizzie's diet he will take it if I feed it to him from my mouth. Once he gets the taste its ops normal from then on. I'm not suggesting anyone try this but it works for us. Lips are soft, beaks are sharp and birds can be unpredictable.

Do you think the dunking has anything to do with softening them up?

Good point and often wondered about that myself. Their strong beaks are made for tearing and crushing. But also with a lot of their natural food the actual "flesh" of what they eat is relatively soft once they get to it. I think mango juice sort of gave it a natural, fruity, aspect that was appealing to the bird. However that's just a supposition.

 

[Auggie's Dad]

I'd suspect that moistening allows them to taste/smell it much easier while deciding whether or not it's edible. When dry the pellet will not have much taste until crunched up and mixed with saliva - but this wont happen until they decide it is edible. The catch 22 of dry food.

 

[Daddy]

we moistend some up this morning to see if that helps ( he is a little mad at me over this pelleted food thing lol) i feed zupreem , it sure smells good and mixed in some dried fuits our blue and gold has flurished on it.

 

[Spiritbird]

You could also try fruit juice over the pellets. My vet told me to take all food out of cage at night. I did not mix the seed with pellets. I just kept giving the pellets in one bowl and less and less seed in the other bowl. I also tried out 3 kinds of pellets before bird would eat them. Ended up on Harrisons. You should keep them in the refigerator or freezer for long term storage if you buy in bulk. Keep at it and you will win.

 

[Spiritbird]

Another thought for you to consider. Try the foraging toys or make your own for the pellets. It makes the food interesting to them and they are hard wired to forage anyway. It took me two weeks to get bird on pellets but yours has been on seed for a long time. good luck!

See my posting from yesterday titled Parrot Enrichment and Foraging.

 

[Daddy]

adam came out and played on top his cage for afew hours then went in and ate the moist pelets without making a complete mess of throughing them all out on the floor actualy ate. thanx for all the advice looks like with your help and time i will get him on pellets