Help with pellets!!

[Breeze]

Hi all,
I adopted a five month old alexandrine who was on a all seed diet.
He now loves fruit and veg but i just cannot get him to eat pellets. I have been trying for just a little over a month. I have been diving his food into 2 parts seed and 3 part pellets and adding warm water to make the seeds stick to the pellets but he will not touch them. Any advice thanks

 

[MonicaMc]

What pellets are you using?


Have you tried making something akin to a "Nutriberry" with the seeds and pellets?

 

[GaleriaGila]

Here are my thoughts...
Harrison's Bird Foods
I feed Harrison's, supplemented by fresh healthy treats. My first, and later, my current avian vet recommended it. My bird loves the pellets now, but to get him converted, my avian vet suggested putting pellets out all day, and putting seeds (his old diet) out for two 15-minute periods a day. That would sustain him but leave him hungry enough to try new stuff. I presume the same technique could be used to get him to eat other healthy stuff, like fruits and vegetables! My guy was eating pellets in a couple of days, and now I can feed a good variety of other stuff, knowing he has the pellets as a basic. Pellets are out all day... fresh treats a few times a day. I also like Harrison's via mail because I never have to worry about out-of-date products.
Another couple of ideas...
My ol' man is an athlete and health nut. He actually EATS all the good stuff, so it's always around. I find that tossing various stuff into the food bowls at random is good... the variations and differences seem to stimulate curiosity and attention.
The other idea... if you can stand it (lol) EAT the stuff in front of the birds, yes. That encourages them. I have also found that if my ol' man eats stuff in front of the bird, the bird WANTS it for himself. Kinda a rivalry thing!

Good for you, for reaching out and wanting to make these important changes!

 

[psychocircus91]

Agreed with the above technique.
When converting my birds to anything, they get that item early in the morning, and that's all they get all day. Around 6 pm, I will give them a small amount of other stuff to make sure they are eating and getting nutrients.

Has always worked for me.

 

[Caitnah]

As mentioned above, keep trying and definitely try different brands. Besides fruits/vegs, my Conure would only eat a blend of different items which also included pellets.
He would occasionally eat the pellets.
I then switched him to some Zupremes fruit pellets. He took to them right away, even though I gave these sparingly. I tried Roudybush which was fairly successful.
I then gave him Harrison's pellets and he didn't touch them for a few days. Now, he loves Harrison's and will not eat the blend or the Zupremes...which is okay with me.

So, definitely try a few different brands. My bird store has many brands of pellets which you can buy by the oz., so this makes it financially doable. Not sure you can do this.

 

[Scott]

The Harrison's site quoted posted above gives guidance for conversion. Separate techniques for small and large birds. I used the advice precisely when transitioning my flock about 2 months ago, and it worked well.