How to get them to eat pellets?

[wolf0994]

I have been trying to get Kawie to eat pellets and he is just so picky. I live in Fairbanks, Alaska and all I could find was Lafeber's Premium pellets, they are not dyed or anything but he rarely eats them. Granted he was raised on table food and thats mainly what he has eaten for the last 16 years. His former owner checked on him the other day and asked me if I had any seed for him. I showed her the pellets I had bought. She said he prob wouldnt eat it. And she's right. After reading the Harrison's thread I emailed them to see if I could get some samples to see if he will eat that. I just want to give him a good diet but he tosses alot of stuff.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

It can take a while sometimes, it took me about 5 or 6 months to finally get my galah off of the seed diet she was on when I got her. She's a older bird and had only eating sun flower seeds and junk food for 4 years, before that who knows what she got.

Just keep with it, eventually all the wasted pellets will be worth it.


I tried this but it didn't work for my bird, you can make prepared bird food(like bird muffins) and include pellets in the recipe.

 

[Sulphiria]

It took our cag quite awhile to switch too, about 3 months. Try offering only pellets in the morning for a few hours, then a mix with seeds and before bed just seed. Theres many different ways of switching to seed, it just takes time, and some more than others. Our cockatiel and quaker have had no problems eating pellets right away, but the cag is stubborn lol. He really enjoyed harrisons at first, now hes back to zupreem. Im happy with him eating either, lol.

 

[QuackQuack]

Sadly, the only way I've gotten any of my birds to transition was starvation. Nothing dangerous or abusive, but just withholding the normal seeds and offering the pellets. I would take the pellets away after 15 minutes of rejection and then re offer at next meal time. It did sometimes take a few days before they would fully give in to the food change. I know some people can't stand the idea of their bird hungry.

 

[_Temptations_]

Anytime I try to change the diet to pellets, I introduce it slowly. Mix it when the seeds when you change Kawies food. When you have Kawie out of the cage, boil some water and let the pellets soak. You can feed him with a spoon or with your hands or even let him take it out of the bowl and this will get him used to the taste of the pellets. After a couple times doing this, Kawie should get used to the taste and realize that the pellets are food and eat them soaked or not! I hope this helps

 

[QuackQuack]

Ah! That is a good point! I forgot to add that I would soak the pellets in 100% juice to entice them at first. In my experience, it didn't speed anything up but I felt like I wasn't being so mean