If my cockatiel recognizes non-seed food as "food", will it be a fluke or permanent?

[CYNToronto]

If my cockatiel recognizes non-seed food as "food", will it be a fluke or permanent?

I mixed ground bits of cucumber, tomato, apple, carrot, with yam, rice and small pieces of multi-grain bread. I am leaving it out for one hour at a time, and it's been about half a day so far. He seems hungry and intrigued, but not yet starving to a point of just eating anything available.

I am willing to milk this thing for at least two days. Once he caves, will he be permanently open to non-seed diet, or will it be a fluke??

 

[Amanda_Bennett]

Re: If my cockatiel recognizes non-seed food as "food", will it be a fluke or permane

In my opinion I would not completely take away what he is used to eating. I would just add some things I want him to eat along with what he is used to. Eventually he will try them and either like or not like them.

I think it would stress him out to have his "normal" food taken away and replaced by something he doesn't recognize as food.

Just my opinion, but there are better ways to get some of the "good" stuff into him.

 

[Kiwibird]

Re: If my cockatiel recognizes non-seed food as "food", will it be a fluke or permane

Except in extreme cases with daily weighings and guidance from a vet, I would also not suggest changing diet by 'force'. You might want to try giving him the fresh food first before anything else (when he's hungriest), then mixing his old food in after he's sampled some so he doesn't go hungry. Then gradually wean him off the old food by adding less to the fresh mix each day. Actually, I never 'weaned' my bird off seed entirely because parrots do eat seeds in nature, but he gets his fruit or veg first, then grains, and once he's eaten fresh produce and grains mix, only then he gets a small dish of seed during the day/overnight to snack on. The seed is almost his reward for eating his fresh food. I remove the seed about 2 hours before his nightly feeding too so he gets hungry for his fresh food Using that method (filling him up on good stuff first) he doesn't end up eating an unhealthy amount of seed. It's not that seed is healthy in the first place and barring medical issues in individual birds, it can be part of a balanced diet. It's just not the only thing a bird should eat, nor should it make up a large portion of their diet.

 

[goalerjones]

Re: If my cockatiel recognizes non-seed food as "food", will it be a fluke or permane

A fluke is a fish, or a liver parasite. I doubt your bird would know either fact.