New here! Question about our girls diet.

[OurgirlRoxy]

Hello All,
My hubby and I have rescued a sweet 7 year old Cockatoo from a young college guy. Roxy had rarely been let out of her cage for the last 5 years. She has a horrible diet! He stated she doesn't like fruits or veggies, but loves white bread!:11: I have been trying to introduce her to fresh fruits and veggies and things like almonds and legumes but she seems to hate everything but bananas and chicken. She picks through her seeds and eats the peanuts and sunflower seeds...I have read not to change their food too drastically because they may lose weight and I may not notice. How do I get her to eat healthier?

 

[Sterling1113]

Hello, and welcome! glad to hear you're helping your 'too get on the right track to a healthy diet!
When converting my birds I started out with a seed/pellet mix that contained no sunflower seeds or peanuts(they're easy to get hooked on those.) so that they have familiar food, but the things like sunflower seeds that aren't so good can be used for treats instead of a diet staple.
Over time I'd mix more pellets than seeds, until I was comfortable with removing the seed entirely. The process can take lots of time , but if you try various pellets, you may find one that she likes right off the bat.
Try preparing fresh food in different ways! And share it with her. good bonding. I had an Eclectus who wouldn't eat whole carrots, but would eat them shredded and mixed with warm brown rice. (Brown, dirty , and wild rice is good too!)
I don't know much about the specific dietary needs of a cockatoo but really the key is persitance. Even if she never wants pellets if you can enrich her with enough fresh food I wouldn't be awfully worried. Some people feed their birds 75-80% fresh food with only a small amount of seed during the day, since some parrots just won't eat pellets.

 

[Jayyj]

I have a bird that arrived only eating seeds and who is very finnicky about eating healthy food. Fortunately she took to pellets immediately, then expanding her repartoire has been a work in progress. It's beyond me how she literally runs away from broccoli but frantically clambers over an assault course of furniture to get to me at the first sign of pizza or curry... so my own diet has been through something of an enforce improvement!

I found a chop mix was the best way of getting Alice to eat veg. There's lots of ideas on the diet subforum but basically she gets a mix of finely chopped veg, sprouted seeds and a small amount of cous cous. The cous cous is the secret weapon - she loves it and it has a tendency to stick to bits of chopped veg so she ends up hoovering the veg by accident. Dried fruit gets an occasional nibble but fresh fruit tends to be treated as a shredding toy rather than something she sees as food. She still has a few seeds but they're limited to foraging treats and not more than 10% of her diet.

 

[MikeyTN]

Welcome to the forum!!!

Cockatoos are known to be picky eaters to begin with!!! So you guys adopted her from the college guy that doesn't know any better, at least it sounds like he did feed her but just doesn't know any better. Unless you can be totally strict and consistent with them, you'll get no where if you give in.

At the beginning I wouldn't change a thing! Leave the food as the way it is, don't force change right away until she's been there for at least a month then start with changes. Leave a bowl of pellets within the cage 24/7 and a bowl of fresh fruits and veggies in the morning. Then in the evening time give a table spoon full of seeds of parrot mix. Next day start the process over again. During anytime you see them eating the pellets real good, don't give anymore seeds. Feed them to wild birds, give them away, or keep for treats later on. During the transition period, NO treats!!! No Nuts!!! Let her eat the pellets and the fresh stuffs daily and wait at least a month before offering treats/nuts again in just a few pieces each day.

 

[OurgirlRoxy]

Thank you for your helpful tips! I think I will wait till she has been here a month and try these ideas!

 

[MonicaMc]

I put together some ideas in this thread that may help....

http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-...7-converting-parrots-healthier-diet-tips.html



It's been years since I've had an issue getting birds to eat a healthier diet. Even new birds take to what I feed quite quickly!

 

[Taw5106]

When we got Buddy he was on a seed diet. I hadn't joined this forum when we got him and I took his seed away and started feeding him fruit and veg. We discovered the very first day he loves popcorn so that's his training treat now. I'm not recommending what I did, I was blessed with Buddy because he's a green pig. He and I eat together, he will throw a fit if he sees me eating, or my husband. Eating together will help with bonding and you don't have to eat the same thing like dinner, we eat what we made and I give Buddy fruit and/or veg in his bowl. He's quiet, occasional purr. I also snack with him out of his cage. I'll put food on a plate and we both eat from the plate. For example I put blackberries and popcorn on a plate and he sat with me. Of course he wanted the popcorn over the berries but his curiosity is peaked and he starts doing more things out of his shell, like grabbing my straw to taste it, looking in a bag, picking up a pen. Buddy doesn't play much so that's the goal of snack time, he's out, doing things with me, good bonding. Now just note, I make popcorn on the stove, no microwave popcorn, no salt. I also pick up raw seed like sunflower and pumpkin seeds. That's another treat. The article MonicaMC shared is excellent. Good luck and don't give up!