Parakeet eating

[HeyHey]

Hello,
I have a lovely blue parakeet. I had him (I think the cere is turning blue) for about 3 months. I have been feeding him seeds and pellets, but I don't think he knows how to eat pellets or the vegetables. When I feed him broccoli, I have to cut it very tiny and try to feed it to him, and most of the time he drops it (it looks like he tries to eat it). While he has access to the pellets, I sometimes hand feed him extra pellets and he tries to eat it but most of the time he drops it. Is this normal? Will he learn eventually how to eat the pellets and vegetables?

 

[Parro]

Ah yes of course, he will learn how to eat them eventually, if he doesn't. The slices you do are too big. Make them less than 5 ml in size. Good Luck! And also, welcome to the forums

 

[cassiepengo]

yeah!! sure he will. my budgie is like that. he wont eat anything other than his seeds and corn. he will learn, pretty soon!

 

[GaryBV]

It also could be that the pellet size is too large, many pellets come in different sizes, such as Roudybush, comes in Fine, Crumbles, Mini, Medium, Large - you might have to find the appropriate size for your bird - my parrotlets and lovebirds eat Harrison's 'fine' and Roudybush 'crumbles'. As for fruits and vegetables - keep making them available to him. I do know that presentation can make a difference - my birds are fully capable of eating a grape, but none of them do, they ignore it or toss it out, when I cut it in half, they do the same, ignore it or toss it over, but if I cut it up into little pieces they eat it right up. Also the location of the food might make a difference, meaning some birds prefer to eat high up, others like to forage on the bottom, etc. - try everything and just be patient and don't give up. Nothing is better for your bird than a varied and healthy diet.

 

[alisjasp]

I had a question, well may be 2 lol can I mix my seeds an pellets together Anh get the birds to eat both ? And are feeding pellets cleaner the feeding seeds?

 

[GaryBV]

Yes you most certainly can mix the pellets and seeds, - I do it all the time, in fact I mix 2 different kinds of pellets and I mix in seed as well. Are pellets cleaner? Well I'd have to say yes to that because there is no 'husk' left over - the seed cover, but some birds do powderize some pellets so there is that mess but it is mostly left in the dish, not all over the place. The main advantange of pellets is that every piece contains the same nutrition, that the bird can't just pick out it's favorite seed and leave the rest, leading to more waste and less nutrition.

 

[HeyHey]

Where do you buy Roudybush from?

 

[Maria_Metropolis]

It also could be that the pellet size is too large, many pellets come in different sizes, such as Roudybush, comes in Fine, Crumbles, Mini, Medium, Large - you might have to find the appropriate size for your bird - my parrotlets and lovebirds eat Harrison's 'fine' and Roudybush 'crumbles'. As for fruits and vegetables - keep making them available to him. I do know that presentation can make a difference - my birds are fully capable of eating a grape, but none of them do, they ignore it or toss it out, when I cut it in half, they do the same, ignore it or toss it over, but if I cut it up into little pieces they eat it right up. Also the location of the food might make a difference, meaning some birds prefer to eat high up, others like to forage on the bottom, etc. - try everything and just be patient and don't give up. Nothing is better for your bird than a varied and healthy diet.

Yes, and you can use a cheap spice/coffee grinder, or a mortar and pestle to grind up pellets that are too large. I do that for my baby cockatiel. The tiniest zupreem pellets were too big for him, but when I crush them, he can eat them.

 

[MikeyTN]

It's not always about the size of the pellets, its about them wanting it or not! My parakeets and canaries would chomp on pellets from my LSC2. They go eat from her bowl often....

 

[HeyHey]

Looks like my parakeet is starting to eat larger pieces of broccoli.

 

[SoCalWendy]

Both my birds love the larger pieces of veggies rather then smaller. I give whole Brussels sprouts, and large size broccoli crowns to them. They love to shrewd them to pieces. As far as pellets go Harrison's fine is fed to my P'let and Harrison's pepperd coarse is fed to my Sennie. They also like all kinds of peppers, fresh and dried. Including jalapeños with the seeds attached.