Picky Parrots... How do you get yours to eat?

[jugoya]

With Porter its a struggle to get him to eat when I'm home and when I'm not!

I think its because he's become a spoiled shoulder bird. Because most of the time to make sure he DOES eat I spend an hour hnd feeding him things he normally gets in his cage.. mostly fresh foods. He nibbles on pellets and eats seeds but he loves apples peas.. corn.. spinach and lettece.

But half the time he'll only eat these things when I hand feed him. As well.. this morning he decided he was SICK of apple, and only ate one piece x.x

Any ideas on how to get him to eat on his own?

I don't mind the morning ritual at all; and I love doing it; but the rest of the day?

He's mostly on my shoulder but those few times a day when I need to go to work and such... he doesn't eat anything but the seeds in his cage or his apple.

While the rest sits untouched.

I've tried Bird breads... mashes, sweetened Mashes.. and he won't touch any of it. Picky picky little parakeet xP.

Bah.

Maybe I'm just paranoid, I weigh him daily and keep a chart, and his droppings are pretty consistant through out the day as he mostly eats fresh in the morning and seed and pellets at night. I'm the same with all my animals really.. constantly checking and making sure everything is perfect with them.. and believe me.. weighing budgies is a pain in the tail end.

 

[DallyTsuka]

hmmm i have a friend who has this same problem with her cockatiel, and not much has changed for her.

maybe he will eat if you put a mirror in front of his food dish in the cage? he might like eating with company around.

 

[jugoya]

He eats better when the budgies are out in their morning cage.

It must just be a flock thing.

 

[DallyTsuka]

that's what i am thinking. my friend's cockatiel is the same--he is a single bird, and he does not eat in his cage or when my friend is at work. he will only eat when she is around. so yes i agree it's a flock thing.

can you move the budgie's cage next to his cage when you leave? it might get him to eat more.

 

[jugoya]

Thats what I tend to do, as my budgies are in rotating cages anyway...

We also move them out into the main room when we go on vacation to keep him company. It makes for a less stressed out bird when we get back, We'll see how it goes.

 

[WannaBeAParrot]

I've been through the different phases with Pritti. The more variety he gets, the more he wants and pickier he is. Then I end up doing everything but standing on my head to get him to eat... until I remember, that it isn't supposed to be this way and I go back to giving him just a few different things for a small variety for a few days or so i a row, i.e. pasta, apple, sweet potato, cottage cheese (and his usual bowl of pellets which only accounts for a small part of his dialy intake). Then perhaps rice cake piece or almond sliver for a treat. He'll eat a bit and snub the rest, walk away. But I watch his crop throughout the day to make sure he is eating (he's bald there so it's easy), and I weigh him once a day during this "phase". THen he usually gets back on track.

Also, every morning he waits with anticipation for his dish of fresh kitchen foods and he'll usually gobble it up.

I've resorted to hand feeding him many times over the years, where he'll eat until I put it down, then he walks away. When he does that, I know it means he has an appetite but is just wanting the attention, so I indulge a little and then coax him to eat himself by putting it down and leaving my had there tapping my finger next to the food and praising him when he eats it. Many times I've had to make him think I am eating the food too but putting it to my mouth, or actually biting something (including a pellet if necessary, but not swallowing it, lol). Then the phase passes after a while.

 

[jugoya]

Thank you!

Picky parrots are a new thing to me, but I'm working on it.

 

[MonicaMc]

I've found that providing a variety of mixed foods (i.e. a chop or mash) is often more appealing than one or a few things. You can also make these foods more enticing by mixing in sprouted seeds.

At first, when I was trying to get my birds to eat more fresh foods, I *ONLY* provided fresh foods to them. However, now that they eat better, I can provide both fresh and dry food at the same time and they'll pick what they want.

 

[AngelicaandBandit]

A trick that could possibly work is eating the certain fruit/veggie/food in front of your bird, my cockatoo is a very picky eater but he does eat pasta and oatmeal now because he saw me eating it! Decided if I was enjoying it, he would too. Now I have to eat healthy -.-