Refusing to eat pellets

Rosalindagg

Active member
Sep 19, 2022
99
182
Parrots
Cockatiel, Conure, Parakeets
My newest bird Nibbles has been resistant on eating his pellets. Anybody have any idea why? He was at a babysitter and had been back with me for a week now and he ate his pellets just fine for the sitter. I did run out of the pellets nibbles came with and ordered them to mix with the ones I have and he still won’t eat his pellets. Any ideas of what to do? He’s rarely had seed mix in his diet before he started to ignore the pellets. so I’ve been giving him seeds through forage at the end of the night just so he gets something in his stomach beside his veggie chop. He used to finish his pellets by 4pm and sometimes wants more but now his dish is still full.
 
Is the brand you ordered different than the one he’s on?

Lots of birds are very reluctant to try new things.
 
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Is the brand you ordered different than the one he’s on?

Lots of birds are very reluctant to try new things.
So the breeder was using Mazuri pellets and I mixed them with Harrison. He ran out of Mazuri pellets at the sitter and did fine eating since I mixed Harrison as soon as I brought him home. I ordered the Mazuri pellets to start mixing again and that doesn’t seem to help.
 
So the breeder was using Mazuri pellets and I mixed them with Harrison. He ran out of Mazuri pellets at the sitter and did fine eating since I mixed Harrison as soon as I brought him home. I ordered the Mazuri pellets to start mixing again and that doesn’t seem to help.
Have you tried just feeding him the Mazuri pellets. Maybe the smell of the Harrisons is throwing him off. I would stop with the seeds. I would just give him chop and pellets.
 
So the breeder was using Mazuri pellets and I mixed them with Harrison. He ran out of Mazuri pellets at the sitter and did fine eating since I mixed Harrison as soon as I brought him home. I ordered the Mazuri pellets to start mixing again and that doesn’t seem to help.
You could crush the Harrison’s pellets into powder and sprinkle it on his chop so he can get used to the taste.
I think a little seed in a tiels diet is good for them, maybe 10% or a bit more if your bird is very active.
 
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Have you tried just feeding him the Mazuri pellets. Maybe the smell of the Harrisons is throwing him off. I would stop with the seeds. I would just give him chop and pellets.
Thanks I’ll start with just Mazuri and once I notice he starts eating them consistently I’ll start mixing Harrison again.
 
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You could crush the Harrison’s pellets into powder and sprinkle it on his chop so he can get used to the taste.
I think a little seed in a tiels diet is good for them, maybe 10% or a bit more if your bird is very active.
I’ve been avoiding seeds with him because I plan on using them as a high reward when I start recall training! But yes nibbles is a very active bird! He plays and explores all day!
 
Thanks I’ll start with just Mazuri and once I notice he starts eating them consistently I’ll start mixing Harrison again.
Mixing the two together to eventually transition to the pellet you want is the way to go. But until he starts eating again consistently I agree that I’d just give the Mazuri. If it gives you any encouragement - my bird wouldn’t eat her pellets for a long time unless I mixed the brand she was weaned on with Harrison’s. Out of the blue one day she decided she liked the Harrison’s more and started only eating that!
 
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Mixing the two together to eventually transition to the pellet you want is the way to go. But until he starts eating again consistently I agree that I’d just give the Mazuri. If it gives you any encouragement - my bird wouldn’t eat her pellets for a long time unless I mixed the brand she was weaned on with Harrison’s. Out of the blue one day she decided she liked the Harrison’s more and started only eating that!
It’s just so weird to me that the transition was going fine but then all of a sudden he doesn’t want to eat the pellets. Hopefully he gets out of this funk soon!
 

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