Troubles switching to pellets

[AkridChaos]

Hello guys. It's been a little over a week since my last visit here. In that time, I've been trying to get Snowball to eat some pellets, to no avail. I've tried a lot of different things. I've tried mixing it with his seeds (he just shoves it around and continues to only eat seeds), I've tried mixing it with treats (pellets still go ignored), I've tried lightly soaking them with water to moisten them a bit (they still go ignored, any and all seeds that happen to stick to the pellets get promptly picked off). I've tried the "finger pecking" technique some people do, where you "peck" at the pellets with your fingers and clack your nails together to make it sound like you're eating pellets. Sometimes that works psychologically for them. Not Snowball. I've even tried blending them in my blender, but they're so small that the blades won't grind them, and I really have no other way of getting them ground down to sprinkle over his seeds unless I bust out a hammer (which I HAVE tried between two paper plates, and it did not go very well. I refuse to do that again). I even tried being sneaky last night and swapped his seeds out with pellets only, so come morning he'd be hungry enough to just eat it. That didn't go so well. He made a few attempts at it after a while, but either he's scared of them, or he just doesn't realize the pellets are actually food, and I don't know how to convince him to eat it. He literally started starving himself this morning instead of eating the pellets, so I thought maybe if I gave him the option of seeds in my hand or pellets in the food dish, he'd go for the pellets. I was really banking on him being scared enough of my hands to just go back to his food dish. I mean he's eaten millet out of my hands before, but without the physical contact of being on my hand. He is definitely afraid of physical contact via hands. However, he opted for jumping on my hands for the seeds. ;-; while I'm glad for the bonding experience, I can't help but feel disappointed that I can't get him to eat these pellets no matter what I try. I get it takes a while to get birds to go to a pellet diet, but he's made next to zero attempts at eating the actual pellet, and it just seems like I'm wasting time doing it. The darned little guy is just so stubborn.

I'll admit I have discovered today that when the pellets are moist enough (once they've been given plenty of time to absorb the water), I can physically mush it in my fingers (takes some effort, but at this point I'll take anything!) My next step here it waiting for the pellets to absorb enough water to mush it into his seeds and hope he'll eat it. If that doesn't work, I'm open to any and all suggestions anyone here may have!

 

[Flboy]

Now that you have a pellet mush, Mix in the seeds to make a thick paste. Consider spreading some out so that it then dries and see how that works!

 

[LordTriggs]

changing food always takes time. Just slowly mixing and mixing into food until it's all pellet

if he likes it mushy then try making a pellet mash mix for the time being

 

[AkridChaos]

The mash mix seems to be working a lot better than my other attempts. But only with the Zupreem Natural. I think the colors in the fruit one was scaring him, but it's all I had until the natural came in the mail. So I'm going to stick with that for a little while until he's comfortable eating it and not trying to be picky (trust me, he tries very hard to get the mush off his seed and out of his beak. Lol but he's gotten a little better). After he's more used to that, then I'll try and slowly introduce the fruit one in. I'll mix a little bit at a time in the natural one until he's not so scared of it anymore. I'm trying something a little new today, also. I noticed out of all his treat sticks, he loves the egg flavored ones the most. While at PetCo yesterday, I found an egg formula mix to mix into his food, so I'm hoping that he really does love egg stuff and that this will really help him to eat these pellets. I've only been giving him the pellet mixed with seeds in the morning, since I work second shift and late into the night. I don't want his wet food to spoil while I'm away. I'll be able to get him on more pellets for his diet at a later date when (if) I can get him to eat the dry pellet. For now I think this is the best route to go with him until then. I'll let you guys know how the egg formula mix works out for the pellets.

 

[Flboy]

If you have a seperate play stand for little little guy, try putting the fruit blend there only. I have found for JoJo, this is a great way to introduce new foods because he has come to expect that spot for special treats!

 

[AkridChaos]

Hm. I'll keep the play stand idea in mind. I'll be sure to start placing treats other than millet on it with his very small fruits (like I said, this one is picky. It has to be small and small amounts, otherwise he avoids it). That way he sees it as more of a treat play stand and will expect them and then be more willing to try his fruit pellets. Genius. Lol thanks for the great tip.