what is the best way to introduce new foods?

[reeb]

Hi!

I am gradually introducing fruits and veggies to my three young birdies’ diets. I feed my aviary birds a balance of veggies, fruits, seeds and the occasional boiled egg/egg food. However, all of these tastes are very new to my 2.5 month old budgies and 4 month old cockatiel. So far I have introduced spinach and apple along with their seeds, which they do seem to enjoy.

I would like some suggestions on how to introduce even more variety to their diets in the right way!

Thanks!

 

[itzjbean]

What has generally worked for me and my birds was mixing in their favorite food (a tasty seed mix) with chopped up fruits and veggies. That way the new stuff sticks to the seeds and so it kind of forced them to eat the other stuff. It is a challenge though, my female likes my CHOP more than my male, who just prefers his old stuff so I still give them some of their old seeds but mixed in with other good stuff. Because they're a smaller species, cutting the fruits/veggies up into smaller pieces helps greatly.

Also a good way to get them to try new things -- making them bird bread. There are tons of recipes online and you can incorporate many different fruits/veggies into it, and many birds love the stuff. Basically its just like a muffin/cornbread mix with different stuff added in.

 

[clark_conure]

Since it seems you have a plethora of budgies, I'd just put some new food "A" into another bowl "B" and see how much of "A" is left in "B" after a few hours. with a menagerie that big at least one of them is going to test it out. I doubt very little will be tossed out.

 

[YUMgrinder]

just put it out for them and sometimes it takes awhile for them to try new stuff in my experience they learn that new foods are often yummy and takes less time for them to warm up to new things. My tiel is a year old and she doesn't care what it is, if I have it, she wants it. acting like its yours and you are eating it makes it that much more tempting for them. if their flock is eating it then they should too! But when she was young she would ignore new foods in her bowl for a week before trying it. I remember the first time she finally ate apple. I offered it to her everyday for a week with no response, then one day she went for it and loved it.