what seed is healthy seed?

[Sarahtheumbrella]

Ok, so the food situation for my bird is very, um, restricting. So Sarah is slowly gaining her weight back after many years of being very skinny. We have not been able to get a scale (AHHH!) AS it was not at the bird fair or store, but I will HAVE to find one.
The thing is there are people who are just skinny, and I wonder if this is sarah's case. Her breast bone is very visible if the feathers are moved aside, and even after we added in pellets, and mix of healthy variety of foods, it still is visible very much although not as much in the beginning. Also, Sarah prefers to have a very predictable diet (for example nowwadays she will only eat white rice at dinner and will refuse pieces of chicken, bread, pasta, peas)
And one of her most important foods are SEED! I know millions of people gasped . She has three pellet bowls, but they always end up on the floor (we have tried pretty bird and kaytee, and organic all of which she has no interest). And since she is literally throwin our twenty dollars on the ground we just give her two pellet bowls. And of course she still goes to the two seed ones! We have mixed pellets in the seed but of course she still goes for the seed.
Sarah prefers sunflower seeds and little white ones I have no idea what they are. Are there any healthy bird seeds I can substitute in for her?

Thanks in advance. I will reply to any questions

 

[MickeysMom]

We allow our birds to have seed, along with pellets and fresh/chop. I try to limit the amount of sunflower seeds (we buy a mix of seed/nuts/dried fruit, that we customize) but Pumpkin seeds, safflower seeds and millet are in the mix.....I am of the opinion that in the wild they would eat seed as part of their diet. We also have a Cockatoo (Mickey) that tends to appear thin....you can feel her breastbone quite sharply with your fingers.....however when she is weighed at the vets, she is smack dab in the mid-weight catagory.

I would suggest giving a small amount of seed daily, but fill the other bowls with fresh fruit/veggies....cooked oatmeal (we add raisins or dried cranberries) chop (you can find the recipe in the recipe section here). At first a lot was wasted by our fids (still can be some days) but as they got used to it being available, they started eating more things.

Scales can be purchased online if you can't find one locally, My safe Bird store has them, as well as Ebay and Amazon.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

How long have you had her? My galah Rosie was also severely underweight when I got her and only ate seeds, it took me 6 months to get her to eat pellets and she's so so much healthier now because of it. I wasted a lot of money trying all different kinds of pellets and it's to be expected when you're trying to transfer your bird. Please don't give up. Also you can give the pellets their own bowel but also mix them into her seeds.

Feeding seeds as part of your birds staple diet is going to effect her in the long run and may shorten her life.

 

[MonicaMc]

The tiny white seeds are probably safflower seeds.

An alternative to feeding seeds is to feed sprouted seeds instead. Sprouted seeds are much healthier than dry seeds, and they aren't a "huge leap" into eating healthier. However, some birds may be confused if their food appears different!


I put this thread together in the hopes that it may help owners to convert their birds to eating healthier foods.
http://www.parrotforums.com/general-health-care/23367-converting-parrots-healthier-diet-tips.html

Second post in on sprouts. Here is a little "how to" guide on sprouting seeds. I can't give proper credit to the person who put it together, but it's still pretty good!
Sprouts by Millie

You can also buy sprout mixes so you don't have to figure out which seeds to sprout together!



And perhaps the rest of the thread may give you some ideas on getting Sarah to eat healthier!