Only wants to eat seeds!

[NuNu]

Ziggy doesn't want to eat much of anything but seeds. She throws all pellets out of the cage (I have tried organic and fruit zupreem, roudybush, harrisons, and a few others). She does eat a little hard-boiled or scrambled egg, shredded cheese, green grapes, brussels sprouts and a few other fruits and veggies once in a while. I'm worried about her nutrition. I have tried cutting back on the seed mix to up the percentage of the pellets, but she still threw all the pellets out. I left them on the bottom of the cage thinking she might get hungry and retrieve them, but didn't work. I even tried pretending to eat pellets to get her to think they were delicious people food - HA, she didn't fall for that!

Any suggestions for a finicky eater?

 

Thanks,

NuNu

 

PS I promise I'm going to figure out how to post pictures one of these days.

[Luvparrots]

What I do to my fids is if I believe they are not eating enough of a certain thing, say vegetables, is to remove all seed and fruit for the day and present only pellets and vegetables. I feed what I most want them to eat first in the day because that's when I believe they are the hungriest. I believe our fids will not starve themselves on purpose so they will eat what is available if they are hungry. That is my solution and it works for my grey and Eclectus.

[bonek]

I am agree with janet say B),just try what moderator advice...that best advice!!!good luck{Nature-00020095}

[Tycos_mom]

This is true when I first got Tyco she was on a total seed diet now she loves her pellets and eats more of those than anything else. Jeepers my macaw is a seed junkie also I have been trying to get him to eat other food since I got him but heis so stubborn that takeing his food away doen't work for him he just won't eat if there s nothing he likes so far I've gotten him to eat eggs, pasta,the odd grape and a little bite of apple once in a while he just won't eat he loves eggs so I tried putting things in his eggs but he won't touch them if theres any thing in them. He's a hard one and I won't just totally starve him until he eats. He will go days without eating. Oh well I'lljust keep trying.<br><br>Post edited by: Tycos_mom, at: 2009/06/30 02:14

[TinyTimneh]

Eventually you should aim for her eating a balanced diet (not just seeds and not just pellets for example). As long as there are seeds in the cage she's gonna keep flinging the pellets out because she can eat the seeds.

My advice for now is to stop offering her seeds completely. Give her only pellets first thing in the morning--she'll be pretty hungry. If she doesn't eat them that's her problem--I'm betting that a day or two of nothing to eat if she refuses pellets will convince her to change her mind though.

Obviously if there is a drastic drop in weight (keep a close eye on her weight and general condition) stop doing this and give her her seed back. If she isn't quite up to par health-wise don't try this tactic and if she hasn't eaten in two days give her a little bit of seed on night two. This method is only for healthy parrots of a good weight.

Then keep at it with the same routine--after they get hungry enough most birds think those pellets look pretty good.

Once she's eating the pellets regularly you can start re-introducing some seeds into her diet. Do try as slightly more tasty brand like the natural zupreem or harrisons because obviously the moment you start re-introducing seed into her diet she's gonna totally forgo the pellets if they taste bland.

Good luck!