Tokisdad Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 How long does it take your Grey to accept and eat new food? I got Toki a bag of ZuPreem Harvest Feast 4 days ago and she won’t eat it. She sticks her beak into the bowl, shakes her head and all the food goes flying. Other times she ignores it completely. She likes to eat at night when I put her to bed. I wanted her to eat the ZuPreem, so last night she went to her tree all I gave her was ZuPreem. In the morning she had ignored it and was acting very hungry when I came in. I felt like I was starving her so I got her a bowl of seeds and she dug right in. Should I leave the new food longer and hope she gets hungry enough to eat it? Or just consider it something she won’t accept? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lidia Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 One of the other flock members here soaks the pellets in grape juice to tempt her bird to eat it. I have no personal experience in this as my own bird has a seed-based diet (which, by the way, works fine). I give him the seeds he wants in the morning and again in the evening and in between he gets fresh fruit and vegetables and a bit of whatever I'm having and, in fact, we both just had some grilled steak (he a tiny piece, me a huge piece). He's now eighteen years old and I've had him since he was four months old and he is in perfect health. I'm not suggesting you keep him on a seed diet, but even if you give him pellets, you need to give him a variety of foods to choose from. They can be very picky, like children, and can go off stuff they liked just yesterday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tari Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 It can take months. Just keep offering it along with the food she well eat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dblhelix Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 Making a diet change, particularly to pellets if not already conditioned, can be challenging and take months or even years! However, you need to be persistent if you want to make the switch. That being said, you cannot force the switch and should not deprive the bird of food that they are comfortable with. Some birds literlly will starve themselves to the point of death if they are not offered foods they are used to eating. There is a balance to be struck, keep offering the pellets, try and show the bird they are good (pretend to eat some)but dont deprive them of other foods they are eating. Offer the new foods and continue to "show" how good they are and keep doing this...Eventually, sometimes all of a sudden, they will try the new foods! Remember, these animals live a long time, so in many cases change may be slow to come about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judygram Posted July 28, 2007 Share Posted July 28, 2007 Try soaking the pellets in some kind of juice to get her to eat them. And try putting pellets in with the seeds and gradually increase the pellets and decrease the seeds to try to get her off a mainly seed diet. This will take months or maybe longer but in the long run it will be worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danmcq Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 Hi Loofa, How is Toki Doing with eating for you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judygram Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 Loofa, we do need an update on Toki, we care about your grey and hope everything is going well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeasarsDad Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 Hi Bill.. Here's what I did with Ceasar.. Hand feed him the pellets. Show him that you eat them.. You can you know.. and keep offering them to him.. You will find that he will eat them from your hand and if you show him that you eat them.. I have eaten many a Harrison's pellets in switching Ceasar.. You can do this.. It works.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dblhelix Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 Yes, we sure would like and update and hope there is a positive report! CD makes an excellent point. When the birds see us eating things they tend to instinctively be much more interested and often follow suit. We are their "flock" and they are greatly influenced by us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judygram Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 You know the old saying, monkey see, monkey do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeasarsDad Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 Truly this is how I got Ceasar to eat harrisons.. I would eat a few pellets and then offer him some by hand.. As soon as he started eating just a few pellets he was hooked.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tokisdad Posted August 11, 2007 Author Share Posted August 11, 2007 Hey All, Toki is doing about the same. Zupreem is the only brand of pellets I have tried so far. I give her fresh or canned veggies every day. She loves to shred them into tiny pieces. I also give her fresh fruit everyday. She does the same with it. I hope she is getting some food value from doing this. She still wants to be hand fed in the evenings so I mix up some baby food (oatmeal, mixed veggies and sweet potato's) and feed it to her from a syringe. I sit her by me anytime I am eating, hoping the monkey see monkey do thing will work. She tries everything but usually throws it down. She just doesn't seem to like anything except seeds, baby food and cheese. I only give her about a nickel sized piece of sliced cheese at a time. All I know to do is to keep giving her all these good things to eat and hope she will decide to like something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tokisdad Posted August 11, 2007 Author Share Posted August 11, 2007 I don't have internet at home. So I'll check back in on Monday to look at any other tips or advise anyone may have. Thanks, Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judygram Posted August 11, 2007 Share Posted August 11, 2007 Thats all you can do, but keep doing it, someday she will decide to eat some of the good stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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