Charlie likes big bird food

[Malikah]

Warning - this is going to be a long winded.

 

I had a female parakeet (Snowy) who would never eat the bean/grain/veggie mix, fresh fruit and veggies, and birdie bread that my Jenday used to eat (along with pellets) so after Jolly passed away I quit offering it.

 

Last year I inherited a sad little male parakeet (Charlie) who only had one perch, one toy, and only ate seed. It didn't take long to realize that he and Snowy really wanted to be in the same cage together. I spent most of the last year trying to switch him to the zupreem pellets that Snowy ate to no avail and she started eating mostly seed. Argh!

 

Once Kito got old enough to start weaning foods I tried again to offer fresh foods to the parakeets but they wouldn't touch it. For months.

 

Snowy passed away in March from a suspected oviduct tumor after 3 different bouts (a few weeks apart) of what looked like egg binding without an egg - which she recovered from after spending a day or 2 in the brooder. I couldn't save her the fourth time. Poor Charlie, I moved his cage into Kito's room so he wouldn't be lonely.

 

Now that Kito is his new love he has suddenly decided to eat real food. Yeah! It seems he is hardly touching the seed anymore - probably because he is stuffing himself full of fresh delicious food now that he has discovered it isn't dangerous. I haven't noticed hin eating any of the pellets yet.

 

Does anyone else have parakeets that eat the same food as their larger parrots? I'm assuming this is healthier for them as well. Any suggestions on getting him to eat pellets other than keep trying?

[JillyBeanz]

Just shows that peer pressure does work! Harvey doesn't tend to eat pellets either - but I've been reading a lot lately about how they *perhaps* mightn't be needed in a bird's diet and are merely a "marketing tool". I don't force Harvey to eat them - I'm quite happy with his varied diet of seeds, nuts, fruit, veggies and protein - much healthier (anyway - have you tasted those pellets)!!!

 

Go Charlie - you'll be a big boy soon enough

[Malikah]

Thanks for the reply Jill. That makes sense. Now I have to figure out how to get him to bathe on his own. He totally hates it when I mist him. I also can't figure out why he molts so much. About every 3 months. He has only had natural light hours since I got him. I'm pretty sure he's 5 years old and is an English American cross.