Parrots eating fresh foods

[LNCAG]

I have been blessed with a CAG who will try most fresh veggies/fruits (esp if he see me eating them first).

Have many here had difficulty with 'seed junkies" or "picky eaters?"  Been there, done that.  I truly feel your pain.

My CAG came to me believing only seed and pellets were edible.  That said, only certain 'coloured' pellets met his approval (still true -- the orange round 'basketballs' in Zupreem are deemed inedible -- who knows why??)  He refuses all other brands of pellet brands and WILL NOT eat non-coloured pellets.  (sigh)

I am so thankful today to have a CAG who will eat most anything.  Granted, I've had him 22 years and I don't pretend that was an easy road.

His fave these days are his morning apple/grapes/melon, (whatever fruit I have on hand) etc..   (But apples ARE his favourite -- not red/yellow delicious or rome -- he likes the crisper, sweeter, less mealy types -- the "special" apples). Yeah, he's picky now re: apples.  Don't ever offer a special apple to a CAG who gratefully accepts red delicious or romes -- they get SPOILED like us, desiring only the crispest sweetest apples available! 

His favourite supper is fresh veg (sometimes frozen, sometimes actually fresh, sometimes a mix) with some rice (and sometimes pasta -- whole wheat).

I always keep a bowl of Zupreem pellets available for him to snack on, it's like an "all day" available snack. 

What does YOUR Grey eat and enjoy???

Thanks in advance -- I am always curious. 
 

 

[Greytness]

All 3 of my greys are great eaters! Their breakfast consists of power greens, snap peas, sweet potatoes, banana, pomegranate arils, a grape, sprouts, my homemade birdie bread that is baked with all the veggies they turn their beaks up at, a drop of organic red palm oil, and my freeze dried blend of veggies. In the evening they get raw soaked nuts, more birdie bread, and a tsp. or two of large billed deluxe avian cuisine that doesn't contain any sunflower seeds or peanuts.

They each love to snack on any steamed vegetable that I'm eating, usually broccoli and/or carrots.

Most of my other birds are more selective. 

[neoow]

I think I've mentioned this elsewhere but Alfie is an extremely picky eater. Anything new is either stared at or flung as far away as possible.

His absolute favourite treat right now is cedar nuts - so I keep them for training and positive reinforcement purposes. He enjoys dried banana chips. He used to love fresh banana but has gone off that. Grapes are another favourite.

His daily meals consist of a seed mix with dried fruit, dried veg and a few nuts. He seems to preferred dried fruit and veg over fresh or cooked - though he does sometimes eat sugar snap peas, mashed potato and cooked peas and sweetcorn. He did try some butternut squash and sweet potato recently as I found a couple of pieces with bite marks. But I don't think he approved because any subsequent attempts to feed him those two veggies ended up on the cage floor.

I have tried every pellet that I can get my hands on with no joy. I have tried every trick in the book to get him to eat pellets as part of his diet but he resists every time. I will not entertain the idea of only ever leaving pellets in his bowl with no other food source as I think he would rather starve himself than try them. 

I persevere and try to present food in different ways to see if I can crack him. He seems to like it when I created a foraging tray for him and hide food in there, so I'm using that method to try and sneak some veggies in. Most still get flung though, with the occasional beak mark!

I recently tried sprouting but that went down like a lead balloon.

I am toying with the idea of getting a dehydrator but my kitchen is so small I don't currently have the surface space or storage space for one. But if he carries on eating dried veggies then I may have to go back to that idea. Not as good as fresh of course, but I'll take it!

Edited August 8, 2019 by neoow

[Timbersmom]

Timber is a very picky eater. He will eat cooked sweet potato, cooked mixes like Higgins and soak'n'serve. He won't eat chop or birdie bread, both of which I have tried numerous times. He will eat sweet peas and a bit of broccoli if I put it on a skewer. He is a junk food junkie of course, and will eat anything deemed bad for him (i.e. pizza, cheese, hot dogs, etc.) He does like pasta and meat, which is a little surprising to me. Since he is so thin, the avian vet said to feed him meat if he will eat it and he does. He likes several kinds of cooked beans. He likes to shred artichokes (I cut the ends off, peel off some of the outer leaves, wash it well and open it up then toss it in his cage). I'm not sure how much he actually eats, but he enjoys the process. As for dry items, he eats nutriberries and a quality seed mix. I still give him 3 cc's of juvenile formula morning and night per the vet's instructions. He's a mess!

[LNCAG]

32 minutes ago, neoow said:

I have tried every pellet that I can get my hands on with no joy. I have tried every trick in the book to get him to eat pellets as part of his diet but he resists every time. I will not entertain the idea of only ever leaving pellets in his bowl with no other food source as I think he would rather starve himself than try them. 

Understood.  And I don't think an all pellet diet would be healthy.  I emphasize fresh foods.

But I do like to leave mine a bowl with a few in it, in case he gets the munchies when I'm not home.  I view pellets sort of like a cereal -- more of a snack food that's not too unhealthy.  (Mine's cage had multiple food bowls, hence one kept specifically for pellets or twice-weekly seed treats).

[neoow]

Yeah the pellets were just to try and get him to eat something else that I can leave him during the day. But no joy there. I wouldn't ever move him to a pellet only diet.