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Can't convert to pellets


tikobird256

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I've tried to convert mine to pellets but after a lengthy time I had to give her the seed mixture so she'd eat. I tried putting a little juice or spice on the pellets, mixing them with the seeds in different amounts. Nothing worked for months. Why do they put so many things in the seed mix that she won't eat? She's never liked the dried fruit or vegetables but will eat fresh. I end up throwing a lot away and it's a waste of money. She never eats the pumpkin seeds that are in almost all the mixes or the tiny white seeds. What should I do? Nothing works and she's 20. She used to eat the pellets for years. I don't remember why I switched a few years ago.

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Timber won't eat pellets either, and I really think he'd starve if that is all he had. He is underweight anyway, so it's a chance I can't take. So, his diet is vegetables, meat and seed. He does waste a lot, but I don't care as long as he is maintaining his weight. Have you tried birdie bread? It's cornbread but you can add baby food and all kinds of things to slip by her if she likes it.

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If she loves fresh veggies, that's the best food to feed her. Chop some up ahead of time and refrigerate the extra to feed over the course of 3-4 days or so. A primarily seed diet is unhealthy and could contribute to fatty liver over time. Seed should be offered in small amounts, with the majority being a wide variety of fresh veggies with some fruit.

 

 

Edited by Greytness
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  • 1 year later...

Blu was also not liking pellets, if I give him pellets when he is really hungry then he will eat some and throw most of it. It was a great wastage.

I use Zupreem Fruit Blend Flavour for African Greys, I realised that they are made very hard; so difficult to swallow. Then next day what I did was I soaked them with little amount of water.

After 3-4 mins of soaking when I gave it to Blu, I think he really liked it. I think others should try this method also. 

Do let me know how your parrot reacted to soaked pellets.

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I think it may work, if you try it this way : -

Keep the bird hungry for 12 hours then offer it soaked pellets.

If the bird eats it then fine; otherwise repeat it after 24 hours.

After 24 hours most of them will like it.

Then repeat the same for another 3-4 days.

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Alfie would literally starve himself to death rather than eat something he didn't like. I've never had much luck with veggies or pellets. He is getting a bit better at trying new foods these days, but they often get dropped or flung within seconds.

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Only 7 of my birds like to eat pellets in their natural state. I only offer the organic Harrison's pellets. I do make my own  birdie bread where I use a food processor to finely grind up the pellets which I use as the bread's 'flour', along with any veggies they normally won't eat. LOL! Daily mine get a large variety of fresh veggies that they normally do eat, sprouts and some fruit in the morning and a small amount of high quality seed/nut/pods/dried fruit mixture that doesn't contain sunflower seeds or peanuts, a few raw nuts (macaws receive more) and pellets.

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@AkkiDa My CAG grazes all day, I would never withhold food.  And frankly, soaked pellets sounds gross to me.  If my CAG absolutely refused pelleted food -- I'd just let him win that battle. 

@tikobird256 Mine is an overall good eater -- but after 24 years it makes sense that he's 'accidentally' tried most foods and eventually decided they weren't the devil's poison.  Mine readily accepts fresh fruit/veg, cooked rice&pasta, some nuts -- plus mine eats some of my dinner (as well as eating seed and pellets).  But when I got him, he'd eaten mostly seed (but he did already like fruit).  

I say keep offering him things.  And I don't mix/hide foods -- mine likes to carefully select and examine each morsel he eats.  So you probably won't fool yours by 'mixing' or 'hiding' it in with other foods.  My experience, anyway.

As far as waste, I dump all his dishes outside and the outdoor birdies/squirrels eat what mine 'didn't eat'.  "Didn't eat" doesn't mean rejected, I just put too much in his dishes. 

Edited by LNCAG
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Alfie gets a small amount of seed mix with no sunflower seeds or peanuts. I offer him roudybush pellets as I have been through every single pellet that I can find and these are the only ones that he sometimes eats a small amount of- but if he gets a bowl with just pellets he immediately tips it out. He gets a small amount of dried fruit and I have a veggie soaking mix that I offer regularly (that he mostly ignores). I offer him fresh raw veggies whenever I'm preparing my dinner and he'll SOMETIMES take a little nibble. Managed to get him to eat a couple of bites of raw carrot yesterday- usually he would just fling it straight back at me. I offer him safe food options off my plate but he's never normally interested. He never steals from my plate either.

I also have a soaking mix for pulses/beans but he detests that. I have tried sprouting too - no luck there either.

He liked sweet potato mash for a while so I kept hiding finely chopped veggies in that. Now he won't touch sweet potato mash, even if it's plain. (But eats regular mashed potatoes when we visit my parents!)

He gets pine nuts as training treats (as they are his absolute favourite) and he gets small pieces of walnuts and other pieces of mixed nuts occasionally- usually hidden away in foraging toys.

I try and mix it up for him and try lots of different ways of offering healthier food options- I've hung fruit and veg off a skewer, I have created foraging trays with treats and veggies hidden in it, I have pretended that it's something really tasty that he can't have (he just walks off, uninterested). I've tried raw as well as cooked (in various ways). 

I call it a win when he actually tries something- as most of the time he'll just ignore it or fling it at me. 😄

He has quite a few foraging toys now so I use those and put a mix of all his dry foods plus a few treats in (nothing fresh or wet because they're a bugger to clean out). My hope is that he'll accidentally eat some of the foods he would normally ignore in his bowl (like the pellets) whilst trying to get to the good stuff.

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6 hours ago, AkkiDa said:

What all seeds do you give your parrot to eat?

The best I have found is Higgins Premium Mayan Harvest Yucatan.  I give it to all my birds from CAGs down to the little guys - conures.    They act like I'm bringing out the crack cocaine when they see me with the bag.   They only get it once every couple of weeks or so as a treat.     I love it because GreycieMae comes back with star anise and spearmint breath.   She smells delish after she eats this stuff.    Have a look at the ingredients, it's some super stuff.

 

 

Edited by SRSeedBurners
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