seed addiction -? choosing to starve

[stone]

I give a nice cooked cereal to my 11 year old bird every am. When I go away or every now and then, I give her seeds as they are part of a birds diet. I dont like to give them to her because of how wierd she acts. (When Im gone it helps others care for her.) When I cut back on the seeds, she gets strange and starts refusing to eat anything else, even if she has already for days or a weeks. Suddenly she stops and will starve herself for seeds.If no seeds, shell sit and sleep until its dinner time, saving her energy.What is with this??? Should I never give her seeds? I could mix some in with her cooked cereallike sunflower,her favorite are safflower. Also, after the catfood scare, I am worried about the pellet foods. They also have sugar in them that I question giving the bird. She gets plenty of fruit as she holds out for it the same way as for seeds. I give her veggies and she treats them like an insult and tosses them angrily away . If you cant starve a bird into eating what do you do when she does it? I hate to condone bad behaviour either.

[TheGreyMiester]

What about the pellets? Is she eating the pellets? If She is eating pellets, seeds and fruit, then all you are having problems with is the veggy stuff. Perhaps introduce the veggys slower and you might even want to cut the veggys in to small pellet sized pieces and see how that works.

[Guest]

Welcome to the forum, Stone

 

That sounds like one strong-willed bird you got there. If she loves seeds so much and she is getting all the other foods and eat those as well, why is it a problem to supplement her diet with those seeds?

 

Am I overlooking something?