Ask Lafeber

Switching from Seed to Pellets

I have been trying for the last two weeks to convert my eleven year old Blue Crown Conure from a seed diet to pellets. I have mixed the two together, decreasing the seed amount with each feeding. I also bought Nutriberries and Avicakes. He has not touched the Nutriberries or the Avicakes. He digs through the seed/pellet mixture and eats only the seeds. The Nutriberries and Avicakes were in another dish in his cage. I tried moving the berries and cakes into his main food bowl, but he still hasn’t touched them. I am worried that he is not getting enough to eat with the mixture. Is there a time limit for trying to convert his diet. I don’t want him to starve or get ill. How long should I try to change his diet? Or should I give up?

Hi Laurie,

If you can get your Conure to eat Avi-Cakes and/or Nutri-Berries, there is no need to convert him to pellets. Our diets are nutritionally balanced the same as pellets, but instead of being ground up and pressed into a pellet, they still contain whole ingredients. Avi-Cakes also contain pellets.

Try crumbling the Cakes & Berries into his main dish and offer first thing in the morning instead of seed. Give him time to explore the food and hopefully try it out. Most birds will start eating them crumbled right away, and eventually they learn to eat them without being crumbled. If he still won’t try them, mix in some of his seed. Once he ends up sampling the crumbles, he should start eating them well. The main problem is getting a parrot to recognize new offerings as food.

It can take days, weeks or months to get a parrot to eat a new food. By crumbling these, I doubt it will take more than a few days to a week for him to start enjoying the crumbles. With a pellet/seed combo like you are trying, it might take months for him to start eating the pellets unless you starve him into trying them, which we do not recommend.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda