Hello,
I have a baby cockatiel that is almost 3 months old. He was handfed. Currently he’s on food that s mixed with seeds and pellets. He only eats the seeds and leaves the pellets. I’ve offer different veggies but he will not indulge. What is the best way to get him to eat a more balanced diet?
Hi Kay,
This is definitely the time to teach him to eat the right foods. The problem with a mix that contains loose seed is that the bird can selectively eat, and do what yours is doing – ignore the only nutritious part of the mix. Seeds are not bad, but the seeds in mixes are usually not fresh enough to retain nutrients. Any vitamins that are added will be lost when the bird hulls the seeds. This is why pellets were invented. Pellets are made with ground seeds & grains, fortified with other nutritious ingredients to provide a balanced diet. Because everything is ground and made into a uniform pellet, the bird can’t selectively feed. However, the traditional pellet isn’t the only way to provide complete nutrition in a single diet. Our Nutri-Berries, Avi-Cakes & Pellet-Berries are nutritionally balanced the same as a pellet, but they aren’t ground up. They contain fresh, hulled seeds mixed with other nutritious ingredients. You can offer these alone, or combined with pellets and your bird will be getting complete nutrition with the added benefit of natural foraging exercise. Most birds will eat these readily, but you can start by offering them crumbled over the regular food and then gradually reduce the amount of the regular mix until he is only eating the Nutri-Berries or Avi-Cakes.
As far as veggies and fruits go, just keep offering different things. It can take a while for a bird to recognize a new offering as food. You can try giving him veggies prepared and cut in different ways – cooked or raw, chopped, grated or larger pieces. Most owners give up too soon. But as long as you get him on a better staple or base diet, the fruits and veggies are not as important.
Here is a link to our feeding guide with more information and suggestions:
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
