I’ve tried everything to switch my Quaker from a seed diet which he was on for 4 years before I adopted him. I’ve tried so many different types of vegetables and fruits but no luck. He does like bread but too fattening. Don’t know what else to do. Don’t want to lose him.
Hi Linda,
This is a common concern, mainly because most owners give up too soon. The owner worries that the bird is going to starve. Tough love is hard! But any bird can be converted to a better diet within two weeks if you do it correctly and do not give in and give him seeds. We do have foraging diets that are formulated the same as pellets, but the ingredients are left whole We use fresh, human grade seeds with the hulls removed, coated in a nutritionally balanced binder. Your bird gets complete nutrition in every bite. Seeds are not bad, but the seeds in mixes are not fresh enough to retain their nutrients, and added vitamins as lost when the bird removes the hulls. Our Avi-Cakes, Nutri-Berries and Pellet-Berries can be fed alone or combined with pellets to provide complete nutrition. It is best to first get the bird off of the loose seed mix and worry about fresh foods later. If he learns to eat our diets or any pelleted diet, he will get the nutrition he needs even if he never eats fresh foods. Fresh foods are recommended because a parrot’s natural diet is varied, so ideally you want him to eat some fresh foods as 20% of his daily diet.
We have some webinars on teaching a bird to eat better. And we also have Foraging Fun Packs, which contain small sizes of our most popular diets so you can start him off with a variety. We recommend starting out by crumbling the cake or berrie over his regular food, and then gradually reduce the amount of loose seeds and increase the cakes or berries until he is only eating the new food. Once he is eating the crumbled berries or cakes, you can teach him to eat them without breaking them up for him. Below are links to help you get started.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
