My parakeet won’t eat any fruit or vegetables.He just eats seeds, he only once nibbled a little of a cherry and then he never again touched it! I don’t know what to do,I don’t want him to get sick.Could you please send a list of food that parakeets enjoy.
Hi Margarita,
The first thing you need to do is to get him on a better daily diet – seeds do not provide much nutrition at all. The seeds in loose mixes is usually no longer fresh enough to retain many nutrients, and any vitamins are lost when the bird hulls the seeds. I would recommend that you try him on our Nutri-Berries. Our Nutri-Berries and other foraging diets are formulated the same as a pelleted diet, but they are not ground up. They contain fresh whole, hulled seeds and other nutritious ingredients to provide a nutritionally balanced daily diet. Your bird should convert easily – crumble the Nutri-Berries and mix half & half with the seed mix. Gradually decrease the amount of seeds and increase the Nutri-Berries until he is not getting any of the loose seed mix at all. Eventually he will learn to eat the Nutri-Berries without you having to break them up.
You can still try offering fresh foods. Parakeets do not eat much fruit. But they do love fresh greens and veggies. Try attaching dark, leafy greens to the side of the cage next to a perch. Another favorite is broccoli florets, which you can also clip to the side of the cage. You can try various chopped veggies. Most birds do not eat fresh foods because they do not recognize new offerings as food. You can also put some chopped veggies on top of his daily diet, or sprinkle some of his daily diet over his veggies. Most owners give up too soon. Some birds will take months to start eating new foods. Just keep trying, but if you at least get him on a balanced daily diet, the fresh foods are not as important. Here is a guide to feeding with more suggestions:
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
