Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 11/15/2006

Question
Hello Chrys.

I thank you for your help in the past helping me wean my baby pearl Cockatiel. Your information has been most helpful, and thank's to you, I have her fully weaned. She doesn't want the syringe anymore (at least, not right now). I'm faced with another problem. She likes her rice, apple sauce, and oatmeal, however, I had bought her some pellet's to mix in with her seed in hope's she'd eat them. To no avil, she won't. I've also tried soaking the pellets in apple juice and still she doesn't show interest. She'll go for hours if not almost an entire day and not touch them. She rather have her seed. I know seed is "dead nutrition" and I want her to be healthy. She's a very active and playful bird, and I'd like to keep her that way with a good diet. Can you give me any suggestion's on how to make her eat her pellet's, because I don't want to see her go hungry though at the same time, I want her to eat healthy too.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth

Answer
Hi, Elizabeth.  

Birds won't eat food they don't recognize as food, so keep offering the pellets.  Also, sometimes mixing the pellets and seed together doesn't work because birds prefer the seeds to the pellets, and they'll just pick the seeds out.  What you'll need to do is keep dry pelleted food (without seed mixed in) in her cage 24/7.  Allow her to have as much other foods as she needs during the day (as your time will allow), and only offer the seed after she has eaten/is full of the other foods (for example, at the end of the day).  Goal would be to wean her off seed completely.  Also, you may have to experiment with different brands of pelleted food.  Some birds prefer the brown pellets, some birds prefer the fruit blend pellets, some small birds like the small pellets, some small birds like the next sized pellets, some birds like the flavor of Zupreem pellets, some like the flavor of Pretty Bird pellets, etc., etc.  Birds can be very picky eaters!  However, your tiel will likely not eat pellets as long as seed is available to her at the same time.  Do what you can to fill her up with other foods so she doesn't need the seed.  Also, instead of seed, give her spray millet, which is more nutritional than seed.  You may have to let your bird go for an entire day without eating in order to get her to eat her pellets...most birds won't starve themselves if food is available.  However, you have to ensure your tiel has had time to recognize this new food as food before taking seed away completely.  Soaking the pellets in apple juice changes the form of the pellets so the pellets soaked in juice is actually a new food to your tiel.  Keep offering the pellets dry.  

Sometimes it helps to crush pellets up and sprinkle them over/mix them in soft food so the bird gets a taste of this new food.  Then gradually place whole pellets in with the soft food.  Eventually, you can place pellets next to soft food in the same dish.  Then, pellets only in a separate dish altogether.

Try some of the above suggestions over a period of time, and come back if you need additional help.

Chrys