Question: How to get my bird to eat something other than SEEDS!?
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Answer #1:
Not an easy task now that she is hooked on seeds.
Every day offer finely chopped fruit, veggies and and pellets first thing in the morning.
NO seeds until late afternoon - when you usually feed her the second meal.
If she will eat from your hand, eat pieces of cantaloupe in your fingers and offer her some. They like Ripe fruit. Good luck,
Answer #2:
if u get her used to different foods being in her cage, she'll start eating it
Answer #3:
Surprisingly, my cockatiel, Dewey, took well to the big switch about a year-and-a-half ago! He hasn't gone back to a seed diet since :)
I'm apart of a cockatiel message board and the members on the website helped me a lot with the transaction. The board also has a website with a whole bunch of information about cockatiels which helped me out, too! The person who runs the message board and the fills the website up with knowledgeable information about 'tiels is an avian specialist. Here's the page she has up on the website regarding seeds vs. pellets:
Click Here It's a little extra information about making the switch. Here's some additional information:
Click Here And finally, here's the page that will help you switch your bird from the seed to pellet diet:
Click Here
With the links you posted, it looks like you're already feeding your bird a mixture of seeds and pellets, am I right? This is the start of it all!
The site owner has an e-mail address on the Home page of the website (
Click Here ) which you can use to contact her if you have additional information regarding the diet change. Good luck!
Answer #4:
When dealing with a picky bird, I shred a couple of carrots and put them in the bottom of the seed cup. Then, I sprinkle a few seeds on top. The carrots will have seeds stuck to them, so she must eat at least some of the carrot shreds while she is trying to eat the seeds. You can also try this trick with lettuce and other fruit.
Answer #5:
my cockatiel adjusted well to pellets when i mixed seeds with pellets. she saw the seeds, so she recognized it as her normal food. gradually cut back on the amount of seed u put in it. i started at half and half. then 2/3 &1/3, now its less than 1/4 seeds. she now dislikes her seeds and deliberately drops most of them on the side of her dish as if they were in the way of her eating pellets.her diet was changed over the course of 2 weeks. don't cut out seeds totally though. they are still an important part of the diet. i do recommend plain tan colored pellets so she can see the seeds, and not the bright colors of the other stuff.
for new foods, i strictly placed it in one part of her cage. i stuck it between the bars. the first thing i tried was a small piece bread (about the size of my thumb). i ate some while standing in front of her cage (flock behavior - u eat, they eat) i kept tapping the bread and whistling. i let her be after i finished my bread. she went over and nibbled at it. next thing i new, she ripped it out of the cage bars and ate the whole thing!!!! i did the same thing with mango and scrambled egg. Now, if im even near that corner of the cage, she is looking for food that i have stuck in the bars. she learned this in less that a month.
lemme know of any other questions you have!
stoopidmunkee
-Amanda
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