How do I get the boys to try new foods?

[lovinbirdies]

Hello .... how do I get Hedwig and Al to try fruits and veggies? We've been offering them some, but they don't eat them. We've even tried to just leave them in their cage, but we have to throw them away in the end because they go bad. I want them to get the best possible nutrition, but I don't think that they would appreciate me force feeding them ... there has to be something that I'm doing wrong. Thanks for the help.

[r2pn23]

I found with George that the only way he would even look at a vegetable was to put a chunk of it on a hanging metal kabob stick and let him chew and explore it rather than offering him already prepared food

as soon as i hung something up on his cage (broccoli, carrot, pumpkin etc) he would immediately go over to it and start devouring it. alot of the time more ended up on him and the floor than what he was eating, but even if he didnt eat any of it he was getting use to the taste and chewing/shredding something that was safe for him!

[Bea]

You can also try mixing something like grated carrot or finely chopped broccoli heads with some seeds. They'll try to pick out the seeds but usually get a taste for the veggies, and most like them. :) It's important to offer them fresh veggies every day, even if they aren't eating them yet. Continued exposure will leave them more likely to try something.

[lovinbirdies]

Ok I will try that ... I'm just going to try and continue offering them something every day. Eventually they will catch on huh?!? Hedwig is a bit more cautious than Al ... so maybe he will see Al eating and become more curious.

[sweetrsue]

You can even hand a whole leaf of Bok choy or Romaine lettuce. They seem more likely to try it if it is hanging like a toy. The same holds true for kabobs.

[xxxSpikexxx]

Just keep trying :) Spike really likes his peas and broccoli. The more variety you give them when they are young the better. That way they are more likely to keep trying new things.

[Terri Peters]

I get Holly to eat new things by eating it first. Whatever she sees me eating she has to have some too and she wants it NOW So far she hasn't turned her nose up to anything, but it did take me a few weeks to catch on to this trick and get her to try things for the first time. Now when I open the fridge, she is all about hoping something is coming out for her.

[tielfan]

Most cockatiels don't recognize fruit as food, but most of them will learn to eat at least some vegetables if you're patient and persistent.

Here’s how I got my tiels to start eating a better diet. I got a special food cup and put a small amount of their very favorite treats in it, along with some new foods I wanted them to try. At first they mostly ate the treats but eventually started eating some of the new foods too. It helps if you can half-bury the treats under the new food so they have to touch the new food to get at the treat.

It helps if the new foods don’t look too different from the seed diet they’re used to. To get them used to moist foods I gave them some cooked whole grains (from the local natural-foods grocery) then switched over to sprouted seeds and grains. Sprouts are easy to make and are an excellent source of nutrition. They’re best when the root is just barely starting to emerge, and they still look a lot like a seed at this point. Since sprouts are already moist, they’re a good vehicle for red palm oil and other supplements that you can add just before you feed them.

I also taught my birds to take treats from my hand and sometimes offered new foods this way. Sometimes they wouldn’t take the new food, but sometimes they would! This is how they learned to eat pellets, and they still prefer to take pellets from my hand instead of eating them from a dish.

With fruits and veggies it pays to experiment with the presentation. Some birds like stuff cut up in chunks in a bowl and others like it some other way. My birds mostly prefer their veggies whole and hanging up. They prefer certain shapes too. In the wild, cockatiels eat a lot of seed and also chew on the stems of grass and other plants to extract the juices. My birds like vegetables that resemble either a seed or a stem. They don’t like big broad leaves, and cutting big leaves into thin strips doesn’t fool them.

Their very favorite ‘vegetable’ is lawn grass (chemical free of course). Unripe seed heads are a definite plus. We humans can’t digest it but it’s part of the birds’ wild diet so I think it’s great. They like ‘stemmy’ or narrow-leaved vegetables like thin asparagus, dandelion greens, carrot tops, green beans, and cilantro. They also like seed-like vegetables: corn kernels, peas, broccoli (the florets look like unripe seed heads).

[lovinbirdies]

Thank you all so much, and thank you tielfan for taking the time to type that out. We're going to try several ways that you guys suggested, and we'll let you know how it works out with these stubborn boys.

[Solace.]

Mine get frozen cooked veggies, only they won't eat them if they've been cooked and just put into a dish, I have to actually mash it all up and they wait for it to get cool (weird I know) and then go for it, not leaving anything left in the dish.

That's the only way they'll eat it, I've tried several other ways but will they take it? NO WAY! so you could get a bag of mixed veggies and cook them and mash them all up and see if they'll eat it like that.

[tielfan]

thank you tielfan for taking the time to type that out.

Heh heh, well I actually didn't type it out just now! This question gets asked so often that I wrote up a standard response and just copy and paste it when needed. Sometimes I do a little light editing to customize it for somebody's individual situation.

[skthurley]

You could also try soaking and sprouting his seed mix, and also sprouting legumes. These are quite healthy and most, if not all, birds take to them really well. This could help them get used to moist foods and you could eventually add in minced veggies.

Another great idea:
Take some of his seed mix, soak in water, then plant in some soil and grow it into 5 inch long shoots. Then cut and offer to your bird. My parrotlet loved this!

[LoveBilly]

There are certainly a lot of interesting ideas on this thread! I am desperate to get Billy to eat something other than seeds (and the occasional Beak Appetit). He absolutely will NOT try veggies the way I have presented them, but then I presented them in a way that looked good to me. (By the way, I dislike most veggies). I think I will try hanging some in the cage next, as well as some cooked brown rice. And, I will disguise some in a bowl with some millet seeds, Billy loves his Millet. Let us hope.... ;)

[Katta]

Mine will try anything as long as it's on a "people plate". If I leave it on the floor or clip it to the side, they don't even look at it. But noooooo, if it's on the same plate mommy eats from it's suddenly interesting. It's how I have to introduce new toys too haha.
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