Talk Cockatiels Forum banner

New Cockatiel - Pet shop was feeding him something else -

3K views 17 replies 8 participants last post by  roxy culver 
#1 ·
Hi everyone,

I got Pablo my cockatiel 6 days ago. When i bought him from the pet store, the lady at the pet store said she was feeding him hagens Tropimix for small parrots. (not for cockatiels).

So I bought it and brought it home, and noticed it has raisins in it. I have been removing the raisans as I dont know if they are okay or not.

Is it okay for my Pablo to be eating this mixture because the food was $25 and since he is used to it, I do not want him to starve. I been mixing cockatiel food called extreme by F.M BRown and this Hagens Tropimix to get him used to other seeds. I have been leaving pellets for him but he doesn't touch them often.

But since hes used to this food and hes in a new environment, he took a day just to eat and I am worried and don't want to take the Tropimix away right away as he might starve.

I have been mixing veges with his seed in the morning for 1 hour as well because he wont eat veges at all. Am slowly introducing it since he wont touch any veges i clip in his cage. Looks like the pet store didn't feed him veges.

Any suggestions?:yellow pied:
 
See less See more
#2 ·
I have heard that raisins aren't good for cockatiels, so it may be good that you've been picking them out. Someone else may have more information on this, though.

The food that I feed my tiel is Roudybush Maintenance Mini, as well as fruits and veggies. When discussing food with our vet, the vet was very happy with this diet. I don't know anything about the food you have, this is just what I suggest.

One way to help tiels try new foods is to eat them yourself. I know it sounds funny, but it really works with Sammy. If he doesn't want to try something, I'll put it on a plate as though it's for me and munch on some while he watches. It always peaks his interest and he will willingly take some nibbles.
 
#4 · (Edited)
Honestly, he probably wasn't eating the raisins anyway...I've never seen a cockatiel actually eat dried fruit. I would observe him eating (or just look at his bowl to see which seed husks you can find). This will tell you which seeds/parts he actually is consuming. As long as the replacement food contains those, you can mix it with what he is used to. Also, if you're worried about him not eating enough, you can give him spray millet as a comfort food for a week or so while he is settling in.

FWIW, my birds won't eat veggies or pellets if they are mixed with seed, only if offered separately. I feed budgie-sized Zupreem fruit blend mixed with Roudybush crumbles for pellets, and various brands of small parrot seed. For veggies, I usually have the most luck offering leafy greens and broccoli (big pieces I clip to the cage bars like toys). It might take him a while to get into veggies, but if he is at least eating pellets he'll be okay for now. You could also try Nutriberries.
 
#5 ·
my bird has never eaten dried fruit. she picks the dried fruit out of her nutriberries specifically so she doesn't eat it, so i wouldn't be too worried i she ate any. she also won't eat any veggies mixed with anything, they have to be on a tubberware lid separate from her other food.
i feed her harrisons food, but a lot of birds really don't like it since it's got a really plain taste so getting them to eat it is kind of hard sometimes.

sometimes my bird will also just stare at any fruits or veggies until i eat one in front of her. why eat her own food when she can just eat mine, i guess lol
 
#6 ·
it's been over 3 weeks since I got my cockatiel Pablo, a 2 1/2 year old cockatiel at the pet store who is only eating seeds.

I saw him nibble on pellets a couple of times but would never take more then a couple of nibbles so I attempted a cold turkey approach. I decided for 1 day to not feed him any seeds and it felt horrible. He screamed all day, constantly looked for seeds, and trashed his pellets out of the bowl looking for seeds in the pellet dish. 1 hour before bed he ate probably 20 pellets then went to sleep . I checked his droppings and it didn't look like it had any poop so back to the seed diet I go.

He knows he can eat pellets but just won't. It was a horrible experience that I don't think I can attempt again. When i tried this with my budgies they didn't make a fuss and ate the pellets. I guess I am a bad owner for trying to force the pellets on him.


I feel terrible.
 
#7 ·
Please don't ever do that again. Birds will starve themselves instead of eating. Have you tried offering nutriberries? They are seed balls that are the equivalent nutritionally of pellets and work great for only seed eaters. He would only need one or two a day along with his normal seed.

That being said, it takes time to change a birds diet. You have to be patient. If he hasn't really settled in yet and learned to trust you, he's not going to accept new food either. So I would recommend taking it slow, but not pushing it. Another really good idea is to offer pellets only for the first hour of the day, then seeds the rest of the day. Make sure the take the seeds out at bedtime so that he is hungry in the morning. He may eat them, he may not, but you just keep trying.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Yeah i read on a few sites that for the stubborn bird it was okay to try controlled cold turkey approach.
Mind you I gradually worked up to it. Pablo (cockatiel) was tasting the pellets. He just wouldnt eat them for long so I thought this method would work.

Here is one of the few websites:

http://www.roudybush.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=birdbrain.foodswitch (controlled)

I decided not to do it again. I will just keep trying with different foods.

I ordered some nutriberries because there are none in my area.

I also am attempting to sprout seeds for the first time, but I am very nervous about it.

I am scared it will spoil and I won't know if it is spoiled or not.

I don't know if I need to use a new clean strainer each time I rinse or not?

Also, I read on different sites that using organic apple cider vinegar is a good way to remove any bacteria on the sprouts, but I read different uses. Please tell me which one is appropiate =(

1. Spray the seeds with apple cider vinegar before serving the sprouts.
or
2. Soak the sprouts for 2-5 minutes in 1 part apple cider vinegar and 5 parts water. Rinse afterwards then serve.
3. Soak in apple cider vinegar for 10-15 minutes then serve (Did not say dilution , if any)

So different sites all have different opinions on sprouting so it makes it very confusing for me.

I have been attempting my first sprout and it is my 2nd day and some of the seeds (only about 10%) have tips but not all. I was reading it only takes 2 days for the tails to come but most of my seeds dont have tails . I guess I will wait until tomorrow. So far I am using the soak for 10 hours then rinse every 12 hours method. During the day I try rinsing every 3-6 hours if I can. I am attempting to sprout only bird seeds, safflower, sunflower, millet, canary. (hagens mix)

Can someone give me a for sure guide to know if the sprouts are gone bad?
 
#9 ·
http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=9019 this sticky in the library has really good tips on sprouting.

I personally never used apple cider vinegar in my sprouts. If they are spoiled, you will smell it, trust me. It may take you a couple tries to get it right, but don't give up. Also remember that not all seed mixes sprout and this is due to the poor quality of the seed (it's also a good way to check the quality of your seed.)
 
#11 · (Edited)
Sorry, bit of a long story, I hope some of it is useful to you though!

If the seeds won't sprout at all, it could be they are poor quality or simply too old (just like old seeds for planting in your garden do not always sprout, even if the quality is/was good) It may also be that some kinds of seeds take longer to sprout. To be sure you could make a second batch (just for testing this, not necessarily to have your bird eat them) and see if some of the seeds do take longer to sprout than others. I haven't tried sprouting seeds yet myself, so no useful advice on that from me, but I did hear it takes most people a couple of tries to get it right.

When I got Puck, he was on an all-seed diet too. He was still very young (around 8 weeks I believe) and only just recently had started eating completely on his own. He was partially handfed because his parents refused to feed him anymore (it is illegal here to handfeed a bird unless it is to save it from starving if the parents won't feed it themselves) But since it is easier to make sure a bird doesn't get a shortage of nutrients with pellets, I did want to switch him to those.
At first I gave him two separate bowls:
  • One bowl filled with seeds
    It's a mixture for Lovebirds, not perfect but he loves it and it was the only one I could find at that time, that had no sunflower seeds in it.
  • One filled with pellets
    I currently still feed him this, they're Versele-Laga's NutriBird B14 pellets (for tiels, neophema's and lovebirds). But I checked and there's quite a lot of colouring in this food (and they smell reaaaaallly sweet) so I would recommend getting something else. I plan to switch Puck to a different pellet eventually, too.

He refused to try the pellets until I pretended to eat some myself. Still, he wouldn't eat much of it at all, maybe 3 pellets a day? So I decided to give him a 50/50 mixture of seed and pellets in a single bowl, and give him a measured amount of this mixture daily (making sure he'd get enough food even if he would refuse to eat the pellets in the mix).
Then I would give him a fresh batch of this every day, so I could see how much he ate of the pellets. To my surprise he did start eating more of the pellets then, although he still prefers the seeds.
Knowing that he will now definitely eat the pellets, I give him a fuller bowl, and just let him decide when he wants to eat his pellets and when he eats his seeds. I'll give him a fresh batch whenever he has somehow pooped in his bowl (he still sits in his bowl while eating sometimes) or when he has eaten so much of it that what is left isn't enough to feed him for an entire day (I have school during the daytime but the hours are irregular).

I think I'll continue to give him a 50/50 mix of seeds and pellets, as in my opinion eating seed is part of a bird's natural behaviour and as such should the bird be able to show this behaviour. Puck regularly gets fresh vegetables and fruit (we're still trying to figure out which ones he likes) so I don't worry about him not getting all the nutrients he needs with this food.

And yeah, he'll definitely try to eat anything I (pretend to) eat myself, as he was terrified of green beans when I got him, and now actually likes eating them, after he saw me eating them for dinner :p
 
#12 · (Edited)
its been almost 2 months now and Pablo wont eat pellets or vegetables or fruit. He tries sprouts but shakes his head and throws it on the floor.

I give him kale carrots and brocolli every day, apples every 2nd to third day, boiled egg once a week, sometimes strawberries bananas and lettuce but he wont eat them. I tried hanging them on a kabob and sprinkling seeds over it for over a month now and he wont eat it. I tried hiding millet inside kale and nothing. I give him mixed veges with his seeds every morning and he wont eat it. I tried grinding up zupreem pellets and sprinkling it on veges, on his seeds and he still wont touch them. I am starting to lose hope he will ever eat healthy. My budgies only took a week to try new veges and they took to pellets in 3 days.

I got nutriberries in the mail recently and he wont eat those either. I am really at a loss.

All he wants is millet and safflower seed. He would eat sunflower but i only give them sparingly.

I never had this issue with my pet budgies :( He also doesn't trust me yet either. So if i eat in front of him he doesn't care. He doesn't like leaving his cage much . He is a 2 1/2 year old rehomed bird. I dont know much about what happened to him before besides the fact he was homed with anotehr cockatiel for a year or longer.

I'm a little stressed out, I didn't think it would be this difficult to make him happy and healthy. He is pretty cage bound and dislikes humans.
 
#13 ·
Like I had previously stated, this can take time. Every bird is different and he has to learn that humans aren't scary. It's definitely going to take longer than just two months.

Do you hang the kale in his cage like a toy? That always worked for my picky eaters. Tiels don't really eat a lot of fruit, I could never get mine to eat any, although some do like it. Taming is going to be key in getting him to try new things because once he trusts you it will be easier.

Have you tried crumbling the nutriberries up like seeds? Also, try offering the pellets first thing in the morning. Take his seed out the night before and when you feed him, only give him pellets/veggies/nutriberries for the first hour or two. That's when he's hungriest and it will encourage him to try them. Then put the seed back in for the rest of the day.
 
#14 ·
Yeah i tried all that. I put some kale on a kabob for a couple hours every day usually (Unless im out of kale) and the grocery stores has none.

It hangs in front of his favorite perch. I tried crumbling the nutriberries too and he wont eat them. Im really surprised because they look like seeds that way.

Well, I noticed when I take him for a shower or clean his cage, he will step on my finger if I move him away from the cage on a handheld perch reluctantly. Since he is clipped he doesn't fly away.

Should I keep him perched on my finger for 30 minutes a day and talk to him or would this make him hate me / slow down the bonding process?
 
#16 ·
I'm not sure on the raisins. They seem to be in a lot of bird products, it's just not something I would give my birds.

Yeah i tried all that. I put some kale on a kabob for a couple hours every day usually (Unless im out of kale) and the grocery stores has none.
It's going to take a while. You just have to keep doing it. It can be discouraging not to see a change. And you do have to realize that not all tiels are gonna be cuddly. He may not every fully accept head scritches or cuddles. Some birds are more standoffish than others.

At this point, if he will sit with you, let him. Offer him millet while he does it so that he sees that sitting with you is fun.
 
#17 ·
Thanks Roxy, well , he will sit with me but kind of because he is clipped and cannot fly away. So in a way he doesn't have a choice. So thats why I asked if it will ruin the bonding process. He didn't seem distressed when I did it, but when I brought him back to the cage he took a huge leap as soon as he could lol.
 
#18 ·
The cage is his safe place. When I first got into tiels I had one standoffish one that really didn't know what to do. So I made him hang out with me and gave him millet every time he did. He slowly warmed up to me that way. It took months to get him to like me but he became a very good buddy after that.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top