# Throwing his food



## Lunawolfsong (Mar 31, 2016)

Before I'd adopted Kirby, he'd been on an all seed diet and was getting next to no exercise; some girls at the rescue told me that he was the fattest cockatiel that they'd ever seen. When I adopted him I just about cut seed out of his diet besides treats and the occassional bowl of seed and have been exercising regularly and he has been doing well and appears to be losing weight. 

Then, I found out that cockatiels need more seed in their diets than what I was giving him, so I decided to mix the seed in with his pellets. Problem is that Kirby is a total seed junkie, and so would pick the seeds out of his pellets and not eat any pellets. So, I decided to just give him a bowl of seed in the morning for a few hours and then replace it with the bowl of pellets for the rest of the day, and give him some seed in the evening as well (and still using seed as treats). The only problem now is that he seems to think that if he digs deep enough, he'll still be able to find seed in his pellet bowl. So now, he'll sit there throwing food out of his bowl and getting it all over his cage, his playgym, the floor, and whatever surfaces happen to be nearby. 

How can I stop him from doing this? Will he eventually figure out that there isn't any seed in his pellet bowl or will I have to train this out of him?


----------



## Geca14 (Apr 4, 2016)

I am not sure about training it out of him, but my Keiko has been doing this on and off as well. I find she does this more when she is really excited or hasn't had enough time out of the cage before feeding. I think the problem with my feeding bowls are that they are too light for her, so she can dump them. I am going to get some heavier stainless steel bowls for her seed so she can't knock it over (she's only 9 weeks old so she's still pretty tiny). And I also might feed her a little later so she has more time out of the cage to "get her wiggles out" before I feed her. 
Hope this helps!
PS... I think Kirby is just too cute!!!


----------



## Dressagebird (Feb 3, 2016)

Gregory my 14 week old does this for a fun revenge when I go downstairs to have a meeting and don't take him too. I don't like waste so I put a couple of teaspoons of seed in his bowl at a time, he also has access to Roudybush pellets and fresh veggies. But he wil throw his seeds straight across the room to prove a point and because he thinks it's fun to watch me clean it up. Little monster.


----------



## Lunawolfsong (Mar 31, 2016)

Geca14 said:


> I also might feed her a little later so she has more time out of the cage to "get her wiggles out" before I feed her.


I tried that out this morning, and he didn't throw his seed today! I'll keep trying, and see if this is really the solution or if today was a one-time thing, but I think it's going to work. Thanks! 



> PS... I think Kirby is just too cute!!!


Thanks!


----------



## sagealbright (Sep 12, 2015)

Try getting a "Seed Coral". I use mine for pellets. It just prevents them from throwing and dropping food everywhere. I still get some food around the cage but not nearly as much as I used to since I started using this.


----------

