# pellets too large?



## bakibaki (Oct 20, 2013)

I'm trying to switch over one of my cockatiels to zupreem natural pellets. (My other cockatiel, Baki, already eats them.)

He does seem interested in them, poking them around and trying to get them in his beak, but then he seems unable to crush them like Baki does. I'm concerned that maybe he's not strong enough to break the pellets into bite-sized pieces.

Could this be an age thing, or size-related? He's 14 weeks old and weighs about 83 grams. Maybe he'll grow into them? (Baki is 94-97 and about a year old.)


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## ParrotletsRock (Oct 8, 2013)

I use budgie sized pellets for my GCC and my tiel.. I use finch size for my parrotlet and budgies.. The size made for them are ignored or tossed as they are to hard and big for mine to eat.


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## lisaowens (Oct 17, 2011)

well i feed roudybush to all my birds i use small for my grey,GCC, and love bird and nibbles for my budgies since i have had luna my tiel i have noticed she seems to have trouble with the small pellets so i am trying the nibbles. luna is 9 weeks old and she seems to do a lot better with them. i don't know how big the ones you have are but you can go on the roudybush website and they show a pic of the size of pellets you can compare to yours. i have not weighed luna we moved i am still looking for my scale


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## littletiel (May 15, 2011)

I use pellets labelled as "mini" pellets. Before that I used to grind pellets because they were huge.


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## Mezza (Feb 19, 2013)

I started to add the Vetefarm pellets for Skiddles and I find them all over the floor. I sometimes wonder whether she can't crush them either and that sort of pop out of her beek. I know she eats some as her poop changes colour according to the pellets. Lol!


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## Vickitiel (Oct 10, 2012)

Yup, definitely an age thing. It's harder for young birds to learn to crush certain foods (sunflower seed shells, pellets). I had to teach Coco because he just couldn't figure it out, hehe.

You can crush the pellets down into a suitable size. It's much easier for them to eat and they eat more of them, too.


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## .Alexandra. (Sep 11, 2012)

I also feed my tiels the zupreem pellets. Beyaz will eat the cockatiel size, but Coco only eats them if I crush them. So I crush a small amount every night, for the other day


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## bakibaki (Oct 20, 2013)

littletiel said:


> I use pellets labelled as "mini" pellets. Before that I used to grind pellets because they were huge.


How did you grind them? I can't return the pellets that I have now and I'd rather not let them go to waste....


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## littletiel (May 15, 2011)

bakibaki said:


> How did you grind them?


I bought a mortar like this:









It worked pretty well.


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## Lulu-Tiel (Jun 3, 2012)

I use the budgie sized ones.


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## eduardo (Jan 27, 2012)

I buy Zupreem fruit flavored pellets for parrots, they are big in size but I crush them. I put them in a Ziploc bag and use a mallet to crush them. My cockatiels love the flavor of those better than the cockatiel size pellets. They have grape flavor which they like I guess.


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