# Nom Nom Nom



## MyDestiny (Sep 11, 2010)

Hi all! Zuess LOVES pellets! I mean LOVES them!! 

I have a divided food dish in his cage. One side as pellets, the other side is a veggie/seed mix (Tropimix - its seeds, nuts, veggie and fruits)

He will NOT eat the mix. Won't even pick at it. Even if ALLLLL the pellets are finished and he's looking for food - he wants nothing to do with it. Is he ok to JUST have pellets? I keep the other side fully stocked but he's so not interested.

I tried to feed him broccoli, he took a piece and spit it back into my hand. But he LOVES LOVES LOVES hard boiled eggs and PASTA! lol

He will eat his millet, and his pellets but thats about it. I even bought those "sticks" that you hangs in the cage (the sweetened ones) and he wants nothing to do with that either.

Any suggestions on how to expand his diet?

~MD


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

He will NOT eat the mix. Won't even pick at it. Even if ALLLLL the pellets are finished 
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Congratulations 

This type of seed mix is TRASH! There is too much filter, and very little seed. You might want to try some plain seed mixes that do not have all the excess fillers.


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## MyDestiny (Sep 11, 2010)

Oh!!! Its the mix that came with the bird .. and THEN Hagen sent me more for FREE! lol So what the heck will I do with it? Feed the outsie birds with it I suppose?

He eats the Tropican Lifetime Granules (pellets) and loves them. The Tropimix seeds and Tropimix treat sticks he won't touch.

Can you recommend a good seed mix for him? Is it healthy for him to just have pellets?

~MD


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## cinnamon (Jul 16, 2009)

I do tons of reading on foods and can srtiels tell me why Tropimix is not good? I am confused, as the ingredients look good.

I use Zupreem, is that a good pellet?


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## Velvet (Jul 30, 2010)

MyDestiny....

He sounds like Velvet in that he loves his Carbs! Just watch it, because he needs balance.....with veg...

I posted this in another post, so I just copied it for here....

Here's what I did with Velvet, to get him to love his veggies...

In the morning (this is when they are hungriest), I would sit on my couch and eat breakfast. I would place some of his veg on my plate with my breakfast. I would pretend to eat it, and he automatically wanted it. I would pull the veg from my mouth (pretending) and hold it in my hand, and he would pick at it. When he stopped, I put it back up to my mouth and pretended, and of course he wanted more. I did this 'every morning' with a different veg and then a familiar veg.

Then in a couple of weeks, I would just have to pretend to eat it once, (if it was new), and then he would eat the rest on his own. Now, he eats everything at the table with me. Some things, I still have to pretend to eat, but now he is familiar with so many veg that he will eat them all on his own. This has gone on for about 5 weeks now.

So, when they say it can take 1 or a couple of months, it's true!
Of course I praise him a lot too when he eats the new food. Now, he is always 'ready' for breakfast in the morning

I also do this at dinner time now and he is also eating with dinner. The other night, for the first time ever, he actually gobbled down quite a nice sized block of boiled sweet potato. I'm also noticing that he is starting to eat bigger portions in the morning. The other morning he ate a whole spinach leaf and a nice sized piece of broccoli. I was also shocked a couple of days ago when he took some nibbles and swallowed cantaloupe (rock melon).

It just takes routine, and persistence. Now, Velvet is a little piggy....he loves his veg 

Also, I found this which is really good. It's from the North American Cockatiel Society...that chart is very helpful!!!! (show you how much carbs should be in the diet). I'm sure if this is not correct, one of the experts here will debunk it, but its from a reputable source, so until I hear other wise, I know it must be right!)

http://www.cockatiel.org/articles/nutrition.html


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## MyDestiny (Sep 11, 2010)

Thats not a bad idea. I'll try that out! I mean thats kind of how I found out he loves hard boiled eggs and pasta! I know somewhere I found a list of foods they can't eat so I will go print that out and leave it in the kitchen to make snacks!!

OH! And look what I found on my travels!!! Cockatatiel RECIPIES!!!!!!!

http://www.upatsix.com/faq/recipes.htm

!!!!!!! What do you think? Exciting?


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## Velvet (Jul 30, 2010)

Ooohh I live the recipes. I like the 15bean soup mix one. I use this bean mix for Velvet, but right now, he's got to lay completely off his proteins. 

As long as it's all balanced....safely...it's good. I really like the fruit recipes. I am going to try to give Velvet some grapes tonight. I just bought some today. 

Yes, it funny how they will take easy to the grains and carbs, but the veggies take a lot of work (so naughty!) At first anyway....velvet is taking well to Veg now, so I think once they start, then they are fine. 

Also, did you see the link on here (sticky) with all recipes?


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## MyDestiny (Sep 11, 2010)

I think I will try some of the recipes and see what he thinks - BUUUUT .. there are a lot of things on there that I have NO idea what the heck they are .. i.e Monkey Chow?! Really? I realize I have a Pet Smart, Pet Land, and Pet Cetera - but nobody has any idea what Monkey Chow is. Or Bag o' Bugs!! Do we have alternatives for these recipes anyways? (the shipping is stupidy expensive to ship things from the states, so thats not happening!)

I did a search for "food" and I got some links but not recipes - where do I find that?

I like the fact that some of the recipes use baby food - its funny to think a BIRD would eat baby food!! Its so cute! lol

~MD


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## Velvet (Jul 30, 2010)

Yeah...that's what I was thinking when I saw Monkey chow? never heard of it.

It's easy enough to substitute anything obscure with something else anyways. 
Here's the recipe share on our forum here... It's a sticky under the Nutrition section called Recipe Share

http://talkcockatiels.com/showthread.php?t=6958

I really like the idea of baby food too because with its consistency, its good to use for things like sprinkle of wheatgerm, or brewers yeast. I'm going to try an organic baby food next with Velvet and mix in some flax seeds.


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## MyDestiny (Sep 11, 2010)

Monkey Chow .. I mean how many people REALLY have monkeys for pets?! Apparently its made by the same people who make Puppy Chow, Kitten Chow etc (which we DO have here!)

Still no idea where to get Bag O' Bugs, but Zuess can get protien from hard boiled eggs, so I'm not too worried!

I think I will try the whole baby food idea as well. The pet store gave me some powdered stuff that I can mix into it (its vitamins or something) Today I mixed his pellet mix (which he LOVES) with his seed/fruit/veggie mix (which he HATES) so he's going to have to pick through and find pellets and maybe accidentally EAT some seeds lol

I guess I'd just put the baby food in a dish and let him peck at it!?

(omg omg omg, bought new cage! Go look under the thread of post pics of cage and check it out! I'm SO pleased!)

~MD


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## Velvet (Jul 30, 2010)

You know he can also get his protein source from beans and quinoa (velvet loves this). 

I saw your post. I love it 
Velvet has a really high perch at the highest point in his cage and he loves to sit up there. When I saw you pic, I noticed in the dome part, a small perch up there would be great..he may love it being that high (just another idea..from one obsessive to another) hahaha


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## MyDestiny (Sep 11, 2010)

Actually the cage DOES open and it has a special perch I put between the two openings to keep the dome OPEN so he can hnag out up there and come in and out as he pleases, but I don't trust Diddums yet. Puddums looks at the birds and yawns, Diddums eye-stalks the bird no matter WHERE he is!!


Can I give Zuess canned beans? (taken out of can and soaked in water to get rid of any excess salt etc) Or does it all have to be fresh? 

~MD


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> BUUUUT .. there are a lot of things on there that I have NO idea what the heck they are .. i.e Monkey Chow?! Really?


Monkey Chow is a blast from the past - bird breeders used to use it in the days before pet food companies made special foods for baby birds. It was a Purina product, but apparently they don't make it any more.


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## Velvet (Jul 30, 2010)

MyDestiny said:


> Can I give Zuess canned beans? (taken out of can and soaked in water to get rid of any excess salt etc) Or does it all have to be fresh? ~MD


I am not 100% sure on the canned beans, so I don't know if those are okay, drained. 

I only use real beans, the 15 soup bean mix, and here's what I do...

I soak about a cup full overnight. Then I slightly boil them until firm, not too soft. I will put them into little plastic baggies, as in one serving size, per plastic baggie and freeze them. 
That way I can take out one serving, and defrost it and the rest are in the freezer. You could also use an ice try to place one serving in each block. 
I also do this with lentils.


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## MyDestiny (Sep 11, 2010)

Hmm.. I will give that one a try. I used to freeze baby food for my daughter when she was young so I guess this is no different! (oh, and I have to remember to try the whole baby food thing)

I gave Zuess some corn last night. He's (I HOPE its a boy, thats all I call the poor thing) such a suck. He will eat corn if I feed it to him, or if I hold the dish. If I put the dish down and put him in front of the dish he wants nothing to do with it. In fact he's like that with ALL his foods (except his beloved pellets) 

Will he grow out of this? lol

~MD


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

_*I do tons of reading on foods and can srtiels tell me why Tropimix is not good? I am confused, as the ingredients look good.*_
*-------------------------------------*

Sorry for the delay in posting. Mixes like this are mixed for human appeal to sell the product because they look and smell so good to the human, that the human thinks: Wow this will be great for the birds' In reality 90% of it is fillers with very little seed. I have known of tiels starving to death from such mixes because they will only pick out what they can eat and it is not ernough to sustain life over a period of time.


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## MyDestiny (Sep 11, 2010)

Srtiels: I know in that specific mix there are pellets as well as seeds and fruit so what I've done is to MIX his regular favorite pellets with the seed mix and see if he'll eat it that way. I tried it yesterday and if by the end of the week he's JUST eating the pellets out and I have to keep refilling the pellets I will feed the outside birds the Tropimix!


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Yikes...don't mix the pellets in with the mix. Keep separate bowls. Forcing him to pick thru the mix for what he will eat may result in him not eating enough in a days time, and overtime a gradual weight lose.

You should not have to keep refilling a bowl. What I learned a long time ago from my vet is that a tiel will eat an ounce of food a day, and the food should be dumped out and given freash daily. So with my tiels I started measuring out 1 to 1.5 ounce per bird and in a 24 hr. period of time they should eat everything. This is aside from greens or small amounts of fresh foods offerred several times a week.


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## MyDestiny (Sep 11, 2010)

OH!! Ok, well when I get home (I go home on my lunch break and visit the pets anyways) I will re-do the food. I thought I was doing a good thing by trying to encourage him to eat BOTH instead of just the one. But if pellets are healthy enough for him to eat - then pellets it is.

My cage has fairy large bowls (its actually a parrot cage) and Zuess will eat pellets until there are none left, so I've just filled the bowls up and let him free-graze. Is just putting 1.5 oz in the dish a better alternative to keeping the food fresh? Zuess can empty his dish within 24 hours easily (well his old one, his new dishes are much bigger!)


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

Is just putting 1.5 oz in the dish a better alternative to keeping the food fresh? Zuess can empty his dish within 24 hours easily (well his old one, his new dishes are much bigger!) 
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If his pellets are what he wants to eat that is GREAT. By measuring out, and giving freash daily this will give you a guage to go by on how much he does eat per day. And this will be the firsyt alert for if there is a problem if all of a sudden he doesn't eat that same amount in a 24 hr. period of time.

I also do this when I have pairs set up and feeding babies. I measure out the food needed daily and increase as the babies grow. if I see a change in eating patterns this alerts me to check the babies to see if there is a problem.


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## MyDestiny (Sep 11, 2010)

Ok well I will give that a shot and see what he does with it. Is it unusual for birds to not like the seed mixes? he LOVES millet, and LOVES pellets - but thats about it.


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

I was just thinking...if you can't find a plain cockatiel mix...if you can find a plain (not fortified, since you are also feeding pellets) parakeet seed mix, you can try it.


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## MyDestiny (Sep 11, 2010)

This one claims its a cockatiel/lovebird mix and he's so not interested. I will go buy a seed mix this week, and brand you recommend? I usually shop at PetSmart or Petland (not sure if PetLand is in the states, but I know Pet Smart is!)


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

I don't go to either store, so I'm not sure what they carry. I buy in bulk, and in FL we have Higgins as a local supplier. Many petshops will also have bins which you can just buy small amounts of seed at a time. you can phone around locally and see if any have either a plain, unfortified cockatiel or parakeet mix.


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## MyDestiny (Sep 11, 2010)

Ok - well we have Bulk Barn which sells stuff in bulk, and I know they do have bird seed mix - but I think thats more for .. outside birds. Does it matter? (it will have like sunflower seeds, corn bits etc in it)


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## srtiels (May 1, 2009)

No...you do not want a mix for wild birds. Those mixes have no quality control to them, and are stored different than seed for bird consumption.


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## MyDestiny (Sep 11, 2010)

Damnit! Ok .. well this week I am off to find a specific for Cockatiel only seed mix that he will try!!  Thanks for your advice!


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