# Seed Junkies



## mpayjr (Aug 16, 2010)

So, I've been trying to change my 'tiels's diets from seeds to pellets. However, they continue to refuse the pellets and eat the seeds. I've tried Lafaber's nutri-berries, and they love them, however, they are just too expensive. 

I've also tried Roudybush and Harrison's bird food. Jagger is the only one who will eat the Roudybush pellets, but he only eats very little, and that's only if I only give them the pellets to eat. (I have only tried this once because I know it's dangerous to do so.) In addition to that, none of them like Harrison's.

So I have no idea what to do. I offer them alternative health foods like broccoli (which only Isaac eats), scrambled eggs (which all of them except Isaac and Amber eat), and grapes (which only the babies eat). 

I know this isn't a healthy well-rounded diet for them. So what should I do? I tried to continuously offer them the pellets, but they continuously refuse it. I've tried looking for alternatives to getting them to eat the pellets, but I can't find anything. It's been 2 months of me trying to offer healthy foods, but they always want seeds. Does anyone else know of any ways to get them to eat healthier foods?


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## olive juice (Mar 30, 2009)

My first cockatiel, Halley, was on an all-seed diet for many, many years. (I was a kid when I got him and didn't really know better.) He died a year ago, but I'd managed to get him onto a healthy diet before that point...which, if you had told me beforehand that Halley would ENJOY EATING VEGGIES, I would have said you were insane.

It took awhile and a lot of hard work. Basically what I did was buy a TON of different kinds of vegetables, all different colors. I tried to get as much variety as I could: brocholi, red peppers, green peppers, carrots, beets, peas, corn, a lot of different colors. I would always offer plenty of different veggies at a time. A dish full of colorful, chopped-up food looks interesting to a bird and they're more likely to try it. I would put the veggie combo in a separate dish, which I would then put in the same spot in his cage each day (but a different spot from the dish that held his "regular" food). I would give him veggies in the morning when he was the most hungry. Sometimes, I would use this dish and this spot for treats (millet, Nutriberries, etc) so that Halley would begin to associate this dish with yummy food. I would also hype him up while I prepared the veggies. I would talk to him the entire time, ask if he was hungry, make a HUGE deal about the veggies and how great they were, eat some myself before putting them in his cage.

Even with all this, he ignored them for a long time. I wasted a lot of food, but I went into the process knowing I was going to waste a lot of food. (That's important!) But, eventually, he tried them. And LOVED them. Getting a bird to TRY a new food is the hardest part...but once they like a new food, it's easy peasy.  Halley was a shy vegetable eater and wouldn't touch them if he thought someone was looking. (Yeah, he was a bit weird.) So I'd give him space to eat, then examine the dish (and his face!) afterwards to see what his favorites were. He LOVED red peppers, but I never saw him once eat a pea or a carrot. This helped me pick other veggies he'd probably like (things that looked similar but had different nutrients for more balance). 

When I got my second tiel, I should note, I found out that he would only eat veggies that were cut up very, very small (basically food-processed) while Halley would eat larger chunks. So this is something to keep in mind...you should experiment with different-sized pieces to see what your birds like.

I would also limit the seed you give BEFORE giving the veggies so that your birds are hungry. If I couldn't get him veggies first thing in the morning, I would take his seed dish out for a few hours before giving the veggies to ensure he wouldn't stuff himself on seeds and ignore the veggies. Birds will eat until they're full and no more.

Trust me...if Halley became an avid veggie eater, any cockatiel can. I thought I had the world's pickiest eater on my hands but he amazed me every day with how much he honestly enjoyed healthy food. And this was a bird who was on an all-seed diet for six or seven YEARS. It just takes patience, experimentation and some time.

As far as pellets go, my advice isn't as sound. I DID manage to convert Halley to pellets and at the end of his life, he was on a pellet and fresh food diet with a very small amount of seed. But I didn't really have a system for doing this. What I did was use four separate food dishes (you might need to increase this number since you have more birds): one for water, one for seed, one for pellets and one for fresh food/treats. The fresh food dish is the only one that wasn't in his cage at all times (except when I would remove his seed dish to make him hungry for veggies). The pellets were always available, and eventually Halley just started eating them. I'd tried mixing them with his seed, but any time I did that he would just pick out the seed and ignore the pellets and it didn't seem to be working. Leaving the dish there, though, for him to try on his own time did the trick.

Good luck! Remember, be consistent, try a lot of different fruits/veggies in the same dish (to make it look interesting), make vegetable-feeding time exciting and interesting, and keep trying! Having a system and a routine is really what worked in the end for Halley and me.


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## olive juice (Mar 30, 2009)

OH - and one more thing! Make sure you take your birds to an avian vet during this process! I did with Halley and it's a good thing, too....the stress from the diet change (which, even though it was a slow process, was a pretty radical change when you think about it - nothing but seed to pellets and lots of fresh food) caused yeast to build up in his system which can lead to a lot of nasty problems. He showed NO symptoms, even after the vet's examination of him, she said he looked surprisingly healthy for a bird who'd been on such a bad diet. It was only after she gram-stained his droppings that she discovered the problem and I had to administer medicine for two weeks to correct it. Changing a diet is really stressful for a bird so a vet's visit is a must.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

My birds are on a combo of both...I read that an all pellet diet isn't healthy for them and that having seeds helps give them a balance. So they have both seeds and pellets in their cage...the pellets are the colorful zupreem ones I think. Anyways, I have a bowl of both in the cage and they just pick whichever one they want to eat. Ironically, they eat both. But, they don't like the banana shaped pellets only the orange, red, and green rounded ones. On top of the veggies they get this is certainly a good thing.


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## KateBascombe (Sep 27, 2010)

My Rob was tricky to switch over to pellets, so I just did exactly as my vet instructed. Which was essentially that tiels only eat about 2 tbsps of food a day. And we guesstimated a nutriberry to be about half a tbsp. So he's get a nutriberry in the morning, in the same dish as a few scoops of pellet. And then he had to wait until the evening to get a second nutriberry. About halfway through the day he would be hungry, go to check his dish. And he'd nibble at the pellets, eventually he figured out that they were food. Now he gets his pellets in the morning and evening (along with fresh foods) And nutriberries are a treat. Once he realized that pellets were food, he'd only hold out for nutriberries because he wanted them. 

Here's the thing about his way. It's OKAY for a bird to be hungry for a few hours during the day, they can go days in the wild without food. They won't be HAPPY about it. But they are fully capable.


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## Duckybird (Sep 13, 2010)

Yeah, I don't really mix pellets and seeds anymore...my two would pick through the pellets to get at the seeds. It's like crack for them lol. But keep trying! And when you offer new foods, remove seed totally, at least for a short period of time. If one of your birds will eat pellets, and the others all nibble healthy foods, they at least know that something other than seed is edible. Also make sure you feed them from the same dishes, same places, etc. Putting pellets in their regular seed cup will give them a clue it's a food source.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

The Lafeber company claims that their Nutriberries are nutritionally equivalent to pellets, and most cockatiels LOVE them. Go to http://www.lafebercares.com/contact.html and send an email requesting free samples for cockatiels - they're very generous with samples.

It takes patience, persistence, and creativity to get a bird to try new foods. I have some tips and techniques on my website at http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.org/info/nutrition-conversion.html


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## mpayjr (Aug 16, 2010)

I've already ordered free samples and they seem to like it, plus I found some yesterday at Petco, so I think I may give it a try. Who knows, maybe it will become their new diet.

And guess what! I caught the babies nibbling and eating the pellets! So the idea of offering both foods is a great idea. I can't wait until the others start to copy each other!


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## .mpeg (Oct 6, 2010)

i just threw a thing of harrison's with a mirror behind it in his cage, after a few days he started eating it. apparently the mirror makes them think hey that other bird seems to like them i should try them too lol
he still much prefers his seeds, but it's evident from the quality of his new feathers that he is eating pellets 
the other thing i do is pull out his seeds for half the day. as soon as i put them in he spends like 10 minutes with his head buried in them but in the meantime if he's hungry it's either his veges or pellets


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> I caught the babies nibbling and eating the pellets! So the idea of offering both foods is a great idea.


It's MUCH easier to get baby birds to eat new foods. They're learning the difference between food and nonfood at this age and are willing to experiment. Once they get older it's a lot harder.


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## .mpeg (Oct 6, 2010)

update on mister's eating habits- he prefers to eat seeds if he thinks i'm watching. if i'm not watching, or he thinks i'm not watching, he eats his veges and pellets with gusto. he'll still eat seeds then, but that seems to be the main time he eats the other things. 
i hope that helps put your mind at ease


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## Belinda (Oct 9, 2010)

Well I'm having the opposite problem at the moment. Arnie used to destroy anyone and anything in her path to get to seed. Now she is addicted to pellets. I bought some Harrison's high potency the other day and since then she will walk from her fresh vegie and grains I give her at meal times, hop back in her cage and start munching on her new pellets. She LOVES them. I'm not sure whether I should be concerned about this or cheering over the fact she loves her Harrison's.
I also put some seeds in her cage as a treat today because I was going out (she ONLY ever gets seeds if she's good and it's a treat, only a couple of tablespoons at a time, she never has continuous access to seed, it's an out of cage treat usually after she's had her other meal). When I came back she had hardly touched her seed, but as soon as I started eating my lunch she hopped back into her cage and had a munch on her seeds then, like she was waiting for my permission? She also used to LOVE her birdie bread, but now she turns her nose up at it, after I slaved over the oven for her.
She's a weird bird.

I think birds are just weird with their eating habits.


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

She might be going crazy for the Harrisons because it's giving her nutrients that she was previously missing. Once she's made up for the deficit she'll probably go for a more balanced approach.


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## Belinda (Oct 9, 2010)

Hmm, I don't know. She eats _really_ well. She was previously eating Vetafarm pellets which are an aussie brand highly recommended by avian vets (I just wanted her to try something different) and she gets fresh and cooked vegies, sprouts and grains - plus I bake birdie bread with added vitamins and she gets cuttle bones, calcium and charcoal bells and seed. She really has everything she needs so I'd say she just likes the Harrison's for some reason! 

I cooked her up some quinoa, spaghetti, brussel sprouts and snow peas today and she gorged herself on that and hasn't really touched her pellets so *shrugs* maybe they're passe now.


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## mpayjr (Aug 16, 2010)

So I've been offering the birds some of Harrison's pellets and they love it! I've been limiting how much seed I give them, and they have easily made the transaction> I catch them eating the pellets all of the time, all of them except Amber and Grace. But I'm pretty sure they will turn over soon too! yes!


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## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

> She eats really well.


In that case, maybe she just really likes the taste!


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## CaitlinT (Jan 21, 2011)

When I got my baby s/he was a seed junkie and I was all worried about diet. Here i the UK the idea of feeding pellets in non-existant, nowhere sells them. If I wanted to get them I'd have to buy them online at a high price which isn't at the practical.
So I opted for the half seed half veggie diet and it seems to be working well. It took about a week for Lunar to even look at fruit or veg and even then s/he wouldn't eat it. I tried a few different methods(playing with the food, only offering it, giving it in the morning and seed at night ect.) and she just wouldn't play ball, I was getting fed up of spending time cutting it all up only to throw it in the bin.

Then I read somewhere that if you place food on a mirror cockatiels just can't help but pick it up - within a few days she ate it. It was like magic, once she understood that it was food she loved it and after that she'd eat it out a bowl aswell. I'v hear this works with pellets too.
I think the thing with it is to keep trying and try lots of different kinds of food in different colours, cut things up into different sizes and shapes, use a vegtable peeler to get thin slices and dices items finely to get small pieces. I find that if you give them plants to play with like parsely or basil then they end up eating in their play and it gets them used to the texture of such things.

I hope that helped a little, hope your tiel are doing well ^^


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## Belinda (Oct 9, 2010)

mpayjr said:


> So I've been offering the birds some of Harrison's pellets and they love it! I've been limiting how much seed I give them, and they have easily made the transaction> I catch them eating the pellets all of the time, all of them except Amber and Grace. But I'm pretty sure they will turn over soon too! yes!


I think the benefit of Harrison's is that the birds actually like the taste!


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