Need help with my Hahn's Macaw's diet

[Kristi]

My sweet little Goliath is eating too many sunflower seeds and I don't know what to do. I've tried switching him over to Harrison's pellets, but he HATES it with a passion. He knocks all of the pellets out of his dish and eats almost nothing but the sunflower seeds out of the other parrot food that I've been mixing the pellets with- I have seen him eating the corn and pumpkin seeds from time to time, and he eats fruits and veggies with me, so he is getting SOME good food, but do you guys have any suggestions on what has worked for your fids or maybe another brand of pellets to try?

[Katie and Stanley's Mom]

Hi Kristi,
here is what I would do. I kinda had the same problem as I was buying a seed mix that my CAG would mostly ignore except for the sunflower seeds in that bowl...she loves those things. But...I just want her to have a few of them each day as a treat or reward so I switched food and went to a mix I do on my own. There are safflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, anise stars, Rowdy Bush pellets, veggie pastas, wheat, oat groats, almonds and a few other things. This bowl of the seed mix the birds get last when feeding. I start with their first of 4 bowls being a soak and cook mix of bean type mix and Beak Appetit served warm. After they are sucking that down (both my fids love that stuff) I cut up their fruits and veggies which vary each day. Then comes the seed mix. They get these three bowls each morning starting at 9am. Then at about 3pm they get a snack of hard cooked or scrambled egg with crunched shell mixed in and 2 pecans each. At about 6pm they get their dinner of usually a cooked pasta, green veggie mix and some snap peas in shells. Sometimes their afternoon snack is a fresh or frozen (depending on season) corn cob from a kabob style-hanger in their cage or 1/2 an apple. I do make them veggie soup or chicken noodle soup when its cold outside...they love that too. I make them Bobbie's birdie bread or corn bread pancakes too. They love my tortilla wraps which I cook for them as i cook them for my entire family often. I take a wrap, warm from the griddle, much like a tortilla and spread with almond butter and applesause...they will dance for that!!! So I guess what i am saying is to remove the sunflower seeds from her diet completely and find lots of other exciting foods to replace them. Use them only for training times or special rewards. There is a great site for feeding tips: go to http://zachary.avianavenue.com/frames.html that whole site is awesome!!! I have followed much of the advice found on Zachary's web site. Hope this helps you some

[Katie and Stanley's Mom]

go to "food prep and feeding routine" found on the left.

[poi_lover]

Just curious...are you using the high-potency diet?

[denmor55]

Try Roudybush Pellets and feed him a seed mixure that has no Sunflower.

[Willow]

My birds adore Foundation Formula pellets - they are totally organic, and it was easy to convert my seed eaters over to them. http://www.organicbirdfood.com

[Kristi]

Thanks for the great advice, everyone! I'll definitely go with these ideas and see what Mr. Picky likes best.

Poi_Lover...Yes, I've tried the high-potency formula as well as the adult lifetime formula. He hates both of them. He won't even eat the Harrison's treats, which I think taste pretty darn good. Very peanut-buttery.