Finicky African grey

[Orudis]

I am having some problem converting my 9-month old African grey to a pelleted diet. When I got him he was being fed a mixture of seeds consisting largely of sunflower and peanuts. First I tried to feed him Harrisons and he wouldn't touch that. Now I am mixing the Zupreem Fruit Blend with his seed mixture in trying to convert him. He leaves over the Zupreems. When I put only the pellets in his travelling cage, he will pick them up and play with them in his mouth. However, he will then drop them. When we add water to make them soft, he gets a little of it. This has been going on for approximately two weeks. I really want him to eat nutritious food but he's extremely fussy. I remember that when I had budgies, if I was eating something, they wanted it. This is not true for my grey. Does anyone have suggestions?

[LovelySydney]

Im going through the same thing with my parrotlet Oliver. He refuses pellets and its driving me INSANE!!!! I have had a 50/50 pellet/seed mix for about 2 weeks with little to no progress. Right now I am trying a new approach - giving fresh foods morning, noon and night (he loves his fresh fruits & veggies) and offering ONLY pellets with them. SO far he is only eating alllll the veggies and fruits and not touching the pellets. Slowly but surely I hope - I feel your pain!! Its frustrating!!!

[FloorCandy]

Maybe you can make pellet mush and mix in something he likes, like apple sauce?

[Scritch]

To be honest, I don't worry about my birds eating pellets, at all. I'm much more concerned that they eat a wide variety of fresh foods, veggies etc, and cooked foods. By the time they're eating all of those, they're so used to different textures and tastes, they will almost always eat the pellets, too, but that's not the point. The point is to put more variety into their diet, especially "real" foods!

I always start with sprouts. Google "sprouting for birds"... this one's good...
ParrotChronicles.com
and there are others. Start with just soaking the seed overnight and rinsing. It's still seed, so nearly all "seed junkies" will try it, but the taste and texture are slightly different, so it puts them on the road to trying new things.

Then try them more fully sprouted -- when the tails are peeking out. I'm not sure I've ever had a seed junkie that wouldn't at least pick through the sprouts and eat their favorites (usually the sunflower seeds). Most quickly learn to prefer them over the dry seeds. They're a lot more nutritional than the dry seeds, too, so already a start on a healthier diet.

From there, I finely chop fruits and veggies and add them in with the sprouts... sometimes I had mushy fruits like slightly over-ripe bananas or papaya so they kinda have to eat it with the sprouts... or spices (cinnamon is a favorite, some birds like chili powder, anything good for you is good for them). Something different everyday will get them used to the variety, even if they don't eat all of it just yet. The more exposure they get to different things, the better.

Eventually, once they're eating the sprout mix, I add in pellets along with either wet fruits or fruit juice to get the pellets softer. As part of the sprout mix, they seem a lot more likely to eat them. Then I offer them separate from the sprout mix, but still softened with fruit juice. Once they're eating them that way, use less and less fruit juice until they're eating them dry.

Once again, though, the pellets are not the point. Pellets are not "real" food, they're just hyped-up poultry feed, processed corn and wheat with vitamin supplementation. Nothing special. The real nutrition is in the real foods -- sprouts, fruits, veggies, grains, and yes even seed! Variety is the key.