How to get him to eat pellets (again!)?

[jenseits]

Stewie did great converting from seeds to pellets, but I've noticed lately that he's barely touching his pellets. He seems to only want the fresh stuff now... that'd be great if he liked veggies, but it's pretty much only corn and apples for this guy. Hardly a balanced diet. Ideas?

I try to put more nutritious things into his fresh foods, but he just picks out the parts he likes.

Maybe I can move his fresh food dish next to his pellets? Mix some pellets in with the fruit? Some sort of nasty vitamin-fortified kale, sweet potato, apple, corn smoothie?

[raddaughter]

Sounds just like my Echo! She refused to eat pellets. Eventually, all she ever wanted was seed. What I found works best is to allow him to have what he wants. An only fresh diet can be really hard to maintain. Because Echo is so active, she would give me that 'Im hungry' look after an hour or so. Instead of giving her more fruits and veggies, I gave soaked pellets with a bit of coconut oil drizzled over them. She loves it!

[tielfan]

You could limit the amount of apples and corn so he can't fill up on them, and/or give other food in the morning and save the apples and corn for later in the day after he's already been eating other stuff. The food choices could include a vegetable mash that doesn't allow for picking and choosing.

Pellets will get mushy if you mix them with moist foods but who knows, maybe your bird will like them that way. Be cautious about bacteria just as you would with fresh foods.