Stubborn keet won't eat pellets

[parakeet567]

hi,

i have 1 parrakeet and one teil in the same cage that eat pellets, but one of my parakeets just won't eat the pellets. the other two birds will eat pellets out of my hand an in the cage. i tried feeding the stubborn keet in front of my other two birds because i have noticed that birds usually copy each other but he won't even try the pellets. i keep pellets in the cage all day and i have to take out the stubborn keets to feed him seeds so he won't die. is there any tips or information anyone can give to my keet even try one pellet. (he sees the other birds eat the pellets but all he does is knock over all the pellets on the floor.) any information will help thanks.

[TheLoneTiel]

First off, I would like to say it is usually not a good idea to mix 'tiels and budgies. Budgies are agressive, tiels are passive. It takes a lot to annoy most cockatiels, but when they do, they have big beaks that can easily remove small bird toes. They dont mix unless you have quite a bit of space, like a large aviary with plenty of room to fly and hide.

For eating pellets, its good that some of them will eat them. I reccemend having a mix of pellets and seed mixed in thier cage for at least 2 days. You just want them to get used to seeing the pellets so its not brand new and scary. Then, offer a dish of pure pellets all day, while giving them a dish of seed (or whatever their currant diet is) for only an hour in the morning. Take it away, give it back the next morning. Do this until you see the birds eating the pellets. Then just give seed as a treat, with a teaspoon or so a day.

Dont forget to get them to eat veggies and other good foods. A plain pellet diet is almost as bad as a plain seed diet.

[Lora, Archer, & Kira]

I have a tiel and a budgie housed in the same cage, and both eat pellets. The budgie was given to me by a co-worker who no longer wanted her, and was on an all seed diet. I'm going to guess this budgie is about a year old now. She would not eat much of the zupreem pellets that my GCs would eat when I mixed them in with the seed I was giving her and my tiel. My tiel doesn't care what she eats, as long as there is food in her bowl, and I wanted her to eat the pellets. My vet always recommends Harrison's pellets whenever I go see her, but I had never really tried to get any of my birds to eat them.

A few weeks ago I saw a sign in a pet supply window that said "we have harrison's bird foods!", so I thought I'd go get some prices on them, and see if maybe they had any samples I could take home with me.

They actually knew quite a bit about the pellets, and recommended the adult lifetime fine pellets, since they look closer to seed (which is what they assumed all of my birds were eating... ) They are a bit pricey at $7 for a 1lb bag, but the ladies in the store told me that if my birds don't eat them, I can bring back the bag for a full refund. How could I refuse? So I bought the 1lb bag, and put it in my GCs' dish. They ate it almost immediately.

Then I thought, hey, it does kind of look like seed, and some seeds are listed on the ingredient list. So for laughs, I emptied out the food dish in my cockatiel/budgie cage, and put the new pellets in. They were a little wary of them at first, but like I said, my tiel will eat almost anything. The budgie became interested, and was eating them the same day. I was so excited... over such a small thing. But I know that my budgie will live a longer, healthier life because of it.

I had to go back to the store and buy the $30 bag because now all of my birds eat Harrison's, and they went thru 1lb in a week and a half... :shock:

[Joel]

567............Since you already have other birds that it can see eating pellets then I would suggest changing brands or trying another brand in addition to the current one. My birds who eat pellets seem to all like Zupreem Fruit Flavor Blend. You may try those.

I am seriously considering (like Nancy) in eliminating pellets altogether as I really think (deep down) that a good quality seed along with natural fruits & veggies and eggs etc. is really the best way to go. Remember we don't have pellets growing on trees or in the ground. One has to really trust the manufacturing process and the amount of real nutrition & proper vitamin & mineral ratios remaining in the pellet from the time of production till the bird eats it. One also should maybe be concerned about the artificial colorings, preservatives, quality of ingredients, packaging, shelf life etc. etc. etc........

I don't have enough scientific knowledge at hand to prove to me that pellets are necessary if a great "balanced" & as natural as possible diet without them is used. The biggest pushers of pellets anyway (I think) are the manufacturers and those that jump on their band-wagon either out of ignorance or because it "sounds" good or "seems" to make sense? That is what I did but now may revert back to only natural. I will certainly cut back, the amount I have been using, right away for now........ Sometimes if not most of the time the manufacturers may tend to slant their tests/trials in their favor to convince us to buy their product so they can of course make the big bucks? Heck, what do scientists know anyway, they are always changing things that we have been led to believe over the years. When in doubt it is probably BEST to go with sweet ole MOTHER NATURE IMO......JMHO....

[blueroseaviary]

The problem in converting to pellets is that if a bird does not recognize it as food then they aren't going to eat it. Even if you remove the seeds from the cage, if it isn't food they are not going to eat it. Maybe I am over cautious, but it worries me to leave a bird in a cage all day without a food that they will eat. I used to offer pellets in a seperate dish, and if they ate it fine, if they didn't they had plenty of other foods to eat.

For a budgie, try growing some wheat grass. I always had good success getting our budgies to eat it. Wheat grass is nutritious and they usually will eat it. I would work on expanding his diet from there. I no longer use pellets, and have my birds eating fresh and cooked foods daily. It took a long time to win them all over and get them eating right, but now that I have I am amazed at how little seed they do eat even though it is available all of the time.

A good friend of mine, and long time breeder also discourages having breeder birds on a pellet based diet. She has found that the chicks fail to thrive and have more health problems including being too small. Has anyone else had any experience with this?

[parakeet567]

thanks for all your all especially joel who recommended getting the zupreem because i bought the zupreem and my budgie slowly started to eat the pellets. i guedss the bird didn't reconize it as food. thanks again. 567

[kathy5]

I also use zupreem pellets but i use the carnery sized ones they still have all of the same goodness of the parakeet sized one but there easer for my birds to eat