Cockatiel Treats?

[Thowraa]

I've had my new baby for 9 days now, and I've noticed that he is ONLY eating the small seeds in his mix.

It's a Vitacrtaft mix with added vitamins etc... because at the moment he is only eating seed, though it is mixed with pellets and I am currently using a 50/50 mixture of the seed with pellets. I worked the way up to this so far.

I'm finding it hard to get him to eat anything other than the small seeds, he wont even try the sunflower seeds, or even a little peanut, which I know aren't the most fantastic things in the world for him anyway being fatty, but I need to find something that he will eat as a treat so I can start trying to teach him some tricks and things. He wont even try fruit or vegetables either. I spent time mixing up peas, sweetcorn and potato, carrots, sprout and parsnip but he wont even try it :(

I just wanted to know, what are the best things to give as treats to cockatiels that they really enjoy to eat, and how can I get him to eat the bigger seeds?

I dont know his exact age so is it possible that he was sold rather young and has only just been weaned onto the smaller seeds before I got him? or is he just being picky?

[Monica]

Vitakraft... not a brand I'm familiar with, though overall it doesn't appear to be such a bad brand!

If Yuki enjoys headscritches, you can use these as a reward instead of treats. He shouldn't really be eating any seeds bigger than a safflower, but keep working on him to get him to eat fresh foods! You can also try hanging the food in the cage, putting it on a screwer, slicing it, leaving it whole, dicing, shredding... try various ways!

[Thowraa]

I hope he'll get to like having headscritches more ^_^ he bit me earlier, I think that's a sign for me to stop.

I dont want him to eat BIG seeds, I just want him to at least eat a variety, rather than just the little millet ones. I mean if he's that fussy about what seeds he eats it's no wonder he wont even try the pellets :( - or anything else I offer him for that matter.

Eventually I dont really want to give him much seed... if he liked sunflower seeds I could use those as a treat, but so far I've not ever seen him eat any. Not even one.

I read that putting fruit juice on the seeds can help convirt birds to pellets, would orange juice be ok for this? and what about the sugar content?

[Monica]

If you get all natural OJ, and he likes it (if he'll drink it) then it should be fine. You can even look for sugar-free drinks.

If you are interested in him eating a more varied amount of seeds you can look into getting a small amount of canary seeds. Hopefully though he'll start to eat foods other than seeds!

[FeatherLover]

Originally Posted by Thowraa

I read that putting fruit juice on the seeds can help convirt birds to pellets, would orange juice be ok for this? and what about the sugar content?

I've heard that apple juice (natural, so it's not loaded with junk) works as well. Just be sure not to leave the soaked seeds in for too long, as they will spoil much quicker with the fruit juice on them.

Good luck.

[Thowraa]

Thanks for the replies :)

Once christmas is over and the shops are open I will see if I can get some nice juice.

I have some money coming in soon so I'm gonna order some different pellets and some cookable food etc... I just dont get why he wont even try anything other than the little millet type seeds. He doesn't even seem interested when he sees me pretending to eat the pellets :( I am not eating the vegetables infront of him though, ewwwwwwy vegetables.

I do have one more question though. I've been trying to get him onto the pellets, and am currently on a 50% mix of pellets and seed. He went to the vets 3 days ago for his first checkup, and he is underweight (I know that's my fault for not giving him enough seed, I thought he had enough because he wasn't eating it all but turns out he was just being picky), should I;

1. Change my method and provide him only with pellets in the day untill he tries some, and then give seed in the evening before bed time if he hasn't eaten any.

or...

2. Feed him just seed untill he is off the precautionary antibiotics (The AV couldn't find anything at all wrong with him even though he was sneezing a bit and being lazy at home, he's clean :) ) so I can work out how much seed he eats in a day, and then start over from 100% seed and work up to 100% pellets.

Is it a bad idea to go backwards? Even if he has yet to eat a single pellet?

[Monica]

Please do not have pellets be 100% of the diet (not including fresh foods). Pellets can be just as bad as seeds if given as the only part of the diet. A varied diet is far better, and it would be far better to feed half/half seed and pellets, supplemented with fresh foods.

My tiels will normally eat about 1/8 cup of seed a day, with fresh foods available. My first tiel Casey shares her food with Noel, my cherry head conure. In seeds alone they get 1/4 cup. I've got my tiel family (4 members) in a flight cage, and they are given 1/2 cup of seeds (so again, averaging about 1/8 cup for each bird per day). This is replenished every morning with new seeds and fresh food is normally available in the afternoon.

You might try seeing if you can get pellet samples from various pellet companies in your area, but try to find a pellet mix that your tiel enjoys eating. As far as feeding it... If you can, ou might want to try giving pellets for 2-4 hours in the morning, then switch it out for a small amount of seeds and/or fresh foods. In the afternoon, switch it back to pellets until an hour before bedtime, when you give a small amount of seeds. Keep repeating this process and he may pick up on the fact that there are other foods available that he can eat!

[Thowraa]

I'm not planning on it being 100% of the diet, but I do want to make sure he is eating them, so I'm planning on doing a 100% conversion, and then feeding pellets in the main dish with seeds and greens as the extra bits and treats. The problem is I dont want him to end up like my old cockatiel who refused point blank to eat anything that wasn't seed. I think the reason she died so young was because of her bad nutrition, and she was my first bird so I didn't know any better.

To be honest I would rather him eat a 100% pellet diet than a 100% seed one. Which if he wont eat the vegetables and things I give him it will probably have to be. I'm hoping I can get him onto a really varied diet, but if not I definately wont be letting him have the 100% seed diet he seems to want.

I get more money on the 9th January so I'm going to buy some beack bucket things of cookable food from 24parrot.com and try him on some of those. If he'd eat vegetables not eating pellets wouldn't be so bad, but at the moment he wont even try anything.

I've tried Carrot, Peas, Sweetcorn, Parsnip, Potato, Sprouts... I'm sure there is something else... he wont even taste it, or play with it to see what it is.

At the moment he is on a mix of seed and pellets, but he's not eating the pellets so he's underweight, I'm offering more seed to build his weight back up, but I dont understand why if he's hungry he wont try the food in his bowl. He knows that it is where the food goes and he has watched me eat some pellets, so he knows they are edible.

Oh one important point, I want to buy a bag of zupreem pellets from the same website mentiond above... do you recomend the zupreem cockatiel natural or fruit blend? Is it better to feed the ones without the colorings?

[Monica]

It's normally better to stay away from dyed foods, unless it's all natural dyes then it might be fine... I don't care for pellets and dont' feed them so can't really say which is better. Each type of pellet has it's pros and cons though...

[milihandra]

My Terrie LOVES corn, she has a hard time getting through the outside membrane so I squeeze out the soft middle and she adores it!
Also, popcorn and grits are favorite treats. These are fatty of course, but your bird being underweight should be okay.