Question About Umbrella and Seed

[JennKerry]

Hi all, my wife and I got a beautiful Umbrella Cockatoo last year. Her name is Tiki and she's barely a year old. Very playful and affectionate. My question is how do we get her off seeds? She will eat fresh fruits and vegetables when we have them available but not the pellets we provide for her. We also tried using Golden Feast which is really good but she turns her "nose" up to it. I dont want to give in to her by giving her the seeds but at the same time I dont want her to starve. Am I wrong to think that if she gets hungry enough she will eat whats there or will she starve herself? Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks

Kerry

[KimBear]

Take heart. It's not easy to convince a parrot to eat something they don't take to right away. But you can't starve them into it. There are diet adjustment methods that can use a bird's appetite to entice them to try something, but you don't ever want them to go hungry.

One method is to offer the non-favorite foods first thing, before your bird has eaten anything else, mixing them in with a very small amount of accepted foods. In your case, try mixing some of the fruits, veggies, etc. she will eat in with the pellets. If they stick to some of the pieces, that's fine. Don't give her seeds until later, and then only give her a small amount, along with the veggies, fruits, etc. with them. Try not to just feed a bowl of nothing but seeds.

You can try mixing the pellets into some cooked foods such as scrambled eggs, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, and so on, and also in baked goods like corn muffins. Varying the way the pellets are presented may help also. Some birds like them moistened, for example. You might also experiment with different brands.

If you pretend to eat them, that can spark an interest, too. Especially if you have other foods that she likes and you're sitting together "sharing" a snack.

The bulk of a parrots diet can be pellets with "real" foods (fresh foods) being a smaller part, or it can be the other way around: mostly whole grains, beans, vegetables and fruits, a small amount of nuts and seeds and some pellets here and there. When using a fresh food diet, you may decide to supplement with a vit/min powder if your vet thinks it's necessary.