Getting a Picky Parrotlet to eat Pellets

[Fee-B]

Greetings, Hello my name is Josh and this is my first post, I'm new to parrotlets. Recently I've made a wonderful new friend with my girlfriend's 3 -4 year old parrotlet Phoebe. I totally love this parrotlet, but one problem is Phoebe is very selective with her eating habits (or habit rather), she is only picking out this one type of seed and not eating anything else. (not sure what they are, they are little white tear shaped seed)

I don't think she is getting everything she needs in her diet so I bought her a premium bag of pellets (Zupreem Fruitblend flavor for small hook-bills.) She totally hates the pellets, I can tell, cause she throws a little fit when I fill her feeder up with them, she just flips through the dish and throws them everywhere and then resorts to forging at the bottom of the cage for fallen seeds. I havent cut her right off of seeds i still let her eat plenty of natural food outside the cage (although not a full meal persey) Shes so picky, I've tried all sorts of treats but it seems it's those white seeds or bust.

Does anybody know what can I do to make this transition easy for the bird. (For that matter how can I even get her to eat one freakin pellet much less a meals worth?) She doesnt get hardly any fruit into her either, I just want to know shes geting all she can from her diet and I doubt those white seeds are going to do it.

Cheers

[Deone]

Hi Josh,
Welcome, I'm having the same problem with Ernie. The little white seeds are safflower. Mine loves them too. I read in a book on Parrotlets that they and sunflower seeds are very high in fat. That's why there's not that many in a package and that canary feed was better. So I switched to that and only give safflower or sunflower seed as treats. He really seems to like it (canary.) Today My granddaughter and I taught him a trick using them (safflower) I still haven't gotten him to eat veggies and fruit very well either. I guess you just need to keep offering them. As for the pellets go, if you figure it out let me know...deone:rolleyes:

[memmey]

Hello everyone, this is my first time on this site. I can't believe I accidentaly found this forum. My little parrotlet is Bitsey Jo and she's so picky. No fruit and I mean no fruit no vegtables you better not give her vegtables when I put them in her bowl you would think I was trying to kill her. But if you give her a piece of white bread well she loves it, loves it eats every morsel. Will my bird be alright long term with no fruit and I feel kinds crazy asking that cause I have had her 5 years with NO FRUIT. She looks fine and is so sweet and loving. She was a rescue.

[Deone]

I just read a couple of articles in " Bird Talk" about getting your parrots on better diets. Very interesting. You might want to pick that magazine up.
Make sure its the December one...deone

[ArtS]

Wow! I just found Memmey's first post! :D (see above)

Regards,

Art S.

[Azale]

Wow! lol That's pretty funny.

[BUUZBEE]

here's a good read on p'lets and pellets...

http://www.internationalparrotletsociety.org/pellet.html

[Pado]

Buuzbee - this is a very good article and worth reading. Good on you for posting it -

It makes the most sense to me that a varied diet is the way to go -Given Bird nutrition is still in its infancy - the ‘long’ term effects are not known.

My father once said to me - "why are you fussing over what you feed the birds - all they need is seed and water". That was his belief from his experience; we had an English Budgerigar growing up that ate seed, water and the occasional bit of toast [and at that the seed was one kind of seed, not a seed mix] :eek:

As the article says "Thank goodness things have changed". ;)

[marjet]

That is a great article Buuzbee, it's sound niceley 'down to earth' to me.

[AndreaFahy]

Another good diet article:
http://www.djfeathers.com/Articles/seedorpellet.htm

I stated in another post that from clicker training (which parrotlets love!!) I have successfully gotten stubborn birds to try new foods. Ann Castro writes a fabulous book on clicker training. I highly recommend it. We use safflower seeds as the "super treat" during clicker training for the parrotlets and even my large parrots.