baby will only eat millet

[amina]

I hope someone will have some suggestions for me. About three weeks ago I got a green rump parrotlet( nine weeks old). She was weaned when I brought her home. She came with two foods she'd been eating and millet. She was not eating anything except millet for about a week after I brought her home. I took millet out of the cage to see if she would eat food and then she didn't eat anything. I took her back to the store and owner tried hand-feeding her but she didn't want it. She gave me another food to try. All food was quality bird food blends, not just seed. Not sure what brands, the owner bags them herself and when I got them home, I put in plastic containers. The bird store owner contacted breeder. The breeder suggested I bury millet in food so she would have to forage for it and eat some food to get to the millet. I got a shallow tupperware container, put millet at the bottom, and buried it with food. That worked for a couple of days. Then she got smart. Now she just grabs the millet with her beak, pulls it out, and just eats that. In the meantime, I have been trying broccoli, pellets, strawberries, lettuce, birdie bread, all with a little millet sprinkled on top. She hasn't touched it.
Any ideas because I'm out of them

 

[Mizzely]

Has she been taken to the vet to rule out an illness, such as a crop infection?

 

[amina]

Oops, forgot to mention clean bill of health from vet a few days after I brought her home

 

[MommyBird]

Would she eat sprouts?
It looks almost the same, but is healthier.

 

[yvette]

what about softened pellets??
maybe make a fine chopped mash?
even try placing some in her beak?

 

[Love My Zons]

I would also try some soft veggies like peas and corn. You can use frozen ones and try a few of them. Brown rice mixed it would be great too. One of the best cookable foods I have found is Bird Street Bistro and the one I use all the time for my Parrotlet is Fiesta on the Fly.

You can mix in various smaller ground pellets such as the Tops crumplets or the Harrisons super fine or Roudybush crumbles. You can also soften the pellets with either warm water or you can try an all natural juice no sugar. Cooked sweet potato is also a great soft food too.

 

[amina]

Would she eat sprouts?
It looks almost the same, but is healthier.

Where would I find sprouts?

 

[Ashling]

You can sprout millet to make it healthier by soaking it in water (with a little apple cider vinegar) and rinsing every 8 hours. They will eventually grow tails. If she takes to sprouted millet, offer this mixed with other soft food like soaked pellets/ peas/ corn and mush together into a cake mix and press into the bowl. Making the millet soft rather than hard will make it feel like other foods when she's eating it, and she will develop a taste for other foods and soon recognise them as a viable source of food.

 

[amina]

Thanks for the suggestions. I already have the millet soaking and I will look for the other items tomorrow. I'll keep you posted.

 

[Sauly]

you might try presenting her food in a different manner as to make it more fun or instinctive.......you can hang food in her cage or present her food on a mirror so she thinks she is competing against another green rump for food! also try eating some food with her so she sees you eating as well! good luck you will figure it out!

Sauly

 

[Lady Jane]

Suggest some of the organic baby foods with crumbled corn bread stirred in and serve warm of course. Try to keep the millet out of the cage when other foods are offered. I have a baby English Budgie who was parent fed and of course all he wants is seeds. Today I left for work with only veggies, pellets, corn on cob (breeder fed this) and a mix from MSBS plus bits of fruit. Home from work and he ate the fruit and pecked on the corn. I call that first success.