Picky Eater - Refuses any fruits or vegetables

[LucyLemon'sMom]

Hello! We brought home Lucy, wonderful a yellow-naped amazon. Her diet previously was entirely pellet-based. I tried to feed her mango, brown rice, bananas, and other good stuff, but she acts almost afraid of the new food and walks away from it. The only things besides pellets that she will accept are nuts. How can I get her to eat her fruits and vegetables?

Thank you x !

 

[Mizzely]

Think from a wild animal perspective. Parrots learn what is good and safe from their flock, and it gets passed down. Stuff they've never seen, or at least seen be eaten, could be dangerous! It's survival instinct at it's finest.

So, make eating new foods a flock activity. Eat the foods with her, share off your plate, etc. It may take a bit still but that's going to be a way to help her see that it's not bad food and is edible.

You can also chop them to oblivion and mix with bird bread or with pellets

 

[Davi]

Hi LucyLemon'sMom! I'm sure you'll get lots of great advice here! But just to add my 2 cents, patience (and LOTS of it) is key. Try introducing new foods as very small bits (and in ver small quantities) mixed in with her usual food. It can take days, weeks, months, years (seriously). It's a matter of making new foods available in a non-threatening and fun way. If you've only recently brought her home, don't worry too much about changing her diet yet. Once she starts to settle in and trust her daily routines, she'll be more open to new things. And finally, try eating one of the healthy things you're offering (a banana, for example) with added gusto before offering a tiny bit to her. They take their cues from us and are social eaters, so she's bound to at least act curious when you show exaggerated appreciation for a certain food. Hope this helps and keep us posted! Good luck!

 

[sunnysmom]

After about 9 months of trying, I finally got my cockatoo to start eating vegetables. I was in the kitchen making dinner and he was having a fit that he couldn't be with me. So I decided to let him stay with me while I chopped up the vegetables. He was fascinated. I handed him a piece of pepper. He ate it. I was amazed. Now, I take him into the kitchen with me and let him watch me cut up his vegetables. Although he's still not a big vegetable eater, we're making progress.

 

[Mizzely]

After about 9 months of trying, I finally got my cockatoo to start eating vegetables. I was in the kitchen making dinner and he was having a fit that he couldn't be with me. So I decided to let him stay with me while I chopped up the vegetables. He was fascinated. I handed him a piece of pepper. He ate it. I was amazed. Now, I take him into the kitchen with me and let him watch me cut up his vegetables. Although he's still not a big vegetable eater, we're making progress.

They really are like kids!

 

[Wasabisaurus]

Very good advice from everyone. So you won't waste food, try one fruit or vegetable at a time, and make a big deal of it when you eat. MMMMmmmmmmm, broccoli is so yummy, you could say. Good luck!

 

[Mizzely]

Oh another thing - when you try one thing at a time, prepare it in different ways. Example, carrots: make them into sticks, make them into coins, and dice them. Sometimes they prefer a different shape. You can also try fresh vs cooked.

 

[Jenphilly]

Hello! We brought home Lucy, wonderful a yellow-naped amazon. Her diet previously was entirely pellet-based. I tried to feed her mango, brown rice, bananas, and other good stuff, but she acts almost afraid of the new food and walks away from it. The only things besides pellets that she will accept are nuts. How can I get her to eat her fruits and vegetables?

Thank you x !

Does Lucy have a favorite person to hang out with? Has she tried to share or steal food from anyone?

@Mizzely gave my almost exact reply to these posts Bring your bird to the table so she can eat with the flock, by nature a bird eats when their flock eats, and it is a wonderful bonding time!

My bare eye too arrived to me about 3 years of age and had never seen a veggie in her life and would not touch anything - no matter what it was or how it was cut up or presented to her. At that time, I would just puree everything and make a sweet birdie bread which she would eat, so good stuff was getting in... one night hanging out with us on the sofa, she stole a piece of whatever we were eating and ran away like a true thief. So at first that became a game, I would pretend she could not have something off my plate and she would do everything she could to get to it and then find a safe place to eat it (and she would finish every single morsel). By that time her wing were growing back in and were teaching her to fly. She would grab food from the table, run to the edge and leap off. So, I started making a pile of food on the corner of my plate that was specifically for her, she would grab a beakful, run and fly to safety with her snatch. Eventually she realized we were not trying to stop her anymore, so she just took food and hung out next to you or hopped around the table from plate to plate. Yeah, I know, some people may frown upon having a bird bouncing around the table, but we were just thrilled she was eating!

Sorry, rambling (I tend to do that, warning for all future posts of mine you may see)...

But the point, is to try to get Lucy involved with eating WITH you... and that might mean you have to eat healthier too, not bad right!? Start with very easy and usually widely accepted items - bell peppers, shredded carrots, snap peas in pod, cooked / mashed sweet potatoes, mini corn on the cob, cucumbers... those are solid starter veggies that most birds like (not every), and don't try all of them at once, let her eat a piece of bell pepper, if she comes back, let her take something else. I'm not the biggest fan of chop for this reason, with my birds, they pick out what they like and leave the rest.

If you find you are having no luck with veggies, will Lucy eat rice or spaghetti noodles? Make up her own 'side dish', puree veggies and mix in with mix or coat the spaghetti.

Think of her as a child, literally, and how you might trick a child into eating their broccoli