I have two parakeets I adopted from someone who was feeding them a seed mix and spray millet (and lots of it). I've tried switching them over to pellets by mixing it into their regular seed, but they made damn sure to pick out just the millet and avoid everything else like the plague. I recently tried a cold-turkey approach and just filled their bowl with pellets to which they responded by kicking it out of the bowl and searching frantically for their millet! I put a little bit of the spray millet on top of the pellets, but again, they picked it out and didn't look twice at the pellets. They've snubbed all fresh foods and refuse to look at anything that isn't their millet spray. Any tips???
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STUBBORN parakeets only want millet! Help!
- Thread starter eriamc
- Start date
Welcome to the AVE. how old are the keets?
switching is tough from seed to pellets. try soaking the pellets with either a little 100% apple juice or water. let them get just soft not mushy. fresh foods, try a little endive, romaine, parsley, well wash and damp. do not use lettuce, it's a good way to give the upset tummies. hang it with pinch style clothes pin near their perches. try fresh corn, mashed sweet potato, oatmeal not the instant type. try bananas, orange pieces, grapes slices into 4ths. eat with them so they see you trying good stuff. make a big deal of eating the good stuff. talk to while you are eating it, nummy, hmmmmmm that is good, you get the idea
Converting Parrots to a Healthier Diet - Tips | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum
New year's pellet conversion resolution | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum
and his mom
switching is tough from seed to pellets. try soaking the pellets with either a little 100% apple juice or water. let them get just soft not mushy. fresh foods, try a little endive, romaine, parsley, well wash and damp. do not use lettuce, it's a good way to give the upset tummies. hang it with pinch style clothes pin near their perches. try fresh corn, mashed sweet potato, oatmeal not the instant type. try bananas, orange pieces, grapes slices into 4ths. eat with them so they see you trying good stuff. make a big deal of eating the good stuff. talk to while you are eating it, nummy, hmmmmmm that is good, you get the idea
Converting Parrots to a Healthier Diet - Tips | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum
New year's pellet conversion resolution | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum
and his mom
Monica
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For budgies, you might want to try buying some finch/canary pellets, especially if these are the color of millet. LaFeber has some canary/finch pellets which are close in color to millet. Might even try Harrison's or Roudybush. Get a dish and scatter it with pellets, then top with a little bit of millet and see if they'll eat that. Do it first thing in the morning when they are hungriest.
Please keep in mind though, that even if you can convert them to eating pellets, they still require seeds in their diet. Instead of feeding dry seeds, you could try feeding them sprouted seeds instead. If you are going to feed sprouted, you will need fresh seeds that have no dyes, and are not enriched (i.e. no added vitamins, minerals or preservatives). Also, no pellets. Those things could potentially spoil the sprouts as you grow them, so fresh is best when it comes to sprouts.
Please keep in mind though, that even if you can convert them to eating pellets, they still require seeds in their diet. Instead of feeding dry seeds, you could try feeding them sprouted seeds instead. If you are going to feed sprouted, you will need fresh seeds that have no dyes, and are not enriched (i.e. no added vitamins, minerals or preservatives). Also, no pellets. Those things could potentially spoil the sprouts as you grow them, so fresh is best when it comes to sprouts.
Lady Jane, and anyone who stumbles across this post, birds will indeed starve themselves. dont try a cold turkey approach EVER or else you'll end up with a couple of cold keets. one of my little friends died from refusing to eat anything but her millet, despite the fact that we were providing a huge variety of other foods. she spit them out and just refused them.
Mr Peepers
Cruising the avenue
Keep giving your birds their seed diet they probably get enough millet in their seed mix that you don't need to offer them millet sprays at all.. I'd keep trying to offer them some type of fresh veggie or fruits every day just a small piece of spinach or romaine lettuce, cucumber or broccoli should be placed in your birds cage every day.. you can wet the food and sprinkle a little millet on it so it sticks to the fresh food. They will check the fresh out eventually on their terms but you have to keep on offering it and never stop trying... budgies are notoriously suspicious and scared of anything new so they have to keep on seeing the fresh food in their cage daily for them to get use to it and give it a try.
Also don't give up on pellets I leave a small amount in a dish in my budgies cage until they got use to them and tried them, since you don't watch your birds continuously during the 12-16 hours they are awake you don't know if they are eating them or not.
One day I noticed a few pellets on the cage floor so I suspected my birds were trying to eat them.. one day out of the blue I looked up at them and saw both birds were eating pellets but they were spitting out a certain star shape because the pellet was difficult to maneuver in their mouths so I changed to a smaller pellet that didn't have fancy shapes and found the birds enjoyed eating those pellets.
I offer my birds a variety of foods in their diet I think its best if a bird has the options of seeds and fresh veggies and fruits and pellets every day to maintain good health... but it takes time and since you have older birds you adopted you have to be persistent to make this work. Good Luck
Also don't give up on pellets I leave a small amount in a dish in my budgies cage until they got use to them and tried them, since you don't watch your birds continuously during the 12-16 hours they are awake you don't know if they are eating them or not.
One day I noticed a few pellets on the cage floor so I suspected my birds were trying to eat them.. one day out of the blue I looked up at them and saw both birds were eating pellets but they were spitting out a certain star shape because the pellet was difficult to maneuver in their mouths so I changed to a smaller pellet that didn't have fancy shapes and found the birds enjoyed eating those pellets.
I offer my birds a variety of foods in their diet I think its best if a bird has the options of seeds and fresh veggies and fruits and pellets every day to maintain good health... but it takes time and since you have older birds you adopted you have to be persistent to make this work. Good Luck
