How Long Did It Take To Convert Your Bird To a New Diet?

[got seed?]

I'm currently getting my bird to eat Tops pellets, his main diet is Zupreem/Higgins pellets and veggies. (You can never have too much variety) He took to it very quickly I got him to take a few bites on the first day, he's now eating it fine after two weeks. I was wondering how long it took other people to convert their birds to different diets. It took me about 4ish months to get him consistently eating pellets, and almost 7 months to get him to eat veggies. I'm really curious to know if there are any seed junkies who took to pellets really fast.

 

[Mizzely]

Usually about 6 months for pellets... I'm at 2 years for my Jardine's to get him to eat fresh foods!

 

[JewellBird]

My budgies took about 2 months to fully convert to getting them to consistantly eat pellets. My cockatiel about the same. My green cheek conures on the other hand tried pellets the first day I brought them home and have eaten them ever since. For veggies and chop they all tried them almost right away, but took about a month to start finishing all of the chop in the bowls.

 

[got seed?]

My budgies took about 2 months to fully convert to getting them to consistantly eat pellets. My cockatiel about the same. My green cheek conures on the other hand tried pellets the first day I brought them home and have eaten them ever since. For veggies and chop they all tried them almost right away, but took about a month to start finishing all of the chop in the bowls.

The first day you brought them!? Man they must be down to try anything

 

[JewellBird]

The first day you brought them!? Man they must be down to try anything

I know right? When I rescued them they had been on a very unhealthy seed only diet for a long time and I don't think they always had the opportunity to eat. So I think they were just happy to have something more substantial and just food in general.

 

[The_Mayor]

This may be a stupid question, but how do you know if your birds are eating the pellets?

I know they didn't like the Zupreem fruit flavor, which, if I'd known them better I probably could have guessed. They're not really big on fruit generally.

I think they're eating the Tops pellets, but maybe they're just grinding it to alfalfa dust and spitting the dust back into their dish. And I can't tell with the Harrison's teeny-tiny pellets at all.

All I really have to go on is that I know they're at least doing something with the Tops and they spend a lot of time at the designated pellet feeding dish. But, I can't really tell if that's 'cause they're eating the pellets or just digging through them in the hopes that maybe there's a cache of millet hidden under the pellets.

Overall, they seem to have a good amount of energy although they're always pretty interested in exploring the treats I put on the cage floor, so maybe they're looking to supplement their diet.

 

[BirdWorld]

Erm... about a day lol. They were on zupreem when I got them but they ate lafebers as soon as I offered it.

 

[Ember-Tiel]

It only took about 2 month for my cockatiel as I encouraged her to eat pellets after hand feeding her.

 

[Zettobi]

1 day for my sun conure. I just introduced pellets to her last weekend and she started eating them directly out of a bowl the day after. I'm very lucky!