cricketiel
Sitting on the front steps
- Joined
- 5/14/20
- Messages
- 17
- Real Name
- Dana
Hi all!
I’ve been having a very hard time converting my cockatiel to pellets. I’ve tried multiple (healthy) brands to find her favorite, and she 100% recognizes them as food, but she will only eat them if I sit with her and pretend to eat them too. And even then she only eats a few before throwing a tantrum.
I’ve tried blending then into a powder and sprinkling them on seeds and her favorite veggies, I’ve tried getting them damp and mushy and mixing them with those things, I’ve tried getting them mushy on their own, I’ve tried genuinely everything that I can think of and everything I have been recommended.
I try to ignore the protests she has when I refuse to cave (I don’t give her seeds to get her to stop screaming because I don’t want her to learn screaming gets her what she wants), but it gets to the point where she has barely eaten for several days (which I can tell from her poops) and is just screaming constantly, until I finally do cave because I don’t want her to starve of course (though I have been monitoring her weight throughout the whole process).
To summarize: she knows pellets are food but still refuses to eat them, even when she’s starving. Does anyone have any advice?? I’m at my wit’s end with this, so literally any commentary would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much for your time!
- Dana
I’ve been having a very hard time converting my cockatiel to pellets. I’ve tried multiple (healthy) brands to find her favorite, and she 100% recognizes them as food, but she will only eat them if I sit with her and pretend to eat them too. And even then she only eats a few before throwing a tantrum.
I’ve tried blending then into a powder and sprinkling them on seeds and her favorite veggies, I’ve tried getting them damp and mushy and mixing them with those things, I’ve tried getting them mushy on their own, I’ve tried genuinely everything that I can think of and everything I have been recommended.
I try to ignore the protests she has when I refuse to cave (I don’t give her seeds to get her to stop screaming because I don’t want her to learn screaming gets her what she wants), but it gets to the point where she has barely eaten for several days (which I can tell from her poops) and is just screaming constantly, until I finally do cave because I don’t want her to starve of course (though I have been monitoring her weight throughout the whole process).
To summarize: she knows pellets are food but still refuses to eat them, even when she’s starving. Does anyone have any advice?? I’m at my wit’s end with this, so literally any commentary would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much for your time!
- Dana