what next?

[charles]

Hi everyone! Well I've tried giving Sammy : brocolli,shreded carrots,apple,peach,mango,banana,califlower, and spray millet and he hasn't eaten any of it! I've been putting it in a seperate bowl near his seed. Should I try mixing it in his food or take his seed away and just leave him the veggies or fruits?

[butterfly1061]

How have you offered these? Cooked, raw, steamed? One at a time? For how long? Have you tried to make birdie bread and add a couple of these to it?

[kimsbirds]

Keep offering it...sometimes it takes weeks of offering the same food DAILY before a lovebird will actually LOOK at it. Dont' mix it with seed or pellet, serve it seperately, and don't remove other foods as the lovebird has no clue at this point what these foreign things are in it's cage !! LOL
Make yummy noises yourself as you eat it too...encouraging birdie to try.
How long have you offered each individual type of food? Do you serve it cooked? cut up? raw? Try lots of ways...
Good Luck
K

[Phoebe]

Hope this is working as I am new. My lovies only like greens (and not much of them to my dismay) but I try my best.

[bubble]

i tried for at least 6 months before my lovies would eat veggies and grapes. they would even fly to my shoulders and beg for veggies these days. they also like seeds (i only offer them a few sunflower seeds daily), millet spray, avi-cakes, popcorn, birdie bread and green seedless grapes. it takes time, when my "leader" bird started eating veggies and the others follow.
when i first got them 2 years ago all they eat is seeds, especially sunflower seeds, you just have to keep trying.

[Janie]

I agree.....try, try and keep trying! My Oliver is living proof that you can teach an old bird new tricks (better eating habits!) with lots of persistence! It took me three full weeks, offering raw broccoli every single day, before he took the first tiny little bite. He was around 6 or 7 when we adopted him and had never eaten anything but seed and cheap seed at that. I ate my fair share while trying to spark his interest in what momma was eating and when he took that first bite, I cheered for him and praised him repeatedly. :D Now, 2 1/2 years later, he eats it every day and will also eat birdie bread, carrots, brown rice and as of a few days ago, cooked popcorn. I did "cheat" a little to get him to try the other foods......I bought two more lovies and since they are very young and very good eaters, Oliver is trying everything that they eat! I'm not sure Oliver understood how to be a curious lovebird until he watched the other two acting like lovebirds! :lol

I don't mean to insinuate that he is a great veggie eater because he isn't but his diet has greatly improved (more so since getting the other two) and I am happy with every little step he takes in that direction. Don't give up....I really think you can change his diet if you kept at it. :)

[Paulette]

Hi Charles....I'm Paulette from Missouri....what worked for me was to take the seeds away, they are like candy and your bird will choose that over anything new.....Put the veggie cup exactly where the seed cup was because when they get hungry they know to go there. My flock was very picky and would only eat things that are chopped up into small bird sized bites, but experiment because everybirdie is different. My guys won't touch fruit at all. I have them on the bean/rice/corn/peas/scrambled eggs mixture for breakfast and they keep it until about 5pm when I take it out and give them seeds. I think it took about a month to get my seed eaters to convert and now they cry for that bean breakfast. Just keep trying and eventually they will get hunry enough to eat what you put in there......mine will not tolerate change so it's beans everyday and ocassionally I give them birdie bread and fruity zupreem pellets as a treat. Good Luck.

[shylevon]

DO NOT TAKE HIS SEED AWAY.

Birds will not eat a food they don't feel comfortable with, or if they don't know that it's food. A bird can starve, or get seriously malnurished if he has no other regular foods to eat.

Never mix damp foods with seed, as bacteria will grow there and birdie will become ill. Also, birdie may not eat the seed, if there is something in the bowl that he does not like or recognize.

Offer one vegetable at a time (always fresh and changed daily), and offer it every day for at least two weeks. That is sometimes how long it takes for a bird to even taste it. Once he does get to tasting and eating it, start offering a different veggie in the same way, for two weeks, while offering the first veggie off and on, every couple of days. Offer the veggies in different forms, cooked, sliced, chopped, hanging from the cage bars or ceiling; until you come upon a style of serving that your birdie likes. In this way, you will increase your birdies veggie repertoire and not adversely affect it's health.

I have found lovebirds are not great fruit fans, so you may be fighting an uphill battle serving that.

[fpmeehan]

I have been experimenting with food for my two lovebirds and a parrotlet. I line their food tray with greens such as spinach or arugula, then place their usual seeds at the bottom and moist food on top to get them to eat it. I remove the tray at the end of the day and look to see how much they've eaten. Then, I serve them something else in the late afternoon/early evening. So far the younger one eats more and is willing to try new things. I also leave Zupreem fruit pellets in another bowl and a mix of pellets in another so they can choose those if they don't like the moist food and they won't starve. I know to some people this may seem like alot of trouble just to get a bird to eat, but I'm still learning what's right for them because I want them to be healthy and happy. One day, I'll back off from the 'special' treatment and have a routine that I can fit into my busy lifestyle easily. Right now both birds are young, less than 8 months old and adjusting to the changes in their environment.

[mjm8321]

I cannot get my lovies to eat fruit...no matter what, so I said forget it. They do eat veggies and LOTS of them. Broccoli, kale and raw yaws everyday. Corn, mixed veggies 2-3 times a week.
Keep trying with the veggies...it took two of my stubborn flock almost 4 months to finally decide they liked veggies.

[Janie]

Golly, the one thing I forgot to add was exactly what Shy started with....DO NOT TAKE HIS SEED AWAY! There is no doubt in my mind that my older bird would have starved to death w/o seed. He is on the thin side and the vet recommended taking his seed away a night and only offering pellets (which is will not touch) and I didn't even have the heart to do that. That would not have killed him since it was only to be done at night but still, there is no way I would ever withhold food from a bird while trying to get him to try other things.

I agree with MJ about the fruit, too. If you can get him to eat it, great, but it is normally not the favorite for lovebirds. My good eaters will occasionally nibble on dehydrated apples or even a fresh apple slice but my older bird won't touch any kind of fruit.

[shylevon]

Some vets will suggest that if you are going to attempt to remove seeds, for a limited time, that you do it at night. Birds forage first thing in the morning, so if they are looking about and only see pellets, they 'may' try them.

Being 'half asleep little birds' may help with their 'not quite knowing' what the heck it is they are chewing on, also. If you ever try this, be sure to give them the seed as soon as you wake up. If the pellets are too unpalatable for even a half asleep birdie, it is not fair to make him wait to long for something that he can eat. No one likes waking up to hunger pains and finding no food around.

[bubble]

when i first got me 2 lovies i took them to the vet for a check up, he asked me to decrease the seeds given to them gradually and replace it with pellets :( tell you the truth i didn't even try, of course i want them to be healthy but at the same time have a happy life. i only removed all the sunflower seeds from their seed mix (it's like my part time job picking out the sunflower seeds). i still let them eat their seeds but adding to their diet with veggies, fruit and birdie bread. now they are willing to try different things including pellets, rice and carrot/apple/celery juice...i am a happy mom and they are happy fids :happy:

[shylevon]

Why do you remove the sunflower seeds?? Sunflower is high in digestible oils and keeps the feathers and skin of birdies healthy, hydrated, and supple; especially in winter.

Unless they don't like sunflowers, that is.

[graushill]

One of my birds, Nemo the little plucker, is not supposed to eat sunflower seeds either, because he apparently didn't get them when he lived as a breeder bird and then when he came to live with us and tried them for the first time, loved them too much, and would eat them rather than any other seed in his seed mix. The vet has speculated that the trigger for his plucking could have been caused by overeating suflower seeds, and while it does sound very strange, it was after taking away sunflower seeds from his diet that he let most of his feathers grow back. He now gets sunflower seeds very, very sparingly, because like Shy says, they are very nutritious. In any case, Nemo is now in a low fat diet, but he still gets seeds every day. I did start like Bubble picking out the sunflower seeds from the seed mix which does feel like a part time job :( , but nowadays we managed to find a pet store that sells seeds separately, so Nemo gets a custom made sunflowerless mix. It's sadly more expensive, but much more convenient.

Just my obligatory Nemo story for the day :).

Gloria

[bubble]

the vet said most lovies love sunflower seeds too much and they will only fill up with them, he said it's like eating ice cream and chocolate everyday. since that vet visit 2 years ago i started picking out sunflower seeds part time :roll:

[shylevon]

Well... if you have a problem with people eating ice cream and chocolate all day, every day, then you are no friend of mine.:D

I agree, that a bowl should certainly not be filled with sunflower seeds, at least not the same way I fill up my bowl with ice cream, but a few in their food dish seems like a wise choice. Just like one would not feed only millet, as it is a birdie favorite and most would eat it to the exclusion of all other foods, but to deny a tasty treat is just mean.

Now, I'm off to eat my ice cream and chocolate before anyone takes it away from me.

[LauraO]

Adding raw shelled sunflower seeds to birdy bread is a good way to get picky eaters to try it. I have heard many say sunflower seeds are not good for lovies because of the fat content, but I do give mine some as they are very active and eat a variety of food. NOW, if I can just get DH to stop giving them millet whenever he can I'd be alright:x .

[bubble]

shy, i am having an apple crumble with ice cream right now :D