Not food motivated?

[Jade]

So Seri will occasionally accept treats, but in general is not excited about them. I've done head scratches, but its difficult to use this as a reward with my husband handling her bc she attacks him. Any suggestions on really good treats to use?
She is fed a pellet based diet with greens daily. Training treats we use are millet seeds, cheerios, granola. I've also tried just using her pellets, she wasn't fooled. I want something fast and easy to do as a reward so the training is streamlined and I don't loose her attention, but at the same time something she will really want. We've tried fruit, but that usually only works once during a session.

[Wolf]

Try dry roasted unsalted almonds and cut or break into small pieces or you could try unsalted grey striped sunflower seeds. As long as these are not part of the food that goes in their food dish they should work great.

[Jade]

Sounds good, I'll try them. She likes the millet, but toms hands are too big to give her one, lol. We tried a Cheez-it last night, and she liked it, but I really don't want to get into the habit of junk food. She gets an Edemame every night as a treat (its her favorite thing ever) so we're gonna do just one or two "taming" tricks with tom with that from now on.

[Pajarita]

Well, free-feeding her high protein food (pellets) is a problem because high value items are all high protein but when the bird has high protein all the time, the value declines and motivation tends to disappear. Aside from that, free-feeding high protein is also unhealthy for them.

I don't feed any of my animals (dogs, cats, mouse, birds) anything with soy. Period. Soy has estrogenic and goitrogenic side effects so, as far as I am concerned, it's out of their diet. Also, PLEASE no processed human cereals EVER! They are loaded with iron because they are meant for human consumption (check the nutritional label on the Cheerios and you'll see) but birds require very little of it and when you feed too much (even if it comes from naturally high sources like fruits and veggies), it ends up in the liver and other organs and in time, cause iron storage disease. Human food was not meant to be consumed by birds.

I suggest you start feeding a fresh food diet with pellets (if you must, I don't feed them as I know they are not the best dietary option for them) for dinner only. This will make a much healthier diet for your bird and allow you to use any source of high protein food (seeds, nuts, pellets, etc) as a reward.

[Jade]

She gets a daily mush of veggies. I make up a batch every few months and freeze tiny containers. The last one had corn, brussel sprouts, peas, kale, edemame, lentils, beans, small amount of lemon, peppers, ect. She kinda picks at this though. I've been trying an idea I read on here about meal feeding, and weaning off pellets in the morning and only offering them evening, but she doesn't really eat much of the veggie mix. She picks through it and then throws the rest on the floor. The pet store I got her from had her on a mix when I got her, and I've been doing it ever since I got her, but she just does the same thing. She didn't think the almonds were actually food and just threw them too. Shes such a brat sometimes

[Pajarita]

My birds hate mash and chop. They don't like mushy things, they like texture, and they like moist but not watery so maybe that is the problem with yours. Try a simple gloop and see what happens. I've transitioned over 300 birds to it and never had a problem doing it -they all love it.

You need to teach them to eat things so eat an almond a bit at a time and make a big deal of it. Use always the same words to indicate that what you are offering is food. I say: Que rica papa! It means 'what a nice 'papa'' a word that is baby talk for food (I also tell them the name of the item followed by 'it's good!" but let's start with one single new thing at a time). But I have a parrot that thinks "Eat it!" literally means "food" So, always use the same word or phrase and, eventually, he will understand that, when you offer something new and use it, it means that it's good to eat.

[liz]

My daughter, Rachel, had a Mexican-American babysitter from the time she was nine months old and I had to go back to work. One evening she was beating on the refrigerator saying "pa pa". Since she had more awake time with her, I had to call Maria to find out what was up with Rachel.

I have changed my birds to soften grain with veg mixed in for breakfast with a side of fresh veg. I don't know if they love it or if they know that is all they get and have to eat it. At bedtime the cockatiels get more than they can eat of budgie food. It is like a good bedtime snack. Rambo and Myrtle get three peanuts or almonds at bedtime. They do not say peanut but know what it means when I say "peanut time".

[Jade]

Oh, thats good to know! I thought that gloop was the mash, I'll have to find some recipes then. Where do you find things like whole wheat cornels? Are these at grocery stores or parrot stores? Gonna have to make some of this stuff.

[Wolf]

It sort of depends on where you live. I have to go to the health food store that is about 35 miles from my house to get whole grains for my birds. Some places the supermarket may carry a selection of whole grains.

[Pajarita]

I found a Shoprite that has all kinds of whole grains (wheat, barley, red/black/brown rice, quinoa, kamut, faro, etc -only thing they don't have is oat groats) but not all of them do - all the Whole Foods have a bulk grain section, though. But, if you don't have a supermarket that carries them nearby, you can always order them from the internet. I used to buy from Barry Farms years ago when nobody sold whole grains retail (http://barryfarm.com/) and I still use them for stuff like fruit dried naturally and without sulfites or sugar.