my green cheek conure isnt eating veggies

[Baby GCC]

my 5 month old green cheek conure, Baby, wont eat his veggies! when I first got him/her (I don't know yet) he would eat them, but now he just wont. he eats his pellets and fruit and anything and everything im eating, but just wont eat anything like carrot, broccoli, etc. his favourite food is dairy, so I tried to reward him with a tiny piece of cheese if he eats a piece if vegetable, but it just wont work . please help, his pellets have everything he needs but I still want to make sure.

[Wolf]

Would it be possible for you to tell us what foods he/she gets and eats, how often ( feeding schedule ), and how much. Birds have a very developed palate or sense of taste and like us they often will choose to eat only the things they like the most. We may support this behavior by providing them enough food that they do not get hungry enough to eat their veggies as they are not as tasty as something else.

[Pajarita]

Well, first of all, there is no such thing as a pellet that provides complete nutrition so it would behoove you not to think along those lines. Secondly, GCCs are mainly fruit eaters in the wild so yes, they will always prefer fruits to veggies but mine ate theirs so I think the problem might be the way they are prepared. Mine did not like raw veggies with the exception of carrots which they would only eat if coarsely grated. But they ate their cooked veggies with no problems and those included corn (they LOVE corn on the cob very lightly steamed so it's still crisp), diced carrots, sweet peas, chopped broccoli, baked sweet potatoes and butternut squash. The trick is to make everything small and mix it with cooked grains (mine got this for breakfast along with the daily big piece of fruit and a leafy green (a different one every day). Be careful with free-feeding pellets to a GCC because they don't require a lot of protein and, in truth, you don't know how much it is in the pellets (read the nutritional label and you will see that it says something like 'minimum' or 'no less than' in the protein value).

[KimberlyAnn]

I agree with what Pajarita said. Also, try some cayenne powder on the broccoli. My GCC loves it! It's healthy for them too. Just don't cook the cayenne. Let the food cool and then put the powder on. I heard it upsets their stomach if it's cooked.

[marie83]

Hmmm my gcc prefers raw veg, in fact there are very few veggies he will eat if they are cooked. I would definitely try presenting them in different ways. I do agree they will always eat their favorite foods first time though so if they are filling up too much on those they are less likely to want to eat other foods.

[Scotty]

Pellets and fruits, yep, just like my GCC, they get hooked on those two and veggies become a no no...

Start getting away from the pellets and get into a sprouted beans, peas, and sprouts type of diet and fruits...

I'm starting to become Anti-Pellet, it's not natural or healthy, these aren't dogs and cats we're feeding, they need real whole foods to eat...