GCC with horrible junk food diet!!!

[beakycheekie]

Hello all, I recently posted an introduction to and questions about my GCC "Louie." Pajarita and Wolf gave me some great advice and maybe they and others can elaborate on diet here. I wanted to post in the diet section as well because I understand that a bird's diet is incredibly important and will affect their behavior as well as physical health. Louie, with whom I am having horrible aggression issues with, has the WORST diet. I adopted him from our local shelter about a month ago and he had only been there a couple of days. The previous owner was feeding him cockatiel seed mix and from that, the only thing he was (and still is...) eating were the sunflower seeds. Yes, he picks out ONLY the sunflower seeds and that is all that he eats. From the other discussions I'm reading on here, it sounds like his diet could have a great deal to do with his aggressive behavior.
How in the world do I get this bird to eat a healthy diet?
Every day I offer him several of these: apple, banana, mango, strawberries, carrots. I cut these up and leave them in one of his bowls in his cage (I've also tried having him eat them out of my hand, or sitting next to me at the kitchen table together) but every day they sit there untouched. Maybe a tiny little nibble at the most. I've tried baking "birdie bread" with quinoa, nuts, dried fruit, etc. I've made several different types of bread with no interest beyond a little nibble or lick. I bought a bag of those multi-colored pellets which I know are still not good for them because they have sugar, dye, etc. but I am just desperate for him to eat something besides sunflower SEEDS! Gah! Of course, beyond the first exploratory nibble, he will not touch the pellets. I don't know what to do because I don't want him to starve or lose weight if I deprive him of the seeds (he's already lean at 58 grams) so right now I'm still feeding him cockatiel seed mix. How do I change this bird's diet???

[Chantilly]

Hello all, I recently posted an introduction to and questions about my GCC "Louie." Pajarita and Wolf gave me some great advice and maybe they and others can elaborate on diet here. I wanted to post in the diet section as well because I understand that a bird's diet is incredibly important and will affect their behavior as well as physical health. Louie, with whom I am having horrible aggression issues with, has the WORST diet. I adopted him from our local shelter about a month ago and he had only been there a couple of days. The previous owner was feeding him cockatiel seed mix and from that, the only thing he was (and still is...) eating were the sunflower seeds. Yes, he picks out ONLY the sunflower seeds and that is all that he eats. From the other discussions I'm reading on here, it sounds like his diet could have a great deal to do with his aggressive behavior.
How in the world do I get this bird to eat a healthy diet?
Every day I offer him several of these: apple, banana, mango, strawberries, carrots. I cut these up and leave them in one of his bowls in his cage (I've also tried having him eat them out of my hand, or sitting next to me at the kitchen table together) but every day they sit there untouched. Maybe a tiny little nibble at the most. I've tried baking "birdie bread" with quinoa, nuts, dried fruit, etc. I've made several different types of bread with no interest beyond a little nibble or lick. I bought a bag of those multi-colored pellets which I know are still not good for them because they have sugar, dye, etc. but I am just desperate for him to eat something besides sunflower SEEDS! Gah! Of course, beyond the first exploratory nibble, he will not touch the pellets. I don't know what to do because I don't want him to starve or lose weight if I deprive him of the seeds (he's already lean at 58 grams) so right now I'm still feeding him cockatiel seed mix. How do I change this bird's diet???

Hello and sorry I didnt welcome you earlier (I was away all Monday) Im really dont know much in the diet area of parrots but, to encourage her to eat the fruits, all I could think to do is get her to try it with out her knowing.. mabye in the morning give her a slice of apple with the sunflowers pushed into it, and dont give her seed till midday that day to encourge her to pull the sunflowers out of the apple.
Or put her sunflower seeds in with her mango so she 'accidentally' tries the fruit while picking the seed out of the dish with the sticky fruit, if she tries it she might decide she loves it.
Sorry, I am really not sure how to approach for this kind of problem.
But welcome and thankyou for addopting your new parrot

[Wolf]

To begin with I would pick the sunflower seeds out of the cockatiel seed mix and reserve them for training treats. Then I would offer the remainder of the cockatiel seed mix to him for his dinner, I feed fresh produce and gloop to all of my birds for their breakfast and for all day foraging. As for the gloop, I would not get concerned too much about making the entire product as he will probably not eat it at this point in time any way, so it would not only be a waste, it would also be a waste of time, energy and money. I would begin by choosing maybe 4 different whole grains such as steel cut oats, spelt, quinoa and perhaps barley and cook them only half done so that they are still hard on the inside while soft of the outside as this makes the texture somewhat similar to seeds. I would add some of the cockatiel seed mix on top of these whole grains. That is the seed mix without the sunflower seeds. He may balk at this change in his diet but with him having the seed mix for dinner he will not starve, however if he does not eat after a couple of days give him some of the sunflower seeds in the seed mix for a few days and then cut the sunflower seeds out again. I would also keep offering him fresh produce every morning first thing before offering the whole grains.

The reason that he does not eat any thing else is that he found out that there were enough sunflower seeds in the mix that he could get by with eating mostly them and that he was probably weaned onto an all seed diet so he does not recognize anything else as food. Although this is deplorable it is not yet uncommon of a practice and then no one told the original owners that he needed anything else or that they needed to teach him to eat other foods or how to do it.
There was a stage in the development of your bird when he first started to eat solid foods, that he should have been started on soft foods such as fruits and soft vegetables and then just after he fledged, which is when he first started flying and started leaving the nest that the parent birds would have taught him what to eat and how to eat it . This was not done by the parent birds, but that is not their fault and it was not done by the breeder either and the new owners didn't know to do it. A lot of mistakes but all is not lost as parrots are fully capable of learning all of their lives and he can still be taught what to eat although it is very time consuming and takes a lot of patience. I have a tendency to use the birds own nature as well as the method that his parents would have used to teach him in the wild.

This is to put him on a perch ( the parents would have taken him to a branch and told him to stay put). then I would show him the food( just as his parents would have done) and then I would have started eating the food in front of him without offering any of it to him( this is what his parents would have done). Pick up the next piece of the food ( his parents would have to go and get it) and once again start eating it in front of him. Keep repeating this and your bird will start to ask for a piece, but do not give it to him ( this is also how his parents would have done). Then he will begin to beg for the food, do not give it to him. Then he will begin to demand the food, still do not share it. Then he will begin to try to get to the food and if you will move in close enough, you allow him to steal a piece of the food from you. He might take a bite and throw it down or he might eat it, don't be concerned about that, just keep repeating this process until he begins to take the food from you and eats some of it. This is how his parent bird would have taught him to eat the food and then they would have taught him how to find that food.

I am sure that there are other ways but I don't use them as I think that the way his parents would have taught him is most likely to be the most effective as he is already predisposed to learning this way.

It will take much longer now then it would have if it had been done when it should have been done. Good luck.

[beakycheekie]

Thank you Wolf, that's so much good information! Really helpful!

[beakycheekie]

Oh, and Chantilly! Thank you as well!!