by Pajarita » Sat Nov 12, 2016 10:19 am
Welcome to the forum, Dana and Kiwi! Let's see if we can help you out with your problem. First of all (and correct me if I am wrong), it doesn't sound as if you offered him soft food when you first got him and you should have because he was still a baby. He is now a juvenile and, although the window for them to learn what to eat never actually closes, it gets harder and harder as they get older. Now, about the mashed potatoes... not a good idea. For one thing, they would need to be organic (potatoes are in the 'dirtiest dozen' list), they would have to be mashed with the skins on (it's the only part of the potato that has any real nutritional value) and, of course, they would have to be just potatoes and absolutely nothing else mixed with them. But, although mashed potatoes as I described, per se, are not bad, they are really not very good, either -especially for a bird that eats only seeds- they simply don't have that much nutrition in them. You need to get him to eat veggies that pack a punch nutritionally speaking - things like sweet potatoes, butternut squash, blueberries, etc. so, if you are going to offer him mashed anything, give him mashed sweet potatoes mixed with blueberries, for example.
Wolf is 100% correct in that, as long as he is been free-fed any type of higher protein food, you will not be able to switch him over to a better diet and, when it comes to IRN's, free-feeding seed, even the lower protein mixes, is never a good idea because these birds don't eat that many seeds in the wild, they eat mostly fruits, buds and blossoms so it's imperative that you get him to eat a large selection of produce. Try the cooked whole grain (wheat, oat groats, kamut, hulled barley, etc) just slightly cooked at first and mixed in with just the tiniest sprinkle of grass seeds (like millet and canary seed, for example). And add some baby jar food which is thoroughly pureed and will stick to the grains (but nothing with spinach) as well as some fresh corn (never give a bird dry corn) and baby peas, for example -the idea is for this healthier food to resemble, as much as possible, grains or seeds. Another highly nutritional food that is easy to get them to eat is pomegranate seeds (they all LOVE them and they are in season now but make sure the fruit is ripe before you cut it open).
Offer this dish warm one hour after dawn (he should have no food whatsoever in his cage when he wakes up) and leave it there all day whether he eats it or not, then, when you see the sun is halfway down to the horizon in the afternoon, turn off the artificial lights and give him his seed dinner (only enough to fill his crop and just a bit extra to ensure he is not going hungry). Once nigh falls naturally and he is asleep, take out the seeds so you can do the same thing the following morning. Once you get him to eat this most basic gloop all the time (it should take about 3 days), you can start adding other stuff to it - like chopped broccoli, finely diced carrots, butternut squash steamed and made into small cubes, etc. And, once he is eating the 'good' gloop, you can start working on the raw produce.
But, a word of caution, it takes a looooong time to get them to eat any new item of produce you offer (it might take as long as years!) and the key to success is persistence persistence persistence. You simply have to keep on offering the same thing over and over and over (not every day, he should get a different fruit, veggie and green every day of the week), even if you end up throwing it away.
. he wasn't interested in the mashed potato but when I made my self some baked potato I ate some in front of him and joined me so I mashed it for him and he really liked it, offered him some chili peppers but he didn't fancy that, other than the sweet potato he didn't want to try anything else I'm gonna try the gloop and see how it goes. eating the food in front of him helps a lot in encouraging him to try the things I offer, but he still seems to be very picky as he tries it then refuse to have it.