My birds would rather starve than eat healthy..

[GlassOnion]

I've been feeding my birds small quantities of fruits/veggies by mushing everything up into this thick pukey texture and embedding sprouted seeds on top. But this has created rather an adverse effect on their overall health in contrary to what I had hoped. Apple, my tiel who used to happily eat pellets as his main course, won't even touch them anymore. All he will touch are the sprouted seeds, and even then, he will only eat the seed part and completely leave the actual sprouts alone. He will rather starve for hours rather than eating what I offer. Similar results from Spice as well, but she will eat more of what's there. How can I fix this? I've tried all the known methods of converting birds to eating veggies daily, with little to no luck.

[kaylayuh]

All I can say is good luck. I've been trying to get the budgies to eat anything other than a fortified seed mix since I got them, and they refuse to touch it. I think the most they ever touched was a jalapeno. Pellets were quickly kicked out of the cage and not even touched.

I gave up on the pellets with the budgies, honestly. I was wasting too much money each month trying to get them to eat the pellets and only ended up vacuuming them up. Now they get a fortified seed mix with dried fruit and vegetables. They nibble some of the dried stuff, but they always go for the seed first.

I'd say give them what they will eat and try different textures, shapes and sizes of fresh foods to see if they have a certain preferance. Cheney Bird won't eat apples if they're not in little squares without the skin. He won't eat rice unless it's brown rice. He won't eat green beans unless they're cut open. Carrots have to be circles. Blueberries have to be dried. Bananas have to be chips.

I think it's more important for them to be eating anything, even if it is just seeds or just pellets than it is for them to have fresh stuff. If you're really worried, call the vet and ask about vitamin/mineral supplements.

[GlassOnion]

Hahaha, picky little bugger your Cheney bird!
Have you tried the thick pukey texture method? I'm sure you have..
Why don't you try giving your budgies barely sprouted seeds? I think the tiny little tails from the seeds still make a while lotta difference in the nutritional composition. Mine are tricked into
Thinking they are seeds and eat them.

[kaylayuh]

I've tried the sprouts with the budgies. For some reason, they think they're something to poop in. I don't know what their deal with the sprouts are. So I stopped giving the sprouts to them because I don't want them eating poop. They're eating the dried fruit and vegetables now, so that's better than nothing.

Cheney Bird is also really picky. He won't eat the gloppy baby food mash stuff. He stays far far away from it. Everything has to be very particular sizes and shapes. He's also really particular about cereals and will only eat Cheerios. He won't even eat the knock-off store brands. I even got him some popped millet cereal and he won't even eat that.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I gather the big thing about sprouting is the chemical changes that occur as a result of the beginning of the growing process -- the sprout itself is not the only thing that has changed about the seed.

I can't get Scooter to eat pellets, but he eats fresh. I keep giving him pellets mixed with his safflower and millet, but I couldn't swear he ever eats any of it. I can't get Scotty to eat fresh, but he will eat pellets -- and nuts. He loves nuts. Both are species that need higher than average fat, so perhaps it works out OK. Scooter has his annual checkup tomorrow, we'll see what the vet has to say.