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Help with Seed to Pellet transition?

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Help with Seed to Pellet transition?

Postby hnhobu » Sun Feb 17, 2013 9:32 pm

Now that my lovebird has settled into his new home, I've decided that it's time to switch his seed-based diet to a pellet-based one.

My pellet of choice is currently Harrisons (it's organic, and I like that), and my husband and I picked up our first bag of their High-Potency formula a last week. I got the super-fine size because I figured that it would be easier to disguise, but my lovie is not falling for it.

Since I've transitioned birds before, I figured that I knew what I was in for but Cassette has other plans. Whenever I mix the pellets with his seed, he pays no attention to the pellets and scavenges around for the seed. The result is a bowl full of empty sunflower shells, millet droppings, and un-touched pellets. Now I've wasted over three tablespoons worth of the pellets and I'm pretty frustrated.

Today I attempted to restrict his diet further, as my original approach was getting no results. I put only a tiny, tiny bit of seed in with much more pellet but came up empty handed again EXCEPT I noticed that he had wet the pellets in not only his water bowl, but his bathing tub as well. So, I decided to wet down his pellets a bit and try again. At first, I left them still pretty dry and added a little bit of raspberries. He played with the mixture some and showed interest (it was obvious he was hungry) but quickly moved on. Then, I wet the pellets even more (they're basically a baby-food consistency) and added a bit of seed and a bit more dry pellet. He's eating this right now and seems to be enjoying the wet mixture more than just seed alone... so I'm going to consider this progress. Even though he's technically only eating the seeds, he is getting the taste of the new food and I'm hoping that will make him get used to it.

My current plan is to feed him the wet mixture twice a day and only offer him pellets in between meals. Slowly but surely, I will start replacing the seed in the mixture with drier pellets and hopefully I'll end up at a place where he's eating only dry pellets.

I am wondering how slowly I should do this, though. On average, how long does it take a bird to convert to an all-pellet diet?

Does anyone else have any advice or two-cents? Please don't be shy! Share your knowledge with me!
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Re: Help with Seed to Pellet transition?

Postby janetafloat » Mon Feb 18, 2013 2:01 am

With Scout I put 10% of his food as pellets the first week, 20% the second week & 30% the third, but then somewhere in the third I realised he was eating at least some of the pellets so I just went cold turkey at that point & switched him and he was fine. I started with the extra fine too & then the second bag I moved him to fine....but after a week of that it was clear he didn't like it at all so I've had to chalk that up to experience & go back to the extra fine.
Also I've heard that making birdie bread with pellets in it can be a good way to crack a really stubborn case.
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Re: Help with Seed to Pellet transition?

Postby marie83 » Mon Feb 18, 2013 4:31 am

The conversion process really does depend. When I made the switch to pellets I really really wasn't expecting an easy ride as I couldn't get Harlie to eat fresh foods or even soaked seeds. In all it took me a week to get her on pellets but 5-6 years to get her to nibble on any fresh and thats still an ongoing battle......
Ollie who will eat anything I give him actually took a few days longer than Harlie to convert :S

You never can predict it. BTW, Liz Wilson recommends doing it the way you are. I was going to do it that way, but Harlie wouldn't touch wet/damp foods so I only did it with Ollie.
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Re: Help with Seed to Pellet transition?

Postby Cage Cleaner » Mon Feb 18, 2013 5:13 am

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Last edited by Cage Cleaner on Sun Apr 26, 2020 2:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Help with Seed to Pellet transition?

Postby Strawfrawg » Mon Feb 18, 2013 2:32 pm

This is kind of "far out" and it might not work for every bird, but it did the trick for my very stubborn cockatiel. I tried every method I could find with no luck at all, so I got creative.

Simply put: I made him jealous. Weebo always wanted to eat whatever I was eating, so I put some pellets on a plate with some other foods that I knew he especially liked. I let him nibble at everything but the pellets. I pretended to eat some, and when he came around to that side of the plate I blocked him with my hand and continued my fake feasting. After a few minutes it was driving him nuts, and when I allowed him to dig in, he did it with gusto. Later that day I put the pellets in his own dish for the first time, pretended to eat some, and again held him back. When I let him access the dish he ate them like there had never been a problem, and the matter was settled.

A friend of mine has since done this with a pineapple conure and it worked just as well. Worth a shot? My boyfriend did something similar but it requires a taste for pellets. He did the jealousy game, but actually chewed a couple of the pellets and allowed his cockatiel to nibble them off his lip. Once the bird saw what it was David was eating, he wanted to skip the middle man and try them out of the dish for himself!
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Re: Help with Seed to Pellet transition?

Postby hnhobu » Mon Feb 18, 2013 3:19 pm

Cage Cleaner wrote:Hi,

Harrison's is great, but I found it extremely expensive for what it is. Roudybush is a great alternative. High potency is a good way to go for conversion, though. It's main ingredient is sunflower seed which is much more tasty to them and therefore more motivating.


Roudybush is fine, but it's not organic and that is one of the main reasons I chose Harrison's. Being organic and chemical free is important to me. I want to feed my bird as natural as possible. The food isn't that expensive compared to how much I spend to feed my two cats. The only thing I wish is that Harrison's would have a lower grain content.

And thank you guys for all of your input!
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Re: Help with Seed to Pellet transition?

Postby rebcart » Thu Feb 21, 2013 4:07 pm

hnhobu wrote:
Roudybush is fine, but it's not organic and that is one of the main reasons I chose Harrison's. Being organic and chemical free is important to me. I want to feed my bird as natural as possible.

Makes sense, after all you wouldn't want to feed your bird such unnatural chemicals as (2R,3S,4R,5R)-2,3,4,5,6-Pentahydroxyhexanal. And DHMO is the worst.
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Re: Help with Seed to Pellet transition?

Postby hnhobu » Fri Feb 22, 2013 4:00 pm

I just wanted to give everyone an update on the transition. I took strawfrawg's advice and it worked like a charm immediately! Perhaps it helped that I kept giving him wet food a few days after, but as of right now he is on a pellet based diet and eating like a pig.

The only different in him that I'm noticed is that his poops are bigger. And I mean, they're a LOT bigger. Is this normal?
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Re: Help with Seed to Pellet transition?

Postby janetafloat » Sat Feb 23, 2013 1:16 am

Scout's poops changed too - they got bigger, lighter and I think wetter
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Re: Help with Seed to Pellet transition?

Postby Strawfrawg » Thu Feb 28, 2013 11:25 am

Yay! I'm glad this worked for you!
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