Many birds who have never been fed fresh foods can be resistant to trying new foods such as vegetables & fruit. I know I have experienced it & I do experience it with a couple of my Cockatiels. “Lazarus” is 20 years old & he is male Cockatiel I adopted about 1 1/2 years ago. His main caregiver passed away & there was no one to care for him properly. He was not in good condition, fed a diet that was poor in nutrition. I can’t say he eats a lot of veggies & fruit yet, but I will say he will eat some. I am learning what he likes & doesn’t like. My female Cockatiel “Spree” who is 6 is probably the hardest one to get to eat fresh, but her cage mate Jonah will, so that tempts her to try it. My 2 Amazon Parrots are Ringo &”Sassy” are good at eating veggies & fruit. Sassy who will be 33 years old at the end of the month (Feb 2025) & has been with me since he was 12 weeks old is used to a varied diet. Ringo joined my family Oct 2023 and he is most likely also in his 30’s, but we don’t know, his history is unknown. They are buddies & watch each other eat, which helps peak interest in certain new foods. Sassy takes longer to try new things than Ringo. My canary “Woodstock” is an awesome eater of fresh foods.
I am going to give you some suggestions of things that might help encourage your bird to try new things.
- I work outside the home so to help me be able to use my time wisely I make what is called “chopped”. I purchase a variety of fresh veggies & I chopped them up for my birds in a food processor & freeze them in daily portions (enough for all 6 of my birds). I use veggies such as : sweet potatoes (bake or boil them), zucchini, Bell peppers, Brussels sprouts, Okra, carrots (whole not baby), summer squash, green beans, kale & I add soup beans that I cooked in water for 60-90 mins. I vary the veggies each time I make it.
- I feed fresh food 3 times a week in the AM (by 7 before the sunrise) because birds tend to eat best after the wake & right before bed. I leave it in their cages for 2-3 hours, because I don’t want bacteria to set in, so I don’t recommend keeping it in there longer. If evening works better for your schedule then try that, your birds may like that.
- I have found some birds are picky about the type of dish you use, so use one similar in shape & size of their current seed mix.
- I often take out the seed and put the fresh food dish where the seed usually is. Some birds like this type of familiarity & it peaks their interest to investigate & maybe try.
- If your bird is tame, & handled they can be very interested in what you are eating. You can pretend you’re going to eat their food & say ” yum, this is so good & move it towards your mouth.” This can peak their interest whether in their cage on your shoulder or on a play stand. Then you can try handing them some, while you hold it or they take it from you.
- For larger birds such as Parrots they make kabob skewers that you can put fresh fruits & veggies on and hang in or on your pet bird’s cage.
- You can try sprinkling some of your birds seed onto the bowl of fresh foods & see if this beaks their interest, they are bound to get a taste of the fresh when going after the seeds & one taste is all it might take.
- You can sprout seeds in a tea strainer & add some to a bowl of fresh foods. (More about sprouting seeds in a later blog)
- There are little baskets made to put fresh green in for the smaller birds & they get to forage which my canary enjoys. Greens alone can stay in the cage all day, as they dry out and some birds still like them that way.
- I found the shape I cut fresh food in matters to one of my birds, if it is too squared or rectangle it is out. I am thinking it’s not looking natural to him. I also noticed round carrots not excepted but slivers were. You can play around with the shapes you cut things in. My Parrots prefer their green beans with ends cut off & cut in half.
- Some fruits I have fed are mango, banana (some like them more ripe than others), orange, few grapes on occasion, cherries(take pit out), apple (no seeds), pomegranate, dragon fruit, kiwi, oranges & some others. It equals maybe 15-25% of what I feed when I give them fresh foods.
It can take months to get some birds to try new fresh foods, be patient. Please don’t give up you by eating veggies & fruit (fruit on a limited basis, more veggies by far) you are helping them to live better, healthier and longer. I am pleased when my Veterinarian does their checkups & she says the papillae around the slit in the roof of mouth look good. If there are few papillae or malformed this can be a deficiency in Vitamin A. I will say I have had a few that were great like my Cockatiels, but I adjust the diet & saw improvement during their next visit. I will be blogging more in the future about feeding pet birds. I look forward to hearing if these ideas help you. Thanks for reading.
Echoing Great Pet Care 