Getting my parrots to eat fruit and veggies.

Ok so I have a cockatiel, lovebird, and three parakeets that won't take any fresh food. I have tried offering stuff to them for awhile. I have tried giving them pasta when I was eating it and that cockatiel came really close to taking a bit but then decided not to. I can not get them to eat anything. I have given them apple lately and they just dump it onto the bottom of the cage. So my question is what is a parrot's favorite food to try in general.

I have an AG. Whenever I offer her the fresh fruits and vegies. I put a tsp. or so of some kind of unsweetened juice over it. She really loves the carrot juice and mango juice. Also in the evening I mix cornbread with the baby food vegies they need and she really loves it mushy. Hope this will help. Let us know Chaos

Tumbala thanks for the reply. Are almonds ok for them?

Spiritbird where do you get the unsweetened juice? I just checked at Vons and they don't have anything.

I make homemade birdie bread with beans, nuts and mixed veggies in them they absolutely love it and it has gotten them to where they will eat veggies plain now also. They will also eat just about anything that I mix in oatmeal. Almonds are fine, you might try walnuts and pecans also.

Budgies, lovies and tiels are not big on fruits but they do LOVE their leafy greens and veggies. Mine eat cooked carrots, corn, sweet peas (try the baby ones, first), chopped green and wax beans, sweet potato, pumpkin or squash (they love spaghetti squash), beets, etc. The trick is to offer the veggies cooked soft and cut up in small pieces so they are ready to be swallow. As to greens, they love them all (lettuce, escarole, chicory, celery, Swiss chard, bok choy, nappa, broccoli, broccolini, etc). Try putting them dripping with water hanging from the top of the cage and on the bottom (the budgies like to "bathe" on them). They also eat fruit but, again, you have to make it small so buy champagne grapes and Maine wild blueberries whenever possible but you can also grate or chop apple and open up an orange section (make like a little arc with the peel in the inside so the little thingies are sticking out).

The trick is to insist, insist, insist. Sometimes it takes up to a year to get one bird to try a new thing but when you have a number of them is easier because if one eats something, the others will follow so don't lose hope and keep on trying and, before you know it, they will be eating a large variety of produce.

They are so much like kids aren't they. I have some different recipes I use for my birds because I have so many. They are easy and inexpensive. For example: make a box of cornbread according to the directions. Then add shredded sweet potato, frozen mixed veggies or a can of veggies that have been drained and rinsed. Bake and you have a yummy treat that they love. You might also take broccoli florets and secure them through the bars of the cage and let them peck at them. I hope this helps. Let me know if you would like more ideas.

justwingingit thanks I will attach the broccoli florets and see how that goes.

Beatriz thanks for the list of foods that are cooked. I haven't tried that.

For the juices: look for Bolthouse Farms. If you cannot find I am giving you the phone number that appears on the bottle:
1-800-467-4683. located in CA.

Hi there, so right exactly like children.
My AG Mishka would also not eat fresh veggies.
When I was training her, I offered them to her as a treat !!!!
The treat went on ...... one for you ....... one for me....... LoL
Eventually it worked, now she eats them willingly but not carrots.
As BC mentioned it could take them a long time to start eating it, I agree insist.
I run a dried fruit and nut business from home. Excellent nuts are almonds, raw peanuts, hazel, pecan and cashew plain. Please never give your bird the dried fruit "packaged ones" they are all treated with sulphurdioxide, which is not good for them at all.
Good luck

My Rosie likes pine nuts. Those are also easily opened. I have a bag of Macadaian nuts and she cannot open at all. I hardly can either. Any secrets on that??

I've heard it said that spicy hot foods will help a parrot develop their voice. Some seed mixes even include dried peppers for just this reason. I do notice that Zoey tends to like spicier flavors, like 'Buffalo' seasoning.

As far as actual fruit goes tho, cantelope seems to be her favorite.

justwingingit said:

They are so much like kids aren't they. I have some different recipes I use for my birds because I have so many. They are easy and inexpensive. For example: make a box of cornbread according to the directions. Then add shredded sweet potato, frozen mixed veggies or a can of veggies that have been drained and rinsed. Bake and you have a yummy treat that they love. You might also take broccoli florets and secure them through the bars of the cage and let them peck at them. I hope this helps. Let me know if you would like more ideas.

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Be careful with those cornbread mixes. I know somebody whose birds developed sores on the sides of the beaks from them. You just don't know how old these things really are or how they have been stored even if they are the all natural and organic kind. Try making your own corn bread, instead, there is nothing to it, just whole wheat flour, corn meal, aluminum-free baking powder, and egg, a bit of oil and enough milk to give it the right consistency and voila! Corn bread!

Good advise on the cornbread. I get mine fresh baked and cut into small squares and then freeze it. Seems to work.

Thank you every one for all the information.

Spiritbird thanks for the name of the juice. I looked on their website and it says Walgreens has it.

So I was trying to find the Bolthouse farms juice and there aren't any stores that carry it within 150 miles. Does anbody have any other good juices that are easily found at your grocery store?

sorry for the double post if it is against the rules.

Hi guys,
One thing that I have tried with our rescue cockatoo Charlie is sitting down and eating the veg/fruit then offering him the last bite. I am not sure about other species of parrot but in the wild, a cockatoo learns what to eat from its mother then never eats anything different for the rest of their lives. Showing Charlie that the foods are safe by eating them first seems to have made all the difference. A month ago he would eat kiss biscuits, toast with butter and seed, now he eats pumpkin, celery, apple, orange, strawberries, carrots, sweet corn, nuts etc etc. Even if he is not too keen on them he can't resist tasting it after I have just sat eating in front of him.

Hope it helps (he still won't touch grapes... doesn't matter what color or variety... just plain out doesn't like them!).

Chaos_1.0 said:

So I was trying to find the Bolthouse farms juice and there aren't any stores that carry it within 150 miles. Does anbody have any other good juices that are easily found at your grocery store?

sorry for the double post if it is against the rules.

Click to expand...

I use organic apple juice and plain white grape and white cranberry juice (US grapes and cranberries are pretty clean when it comes to insecticides so they don't have to be organic) from the supermarket and I dilute them with water 50/50. I have found that, although the larger species will gladly drink a colored beverage, most of the little ones (budgies, tiels, lovies, finches, canaries, etc) absolutely refuse to drink anything that is darker than pale yellow so these three work out very well for everybody.