Picky Eater, Help!

I adopted Bandit in June. He had ate 3-D Premium Parrot Food his whole life. When I got him they gave me his tin of food. And when he ate, I noticed he only ate the peanuts, sunflower seeds, some of the smaller seeds, and some dried fruit but rarely. I switched from that because it had too much food that went to waste and it contained too many sunflower seeds and peanuts for my liking.

Right now he’s eating Great Choice Parrot, Macaw, Amazon, And Cockatoo Diet. I’ve picked out the majority of the sunflower seeds and peanuts. He won’t eat anything but the few sunflower seeds and smaller seeds. Which means a lot of food wasted. I mean, if I left the bowl in there long enough I’m sure he’d get hungry enough to eat the other food but that’s cruel. I’ve never done that btw.

This is what his mix looks like:

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This is after I blew all the other seed casings out, but you can tell from the few I left that he really only eats the seeds.

I’m not in a place to spend $30 on a bucket of food that will hardly last a month. Especially if the odds are he won’t eat that expensive ‘premium’ food anyway and that’s a ton of money down the drain. I spend about $35 on my dogs giant bag of food and it can last 3 months. That’s a good deal for me.

Please, any help will be appreciated

Hi, what kind of parrot is Bandit?

Ok, I don't own a caique nor have I done much research on them - the other members on the forum are welcome to swat my hands away from this..

But, I feed an ekkie on 20 SGD every 2 weeks, so that's about 30 USD a month. He just eats chop - I buy veggies, toss them in a food processor, freeze in baggies, then serve thawed (maybe add in a bit of oats, red rice, chia seeds, or fruits of the day) - no pellets or seed mixes.

Of course, do check if caiques need other things in their diet, but if they can get all their nutritional requirements from fresh produce and you are concerned about money, a chop diet could be an option to explore. (Not the only option, but an option.)

However, as with all things, new foods do take time for birds (even humans) to adjust to. And we all have our different favourite foods. So don't expect a miracle overnight, no matter what diet you switch your bird to.

Your going to need to model the behavior to him. You need to eat and play with veggies in front of him. Try warm foods, try mixing pellets in scrambled eggs, in cooked oatmeal. Try hand feeding.

Some foods they take to easier and is a gateway to try new stuff , can be fresh corn on the cob, you might have to cut some of it off to get him started. Cut up apple, grapes, peas. I buy frozen peas and warm them up in water , then feed them
Chili peppers are loved by many parrots.

Once you get him try new food it starts to get easier!

You have to put a lot of effort into it, you will get a lot of rejection, but there will be a break through!

And your bird once he realizes it's actually food will really start to enjoy eating veggies.

My old girl Penny was only eating sunflower seeds and peanut too when I got her. She eats a lot of veggies, eggs, pasta, oatmeal and a few pellets now. She still eats more seeds but none are sunflower and no peanuts. She loves cooked broccoli, carrots , cooked squash, zucchini, cucumber well I can't list everything lol

I started by hand feeding her stuff she liked (the seeds) then I would offer a tiny piece if a veggies. She would take it and throw it. I would offer it again, she would throw it again. Then I'd give her a seed and repeat with the veggies. Then I'd out her in her cage with a bowl of veggies. I also stuffed veggies in the bars of the cage right are she sits. It would irritate her so she would destroy the veggies. But that got her used to touching them and having them in her mouth. I would make a big deal if eating veggies in front of her a d offering tastes.

I would let her sit on my shoulder while I are a meal that was full of veggies or a salad. She wanted to taste too. She learned to at least try stuff I was offering by hand because sometimes it was good stuff!

I would hand feed pellets too, she spot a lot out. I hid pellets in every warm food I served her.

They also make hest and serve bird stuff. I use one by vilcmsn. It has beans, peas, lentils , rice, seeds and pellets in it. You add water geat and serve it.

I hope you work at it and share your story!

Not at all trying to be snarky or rude or anything, but if you take a step back and ask why he would change his behavior when you continue to provide what he prefers you might begin to notice a bit of a self evident reason...think about it this way, if you had a child who wouldn't eat his or her vegetables, and so in response you just kept putting more french fries on the plate, would it surprise you that the vegetables keep being ignored? It may seem cruel, and in no way am I advocating starving the bird, but you are absolutely going to have to let the bird get hungry enough to seek out other, healthier alternatives by restricting access to the current food, feed this food for limited periods per day, say 30 minutes for breakfast, 30 minutes for dinner, but keep the new food available all day, eventually it is likely that Bandit is going to get hungry and give it a shot.