Meet Pippi <3

She was from a home that meant well, and probably did very well at socializing and desensitizing her, but her diet and veterinary care left a lot to be desired. Our avian vet has said that she saw a 25 year old grey regrow plucked feathers, so she said we have a chance with good diet, to potentially regrow her feathers. Not that we don't love her just the way she is, but surely, winters must be warmer with a shirt on.

She does great with foraging toys - we stuffed almonds inside of vine balls, and wrapped peanuts in coffee filters, and hid them around her cage. We put an almond inside of a paper dixie cup, and squashed the cup up. So far, she has eagerly gone after every challenge we have given her without hesitation.

So far, the only pellet we got her to eat, were the Fresh Baked Bites, soaked in cider. Everything else we have tried has failed. I've tried witholding food and only offering pellets, I've tried mixing them in with her seed, I've pretended that they came out of my bag of M&Ms, and I was sharing... nuthin.

Fruits and veggies.... she has eaten green beans, broccoli, apple, although the quantity of green beans and broccoli was pathetic. Previous owners said she will eat (whole) apples, broccoli/cauli, and cooked carrots/ pumpkin. And yea, she doesn't know what an almond sliver is. If it's not in the shell, she won't touch it. She won't touch pistachios with a 10ft pole, and apples MUST be whole, not sliced.

We do have a green cheek conure, who eats everything under the sun, and we make Chop for him... so we keep trying to push the chop with Pippi too. She has poked at it every time I offered it and sneaks a piece of Quinoa out if she thinks I'm not looking. We tried to put sunflower seeds in it, hoping she would dig the seeds out and eventually develop a taste for Chop. But she won't even dig the sunflower seeds out of it. She will happily shred Nutriberries, but won't eat them. *sigh*

I think I need to go heavy on brown rice (something her previous owners would feed occasionally) and maybe add very very finely chopped veggies, or maybe even start with cooking in veggie juice? we are going to be facing a very very long road with her nutrition, but I'm not giving up. If nothing else, her feathers that she does have, are in horrible condition, I'd like to pretty them up.

She is beautiful! But heartbreaking!

She's lovely and lucked out landing in such a good, understanding, knowledgable home. I bet she will be so content and busy that she won't have time to pluck any longer. So responsible of you to already have her looked over by your vet. Bravo, you!

I had an Amazon with me for a few years who was adopted as an older bird and had such a wretched diet in her previous homes (chicken food, barbecue, and twinkies, among other really nasty fare). It took a year, but we were able to convert her to a healthy diet. The difference in her feather condition (and bloodwork) was nothing short of amazing. She never did, however, get past the desire for pizza and knew a pizza box on sight. That's the one "junk" food indulgence we allowed her, and she always got her share on the rare occasion we ordered pizza, the tiniest sliver that she relished in a way that was hilarious to witness.

Looking forward to your updates. Sounds like you're doing everything right to encourage her. With my Amazon, we did a lot of birdie breads with veggie baby food to get veggies into her in the beginning. We called it "cake" and it was her "gateway" food to a more healthy diet.

Hello and a warm welcome to the forums! Congratulations, Pippi looks like a real sweetheart. It will be so rewarding to watch her thrive in a loving home, the best of care, and an appropriate diet.

I totally agree with everything Oowl said. You're definitely taking all the right steps, Pippi will catch up.

I wish you the best with your new addition.

Thank you everyone. Birdie bread is on my plan for the week. Crossing my fingers I'm sure we'll get there with her. I see progress every day. Today we buried peanuts in her chop, since peanuts are her absolute favorite treat. It worked, she at least dug through the chop to get her peanuts out. I'm sure peanut shells tasted pretty chop-y lol. There's no way to get to the nut except through the shell, and I let it soak in chop for a while hahahaha.

I'm going to go broke buying vine balls though. She loves easy to chew things like coffee cups (we ask for and extra small cup every time we buy coffee now, LOL), vine balls, and little woven grass boxes. Previous owner said she liked water bottles, although that makes me nervous.

The vet recommended putting her old junky seed into her foraging toys. So at least if she has to have it, let her be busy to get it. We thought about putting some into a water bottle and leaving it on the floor of her cage. Would that be safe? it makes me nervous, but something they did fairly frequently for her. (water bottles, not putting seed in it)

Hello and welcome!

I am in very much the same boat as you - I have a Green Cheek Conure and a Timneh African Grey that has been plucking for almost 18 years. I have also been trying to get him to start eating pellets (only been a few days so far) and so far no interest but the apple cider idea is great!

Literally right before I read your post I stuffed a few cashews into a vine ball for Paco. Too funny. So far Paco doesn't seem to want to play with anything or have anything to do with his toys so hopefully this one will be a hit.

Your girl looks very sweet and I can't wait to see how she is going to thrive under your loving care!

Thank you Gillis, good luck to you as well! We are pretty lucky in many regards, she does play with toys, and she's very adventurous. She had no qualms about climbing down off of her cage and exploring her new house the same day she came home. She's a little apprehensive of some things, but usually the curiosity gets the better of her and she goes right along with whatever we do. It's just kinda frustrating, for all of her outgoing personality, she won't explore new foods. ugh!

Hi I got my grey and amazon on to Harrison's by blending the Harrison's then mix it with there seed and add a bit of water mix it round keep doing that for a week or 2 then slowly add a few dry Harrison's mix them gradually start taking a bit of seed out when can see he's eating it just have a bit of patience and it will work

Thank you Krev! I'll give that a try!

Pippi looks like such a sweet girl. I'm sure she will thrive with your loving care and attention.

GreyNickels said:

Thank you Gillis, good luck to you as well! We are pretty lucky in many regards, she does play with toys, and she's very adventurous. She had no qualms about climbing down off of her cage and exploring her new house the same day she came home. She's a little apprehensive of some things, but usually the curiosity gets the better of her and she goes right along with whatever we do. It's just kinda frustrating, for all of her outgoing personality, she won't explore new foods. ugh!

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Thats great! It sounds like she has such a charming personality and is really going to thrive with you guys. Since she loves toys so much, maybe making her new food "fun" would be good for her? The vine balls, of course, but I wonder if there would be any other games you could play with her and her food to make her more curious/interested in them. I have only had my parrots for less than a week so sorry I am not much help! Haha, but best of luck!

We are making some progress. We set a place for her at the dinner table, and put a mix of healthy people food and some bird food, hoping the flock mentality of eating together would help, and she did eat some. We're also making progress with nutriberries. I hid them in her foraging toys. I know she likes to shred them, so we use them as toys, but I know she was eating at least a little bit of them today. And Greys are ground foragers, so she may simply shred them in the morning, but I think she's going back later and picking them over when she's foraging through her pile of mess at the end of the day. Thankfully so far, she only poops in one spot in her cage, and plays/ eats in another so I do t have to worry about poopy food lol. Not that nutriberries are my ideal staple, but they're probably better than the junk they had her on before. Small steps!