Getting my Ekkie to eat fruits and veggies

Our beautiful Tiki girl was bought from a man who only fed her seed and dried peppers. We have introduced countless fruits and veggies to her, with little luck. Everyday I am throwing away 99% of them. She seems to enjoy pomegranetes, mango, pumpkin, apples and occasionally black eyed peas. She does , of course, like all things human which are not good for her. What is the best way to get her on a predominately fruit/veggie diet? Should I only give her fruits and veggies and omit any seed supplement at all? I don't want her to starve.

We had a siuation early this year where she was accidentally lead poisoned, and in order to get her to regain her appetite during chelation, the vet had us give her anything just to get her to eat.

Help please.

Have you tries sprouts, they are super healthy and my ekkie girl just loves them

can i ask how she got lead poisoning?
also, you might want to start off adding cinnamon to her seeds, then put it on fruits/veggies.. really makes my conures eat anything

All my birds get served fresh fruit and vegetables on a daily basis, whether they eat them or not... and... eventually they do... from my budgies and cockatiels to my eclectus and cockatoos...

I use a Boerner V-slicer with the smallest dice to cut up carrots, apple, cucumber, sweet potato and anything else large and hard enough for it... Leafy vegies I just use a knife to cut through it and make it small enough.. I always use some citrus as well, like orange, since it seems to preserve the rest a little bit...

I also put sprouted seeds on top.. I don't mix those in with the others, just mix it in the individual bowls...

We move her cage from screened enclosure to enclosure. We had the cage on a patio where there was an old wrought iron table (clearly we were not thinking). She ate the paint from the table. 3 weeks in the Avian hospital.

I avoid all seeds and nuts for my Ekkie. They are full of fat and Ekkies have a tendancy to get fatty liver disease from them. I always have organic pellets available in her cage. I feed fresh fruits and veggies at lunch and dinner. Try the cinnamon trick that BreannPearlLang suggested. If seeds are available they will eat only the seeds. Try eating with your bird. Put fresh veggies and fruits on a plate and place your bird by the plate. Then let them watch you eat them and maybe it will try some also. My girl loves to eat with me.

Eclectus naturally love mushy foods, Some especially love figs.

What about cooking the sweet potatoes until soft, then mixing in some foods that she loves and some she doesn't?

Our Ekkie refused to eat a varied diet. When we got him he was also wing flipping and had a slight toe tap, we started him on the pretty bird ekkie specific diet and both of those peoblems cleared up within days. He still gets fruits and veggies daily. His diet is about 80-90% pellet and the rest is mostly fruit. Ever since following this regimine he hasnt wing flipped or toe tapped. Rome also eats his food, once it was in the house she refused her zupreem. Ever since shes been eating his pellets her feather color has become extremely vibrant. Most people dont feed their ekkies pellets but mine has been doing really food on it. My vet also looked at the ingredients and cleared the food for both of my fids. I also heard of this pellet from a breeder who feeds it to all of his ekkies. I provide the pellet free fed all day and fruits and night for dinner. This is whats worked for me, both my birds LOVE this pellet, i would reccomend consulting your vet first before switching a diet, esp given this bird's previous history.

Molcan2 said:

Our Ekkie refused to eat a varied diet. When we got him he was also wing flipping and had a slight toe tap, we started him on the pretty bird ekkie specific diet and both of those peoblems cleared up within days. He still gets fruits and veggies daily. His diet is about 80-90% pellet and the rest is mostly fruit. Ever since following this regimine he hasnt wing flipped or toe tapped. Rome also eats his food, once it was in the house she refused her zupreem. Ever since shes been eating his pellets her feather color has become extremely vibrant. Most people dont feed their ekkies pellets but mine has been doing really food on it. My vet also looked at the ingredients and cleared the food for both of my fids. I also heard of this pellet from a breeder who feeds it to all of his ekkies. I provide the pellet free fed all day and fruits and night for dinner. This is whats worked for me, both my birds LOVE this pellet, i would reccomend consulting your vet first before switching a diet, esp given this bird's previous history.

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Paulie has 80% fresh fruit and vegies and about 20% seed mix.. I'm a bit afraid of feeding him pellets, due to the added vitamins etc...

Unfortunately we were faced with either having a malnurished bird or putting him on pellets. Also when Rome was going through her liver problems she was put on a strict diet of nothing but pellets for 6months, doing just that we were able to reverse her liver problems and return her to normal function. During that time she was getting blood work done every 2wks, if she had any elevation at all she would have needed meds for her liver, she was almost considered liver failure. Her previous home fed her nothing but fruits and veggies but not in the quanities that she needed. Aside from the liver she was also malnurished, a year after having her, she is no longer malnurished either and her diet is 90% pellet and 10% veggies with alomonds and pine nuts as treats. She continues to get full bloodwork every six months just be on the safe side, all of her levels are completely normal. Rocco also had blood work done and will go yearly for routine blood work. I closely minitor both my fids, the blood work shows that the pellets are good for them. Before going through all that i have gone through with these two, i am convinced that as long as it is a good pellet, it wont do any harm and will actually provide your birds with the essentials needed. Not that things cant be done differently, this is just my personal, and very expensive, experience.

I've always though that Pretty Birds was one of the junkier pellets and not ideal, even though a breeder of ekkies swears by it!

Glad to hear you've (Molcan2) had great success with it!!!


I think that ekkies vary on what they can or can't handle. Some may be able to handle eating organic pellets, but others may start to toe tap and wing flip after eating a few pellets of any brand. Others can eat anything and have no reactions whatsoever!

That said, I do recall reading an "experiment" on ekkies that toe tapped/wing flipped. Some it was because of diet (lacking in vitamins), some due to supplements (vitamin overdose, even if the birds were not eating pellets), some due to sickness, some allergies, etc. It was an interesting read.

Go to a local avian vet Harrison sells a pellet especially for seed junkies. My eclectus was a seed and trisket junkie thats what her previous owner gave her daily. I put her on the Harrison pellet she took to it; however, I only gave her a couple pellets and a dish of fruits and veggies. She ate fruits first and banana and left the green leafy veggies alone. I still have my harrison pellet cause i would give 2-4 pellets; now she gets no pellets or seeds. Just treats i cook once or twice a week and veggies and fruits all other times. No seeds now. It takes a bit of time though to completely get them switched over. In the morning I also put her on my breakfast bar and i put my fruits and veggies out to chop, my girl would get interested and walk to the veggies & fruits to check it out. U can also give a little boiled egg or scrambled egg (without butter or seasoning) my bird was so malnourished it was unbelievable it takes awhile to get them back on track. I wish you luck with your new friend eclectus are an awesome parrot