Charlie my Canary and his pellets

So, I've had Charlie for about two years now. He was my grandfather's canary and when he had to go live in a nursing home my family asked me to take him.

He had been in a small cage and his flying muscles were not very good, and he never was out of the cage. Also was on a seed diet his whole life.

For two years I have been trying to get him to eat pellets. He will sometimes eat dried vegetables if I sprinkle them in, but otherwise he's quite fussy.

Today I tried something different. I gave them some seed this morning (about a teaspoon) and after they ate I took the seed out and replaced it with pellets and dried vegetables. I've been sitting in the bird room trying to see what they'll do. Tommy the budgie hasn't gone back to the food dish yet but charlie... well..

I watch him hop over, and he chirps happily. He pecks at them for about 30 seconds. I think OMG HES GOING TO EAT THEM... but, then I hear the distinctive plop plop plop of pellets getting thrown onto the ground. He literally threw a canary fit and picked a bunch of them out ahahaha.

I'm going to keep trying this however, as he has gone back to the bowl multiple times to investigate it. I'm hoping this is a sign that he might try them again through the day.

And hopefully my budgie will too!!

I can sympathize with “seed-addicts”.....mine were both on a seed diet when they came to me. What worked best for me was taking their food away at bedtime, and giving them pellets only for the first part of the day. Mine were hungriest and most willing to at least “try” them first thing in the morning if there were no other breakfast options available. Another thing that mine like is sprouts - they can see the seed attached to the sprout and think they are getting a treat (even though they are getting some green stuff with it) . Don’t know if you’ve tried either of these things, but just ideas!

I LOVE this story. You are wonderful to be doing this, AND sharing it.

Here is a standard bit of advice I give to parrot owners trying to convert.

Harrison's Bird Foods
I feed Harrison's, supplemented by fresh healthy treats. My first, and later, my current avian vet recommended it. My bird loves the pellets now, but to get him converted, my avian vet suggested putting pellets out all day, and putting seeds (his old diet) out for two 15-minute periods a day. That would sustain him but leave him hungry enough to try new stuff. I presume the same technique could be used to get him to eat other healthy stuff, like fruits and vegetables! My guy was eating pellets in a couple of days, and now I can feed a good variety of other stuff, knowing he has the pellets as a basic. Pellets are out all day... fresh treats a few times a day. I also like Harrison's via mail because I never have to worry about out-of-date products.
Another couple of ideas...
My ol' man is an athlete and health nut. He actually EATS all the good stuff, so it's always around. I find that tossing various stuff into the food bowls at random is good... the variationd and differences sedem to stimulate curiosity and attention.
The other idea... if you can stand it (lol) EAT the stuff in front of the birds, yes. That encourages them. I have also found that if my ol' man eats stuff in front of the bird, the bird WANTS it for himself. Kinda a rivalry thing!

Now, then... would the 15-minute thing be safe for canaries? I don't know. We do have some finch/people here who may reply. Do you have an avian vet you could ask? Or maybe join a finch/canary forum and ask them?! And please get back with us if you learn something?

Try crushing the pellet down a bit, separating and providing the resulting different sizes. It is not that unusual for them to have a size preference.

I look at it as, hey, you have nothing to loose, right!

You can also try providing it as a warm mush.

Thanks guys! It's nice to be off for a bit (laid off from work) so that I can focus on my fids and try things that I haven't been able to do before.

Definitely taking all these suggestions into consideration!!