Transition from seed to pellets

Cosmo the blue quaker was raised on a seed diet by the breeder. We put him on the Higgins Sunburst for quakers supplemented with ZuPreem Natural for quakers. He also gets fresh fruit and veggies (we try) and whatever else happense his way.....(Usually food MONSTERS.....) Anyway, I'm having trouble getting Cosmo switched over to pellets. I tried an oatmeal mish-mash....that ended up smelling horrible.....and fids did nothing more than nibble on it. So, any suggestions? Do I remove the seed and just give the pellets? Do I put a small amount of seed in the pellets? Right now I've been doing seed with a small amount of pellet.....but all I do is throw away the pellets after the seed is gone

There are lots of ways to do this (many more than what I'm about to say):
1. Try hand-feeding Cosmo some pellets. Some parrots are much more likely to eat pellets if their owners are feeding it to them (at first).
2. Try other recipes. For example, DallyTsuka once posted a pretty cool-sounding pellet recipe (http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-food-recipes-diet/40571-healthy-birdie-chips-home-made.html)
3. You can sometimes mix the pellets and the seeds in the same bowl. This is one of the things I did. Obviously, at first, Cosmo will pick out all the seeds, but there's a chance that he might be more willing to try pellets.
4. (This should be tried on a day where you don't have too much to do, like on a weekend.) In the morning, before Cosmo wakes up, you could put ONLY pellets in Cosmo's food bowl, and leave it there for him for a while, maybe an hour or so. If Cosmo is really hungry, he'll reluctantly eat some pellets (or he might be too stubborn, like my bird was at first).
5. An altered version of number four is to only offer seed for a little while. Leave a bowl of seeds for two hours or so, but then take the seed away and replace it with pellets until later that day. If Cosmo begins to eat pellets, slowly decrease the time that you put the SEEDS out (two hours to an hour and a half, an hour and a half to an hour, etc).

Good luck, and I hope I helped at least a little.

Another couple things you could try...
Take the pellets and grind them into a fine dust with a food grinder, a coffee grinder, nutribullet or something of the sort. Then you can add the pellet dust to bird bread recipes, or dump some into the seed container and mix it all up so the seeds are dusted in it. You can also sprinkle it on any fresh fruits and veggies or whatever other foods you give him.

Here's a thread I put together with some ideas on converting birds to healthier diets. Maybe you'll find something that'll work with Cosmo.



http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-...7-converting-parrots-healthier-diet-tips.html

Another thing that you could do that I've done in the past and it have worked well for me even for the picky eaters. I place a bowl of pellets that's there all day everyday. A bowl of fresh fruits and veggies during the day. Then in the evening time I give a table spoon full of seeds which could be cut down to half due to his size, during evening time. Then next day I start the process all over again. But during anytime you see him eating pellets pretty good, stop feeding the seeds completely! NO any sort of seed treats, nuts, etc for at least a month after switching over to pellets. Once he's eating it good, then you can offer the seed treats in moderate amounts.

UPDATE!!! I tried Mike's method first and removed everything but pellets....and amazingly Cosmo jumped right in and started eating as soon as he realized that was bkfst, lunch and dinner..... So THANKS to everyone!!!! Cosmo is on his way to a healthier lifestyle!!!

I'm glad it's worked for you!!!!