Pellet Conversion Question

So my 8 year old cockatiel absolutely loves seeds. And the only way I’ve discovered he enjoys pellets is if I soak them in warm water and feed it to him pellet by pellet loll. They become soggy and he likes them that way. Kinda like hard oatmeal. The Natural Zupreem brand. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last year, every day. Needless to say, it’s kinda exhausting. About twice a day, right before he munches on seeds, I make sure to feed him pellets in this way.

I’m wondering what the next step would be?

It’s kinda tiring having to feed him by hand. Even though it’s a good bonding experience for us.

Any suggestions?


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Pellets have different application value depending on your view of the overall diet of your Tiel. If the seed states that it is fortified, it is possible to be providing more than needed daily requirements of some Vitamins and Minerals.

We eliminate specific items from the high quality seed supply (which includes a wide selection of seed, grains, select nuts, pasta and other dry items we buy. This dry segment has pellets added to it as to provide a balance dry segment for our Amazon's diet. The bulk of his diet includes Veggies, starting with dark green and spreading across the wide spectrum with variation depending of time of year and much lighter of fruits.

We find that our Amazon prefers his pellets crushed into bite size bits sprinkled into the dry food offering. Each Parrot is different and it becomes a 'process' to find what your's likes.

There is no question that the bonding experience is healthy for both of you. That said, I see it becoming boring on your part.

You can try crushing up the pellets to a powder in a mortar and pestle, then sprinkling it over your bird’s seeds. I once had a VERY stubborn cockatiel who would almost have preferred to starve to death rather than convert to pellets. I tried every suggestion from my vet, from the interweb and from the pellet manufacturers and she point blank refused to even recognise them as food. Finally I ground them to a powder and incorporated them into her food just to get her accustomed to the taste and voila! Almost overnight she was eating them like she’d done it all her life! Even if it doesn’t work for your 'tiel completely, he may inadvertently get some of that nutrition into him without realising

Have you tried offering pellets without seeds available? If you haven't, (and that's OK) your tiel may hold out for moistened pellets knowing seed is available as fall-back food. If interested, might try conversion to pellets only (except for seed as treat) using Harrison's conversion protocol. I used it to successfully convert a flock of 8 without holdouts. Should work for any brand, with the caveat stated at end of advice: Never starve a bird. (into submission)
https://www.harrisonsbirdfoods.com/using-our-foods/large-bird-conversion/

Do you offer fresh veggies and fruits?