I need help with this Picky bird

[Rani]

Hello everyone,

As some of you know i am fairly a new female ekkie owner and her name is Rani. I have previous experience with birds but this one has a mind of her own.

When i giver her any veggies she will look at the food bowl and go down to the bowl and look at me and pick up each bite and throw it on the bottom of the cage with lots of vengeance.... I mean you have to see how mad she gets..... And it looks like she is going throw each piece of veggie looking for something she might like...... In 2 mins the bowl is empty......

She is hooked on to her pellets.... How can i change this? Only thing she will eat besides the pellets is grapes, pomegranates, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds. Everything else is on the floor....

I have tried every vegetable i can find. Most fruits and sprouts as well.

I have tried not to give her any pellets all day long... She will still not eat the veggies and then i feel very bad for her in the evening and give her the pellets...

I know 100% pellets diet is not good for ekkies but this bird wont touch anything else.

How can i change this behaviour? I have a feeling the breeder never feed her anything else besides the pellets and she has no idea other things are for eating as well.


Another question is her wings were clipped when we purchased her in August. She is 1 year old now and she does not know how to fly. I have had her since august.

I can put her in any room in the house and she will run or walk towards her cage. she does not attempt to fly at all.... Is this normal?

 

[Cowtown]

She was probably on a pellet diet when you got her.
I would give her some boiled egg with the shell crunched up.. for protein and calcium

Next I would get some corn bread mix and use a food processor to mix up the veggies just a small amount.. pomegranates, broccoli, corn green peas, sweet potato. Mix it all up with the batter and cook at 350 until done... check with a toothpick just like a cake.
Let cool and giver her a small bit. You can mix the a couple of crunched up pellets in the mix also.

 

[Rani]

Thank you i will try making the bread tomorrow.

Chrisi

 

[Chris Winkler]

Birdie bread is an awesome way to sneak in veggies! Another thing you can add is the egg shells. I wash them before opening the eggs and crumble them up into the mix. It's an awesome source of calcium esp for the females.

 

[triordan]

i use sweet potatoes,oatmeal, pumpkin or winter squash to sneak in veggies, just chop veggies really well and they will get them!

 

[Cowtown]

They are all correct... that is why I use a food processor...

 

[2Birds3Kids]

You can teach her that she is a bird and that she can fly by starting small. First of all you need a really sturdy perch - I made a huge tree for my ekkies that is firmly planted in a cement filled garden container.

First, be close enough to the perch that she can jump to it. Have her do this every day. (My birds are out of their cages most of the day on the perch). Every few days move further away from the perch so she has to jump further. Pretty soon she will fly to it. There will be a max. limit she can fly to it since she is clipped, but all four of my clipped birds fly to the perch.

 

[TiaBug1120]

Is milk soaked bread a good idea for conures? I thought I saw that somewhere

 

[Cowtown]

Is milk soaked bread a good idea for conures? I thought I saw that somewhere

I think it is soy milk that you soak it in.. not dairy milk..

 

[TiaBug1120]

good to know I will try that.....

I tried the cornbread recipe today. I added broccoli, pomegranate, carrots, and corn and let me tell you Lucy LOVED it!!! Especially when I handed her warm morsels!! It was nice to see her enjoying it after such a picky week

 

[Rani]

Thank you everyone. I am making the corn bread recipe now. Still working on the flying. She has finally learned her Step up. She now steps up easily. I feel so bad for her that the breeder did not do anything for this bird except for feed her when needed.

hopefully small changes will make a difference.

Thanks everyone.
chrisi

 

[Rani]

Thank you everyone! We have some improvement for sure. I have noticed that for the last 2 days she atleast makes an effort to eat a portion of what i serve her. She has got very little pellets in 2 days. I stay in another room across from her cage to keep an eye on how much she is eating as i do not want to starve her for sure. I feel that she ate pretty good today. She even nibbled on the boiled egg.

Another improvement i have noticed is she tries to flap her wings when she is sitting on the top of the cage. it almost looks like she is trying to learn to fly but is not getting the lift off. Today while she was flapping the wings she fell down on the floor and walked around the room and climbed up her cage. I was worried for a bit as to what happened but then it felt like she was enjoying the routine. She was trying to jump down and walk around the cage and go back up. I have never seen her move this much since we have had her

I am exited to see some improvements with Rani.

Thank you everyone.
chrisi