I'm getting tired of throwing away most of my cockatiel's feed

[Revill]

My cockatiel picks out all the millet in his Cockatiel Mix and refuses to eat the other stuff. I know he should be eating a more balanced diet. I even have let him finish the millet just to see whether he'd eat the wheat and sunflower seeds and mysterious itty bitty green and blue pellets if he ran out of millet. He screamed at me to FILL HIS DAMN BOWL! He'd go down to the bowl, dig around and turn around and give me a dirty look. Then a good shriek to make sure I got the point.

He eats his veggies well, is particularly fond of green beans and corn. He also helps himself to whatever I'm eating at breakfast. He just LOVES breakfast sausage, but I ration it because I suspect it's not so good for him. So at least he's getting some vitamins. What do you think about adding more millet to his mix?

Revill

 

[Spiritbird]

Sounds like your bird has you where he wants. Is he really that bossy? Can you get a food mix that has no millet and feed it seperate from the other foods. Millet is not necessarily full of vitamins or minerals.

 

[Ecclipse]

SB is right, give the millet as a treat now and again, buy a mix that has lots of nutritional bits to it to make sure that he is getting enough vits/mins. It could go either way - he could get used to the mix and start eating it without the millet or refuse point blank to touch it. I had a lovebird who only liked millet but what I did was give her millet when she ate the mix as a reward, this wont take a short period of time but might be a slow process of introducing the mix and taking away the millet. At least he is eating veg. Place the right amount of mix in the bowl and everytime he gives you the look or screams take 2 or 3 seeds from the mix in the container and put it in the bowl. By doing that your tiel will understand that that behaviour isnt going to him the millet. Once he has worked that out he might just start eating the mix because he isnt getting what he wants. Hope this helps.

 

[parrotqueen]

My cockatiels were once sinflower seed junkies, and I just went cold turkey and switched their seed to Volkmann's 'No-Sun' mixture. They didn't like it the irst couple of days, but they eventually got the idea. They know that mommy isn't going to give them every little thing that they want, and that they just have to eat what's there. As harsh as it may sound, they didn't starve or anything bad like that. They got the idea, and started eating their seed like good boys do.