Insanely picky eater!

[Safamirza🤍]

Hello 👋 I have a 2 year old cockatiel named Kiko.

he’s been with us since he was 2 months old, and is now 2 years old. The person we got Kiko from hand raised him (apparently) and he was on an all-seed diet. Even though the person told us he ate veggies here and there, I don’t know if that was true because he found them to be very foreign. It’s been 2 years and he is still an INSANELY picky eater. Seeds are his main diet at the moment, and I want to switch it to veggies and pellets. We got pellets for him a couple of months ago and he only nibbles on them (even that when I crush them into a very very small size) I have tried to give him a lot of different types of veggies and he refuses them all except for spinach (only when given as a whole leaf) and sometimes coriander (again only given as a whole). He will not even TRY any other veggie. In fact I think he’s afraid of colourful veggies because he flies away in fear when I bring them over. However, when it comes to colourful spicy chips, he’s willing to eat! He loves crunchy foods.

What should I do? I have tried different chop recepies, given veggies in different shapes and sizes, I have put some treats mixed with veggies but he will only move the veggies around to get to the treats.

 

[Safamirza🤍]

Hello 👋 I have a 2 year old cockatiel named Kiko.

he’s been with us since he was 2 months old, and is now 2 years old. The person we got Kiko from hand raised him (apparently) and he was on an all-seed diet. Even though the person told us he ate veggies here and there, I don’t know if that was true because he found them to be very foreign. It’s been 2 years and he is still an INSANELY picky eater. Seeds are his main diet at the moment, and I want to switch it to veggies and pellets. We got pellets for him a couple of months ago and he only nibbles on them (even that when I crush them into a very very small size) I have tried to give him a lot of different types of veggies and he refuses them all except for spinach (only when given as a whole leaf) and sometimes coriander (again only given as a whole). He will not even TRY any other veggie. In fact I think he’s afraid of colourful veggies because he flies away in fear when I bring them over. However, when it comes to colourful spicy chips, he’s willing to eat! He loves crunchy foods.

What should I do? I have tried different chop recepies, given veggies in different shapes and sizes, I have put some treats mixed with veggies but he will only move the veggies around to get to the treats.

Is it wrong to put only veggies or only pellets in his bowl when he’s very hungry and see if he will eat them in hunger?

Another thing I wanted to mention was that we rescued a budgie a few months ago and Kiko really enjoyed his company. Kiko would watch him eat his food and when he saw that the budgie was eating these white seeds (don’t know the name but they look like mini white garlics) he started to eat them too! This makes me want to get another cockatiel that already is on a veggie diet so Kiko has some good influence 😭 (but also because we genuinely want to adopt another.)