Feeding A Parrotlet: Update

[duckduckmoose]

I posted earlier in the week about what would be best to feed my new parrotlet.

Just to redo the background information: She's an 8 week old pacific parrotlet. I picked her up from a small breeder at a recent bird show in my city. She was 7 weeks at purchase, hand fed but not particularly tame.

It was suggested that millet be removed and offered very sparingly. I've been using it as incentive to step up onto my finger and that's worked great. I'd offer it every time she stepped up, and now I'm only offering it every 7th or 8th time, with verbal praise making up the rest of the excitement.

When I got her she was being fed a Hartz small bird seed blend. I left some of them in with the roudybush pellets and decided to remove them because she was gravitating toward them.

I bought roudybush pellets and she ate at them for a while, but has stopped over the last two days and eaten very, very sparingly if any.

What can I do to make switching the food easier? Should I try offering the zupreem fruit mix pellets instead? They were my second choice but I decided against them because they had the Roudybush that everyone speaks so highly of.

She's also stayed away from fresh foods. She ate a tiny bit of a hardboiled egg but quickly got tired of it. I've offered mango, strawberries, peas, and carrots.

She's spoiled on seed diet and millet. :/ she gets super excited when they're even around her-- I suppose much like a child would when presented with a hamburger and french fries rather than a raw veggie diet.

How do you guys do it?

Thanks,
Duck and Birdie

 

[IcyWolf]

You don't want to feed any colored pellets to your parrotlet, roudybush, lafebers naturals and zupreem naturals are all fine but no fruit blend. I feed our parrotlets a mixture of Higgins small safflower gold with added black oil sunflower seeds, birdie bread, fresh fruits and veggies, sprouts and natural pellets. I have to be honest though, none of my parrotlets are really big on pellets and I've found that a healthy seed mix with plenty of fresh foods seems to be a healthy way to go. Oh and for a treat, try some nutriberries! My baby p'lets go absolutely nuts for them

 

[duckduckmoose]

She nibbled at the pellets the first day but didn't really go back to them. Nice to know there are others that don't prefer them.

What brand of seed mix do you use for your p'lets?

I'll try some Nutriberries. Our DYH looooves them!

 

[IcyWolf]

We feed Higgins small safflower gold, I think they just changed the name to small parrot and conure or something. I also get a bag of black oil sunflowers and mix into the higgins, not too many just so they get a few in each scoop of food. Parrotlets are the only ones I give sunflowers too other than as an occasional treat. They are very active birds and do well on a diet slightly higher in fat then some other parrots. Gram for gram, they are actually known to eat more than a macaw!