Pellots and dieting?

[Instrinity]

So I have bought my parrotlet home and I fear I may have given him to much seed to start off with, he was sold hand raised with a pellots and seed diet but I would like to convert him to a pellots small amount of seed and chop diet, only problem is I can't seem to get him to eat his pellots, should I mix pellot seed and chop all in one bowl? As at the moment I have pellot in a seperate bowl like the breeder recommended and seed and chopped vege in another bowl

 

[zERo]

So I have bought my parrotlet home and I fear I may have given him to much seed to start off with, he was sold hand raised with a pellots and seed diet but I would like to convert him to a pellots small amount of seed and chop diet, only problem is I can't seem to get him to eat his pellots, should I mix pellot seed and chop all in one bowl? As at the moment I have pellot in a seperate bowl like the breeder recommended and seed and chopped vege in another bowl

Mixing the seed and pellet mix into the chop may help him eat more pellets. Does he eat chop already?

 

[Kentuckienne]

Harrison’s Bird Foods has a very good write up on pellet diet conversion on their website. It’s important to do this right, because a parrot that doesn’t recognize pellets as food can starve.

 

[SkipperT]

I tried on and off for years to get my parrotlet to eat pellets. No success! Finally I tried Roudybush Nibles, they are the smallest size they make and he loved those! I had to put him on a low fat diet so he was eating the lowfat Nibles. Nibles were smaller in size than any other pellet I tried, so that may be he liked them. He ate them right away. Still loved seeds tho.

 

[ravvlet]

Harrison’s has a superfine variety that is very very small, or you can grind whatever he’s supposedly already eating up in a food processor. Adding the pellet to the seed is probably the best way to get him to try it, but if you’re not separating the two it can be harder to tell what he’s eaten. Use your best judgement here.

If you do not already have a gram scale, now is a good time to get one. When trying to alter your parrot’s diet, it is important to keep track of their weight to be sure they’re eating enough. In a small bird like a parrotlet, even a small change in weight (2-4%) can be of serious concern.

Birds WILL starve themselves. Sometimes, it may even look like they are eating all of their food, but actually they may have just strewn it about in such a way that it isn’t immediately apparent. We lost a beloved cockatiel this way, so it’s really important you do this carefully and WEIGH your little guy.

If you have to, you can put him in a small carrier or box, and tare out the weight of the box first. If his wings are clipped or he steps up nicely on a perch, however, you may have success just having him stand on a perch that fits atop the scale. Chewy, Amazon and other places like that sell kits for just that purpose.