Transitioning from seed diet

ginaekkie

Member
Mar 10, 2022
18
38
Parrots
Eclectus male and female
Hi all,

My 2 rescue ekkies (16yo female and 3yo male) came from a primarily 100% seed diet plus the occasional human unhealthy food. They basically had unlimited supply of seed in their cage. Urgh. I’m working hard on transitioning safely but it’s so hard at times.

What’s worse? Pure seed or nutriberries when working on converting an ekkie? I’ve been working with them for a month to convert to chop but they don’t really eat much or any some days. I throw most of it away.

What I do now is that Basically They get fresh chop in morning 2-3 nutriberries in afternoon (instead of pure seeds) and small piece of homemade birdie bread at dinner time.

Is this a good way to go? Or should I be mixing some seeds in the chop to get them more interested in sampling it? Or forgo the nutriberries?

Only a month in but they do not eat much the veg/fruit chop but they pick at it until lunch. Sometimes. Both are still maintaining the same weight though pretty sure they are overweight slightly from their past diet.

He is 453g and she is 475g but the female looks way shorter in size. He is more broad/wide and taller than her. Unsure the subspecies
 

chris-md

Well-known member
Feb 6, 2010
4,349
2,119
Maryland - USA
Parrots
Parker - male Eclectus

Aphrodite - red throated conure (RIP)
Hello!

It’s hard to say which is worse. Nutriberries are enriched, which isn’t great for them. But nutriberries WILL have a broader nutritional profile. I’d cut back the nutriberries to 1 per day, maybe.

You might benefit from multiple approaches. Maybe starting with chop was a little too much for them. Have you tried feeding them whole fruits and vegetables, such as giving them the entire pepper or a stalk of celery.

That said, you definitely hit the nail on the head with the idea of mixing in the seed with the chop. The general idea is do anything you can to get the beak into the bowl. Even if they are eating the seeds, they can’t help but get bits of vegetable here in there. That should begin to broaden their palettes. Make them chase a favorite nut or even a nutriberry into the chop.

There there are also creative things you can do, thinking of the fruits and vegetables more like foraging toys for the time being. Things such as stuffing a pepper with seeds so they have to chew through the pepper in order to get to their meal. This works when you let them see that you are putting the seeds into the pepper. You can also take a head of artichoke and stuff the leaf scales with various treats. In a way, adding the seeds into the chop before you serve it is turning the chop into a forging toy, kind of like a foraging box they have to sift through to get to the seeds.

Good luck!
 

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