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Re: Feeding Question-Help!!!!!!!!

Posted by GreenLady on 11/12/09
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    On 11/12/09, kelly wrote:
    > I adopted a female cockatoo this week from a man who had
    > no idea her diet had to be more than pine nuts and
    > peanuts. I have put fruit, veggies, zupreem pellets, etc
    > in her cage and she won't touch them. Anyone have any
    > ideas of how to get her to expand her diet????????????


    You have a difficult road ahead of you, but certainly not an
    impossible one. Patience and persistence will be the two
    things you need the most.
    If this bird was only owned by this one person and ate only
    pine nuts and peanuts for the twenty years, it will take some
    time to introduce new foods to the diet.
    You have to remember that anything you put into the cage is
    not going to be recognized as food to this bird.
    I have to assume you are feeding this bird pine nuts and
    peanuts or it would starve, yes?
    In the late evening, take out the recognized food from the
    cage, leave the water.
    First thing in the morning, present the bird with a bowl or
    dish of some chopped fresh vegetables, greens, etc. Make it
    as colorful as you can.
    IN this bowl you can add some beans or grains that you soaked
    and cooked such as pinto beans, kidney beans, black beans,
    brown rice, etc. Warm them in the microwave and add them to
    the vegetables, making sure they are not hot.
    Start with this. Keep the food in the cage for several hours
    since the bird should be hungry from the night's rest.
    Hopefully, the bird will be inquisitive enough to have a look
    and hopefully a try.
    You will have to do this every morning, or at some point of
    the day, if you work.
    The bird will probably ignore the food from the beginning,
    but you have to be patient and persevere.
    You will waste food, but that is to be expected.
    At this point in time, even a high-quality seed mix would be
    an improvement over the old diet.
    Make sure the bird is eating something. This cannot be a
    cold-turkey kind of thing.
    Experiment with other types of "good foods." You could try
    making oatmeal and serving it warm. Add some fruit to that.
    The bottom line is you want to constantly try new foods and
    find some that the bird will eat, and he or she will
    eventually eat. It's just a matter of time.
    Another suggestion is to make a nutritious bird bread with
    wholesome ingredients and try that. You can have that on
    hand and serve a piece daily. Crumble that over the present
    food so that the bird has to dig through to get to his
    familiar food.
    There are many ways to make this work, and I'm sure others
    will be along with more ideas, but this should get you
    started.
    Best wishes with your new bird.