my cockatiel is fussy eater

Question
Hi, my cockatiel is 10 months old now and he/she just will not eat anything other than seed mix, I offer fresh leaves, fruit, toast etc everyday but he just takes a token nibble and thats it. Do I withdraw the seed and try to starve him into eating other things?  I love my bird and want him to be healthy.

Answer
Hi Sharon,

Birds are very visual eaters... they usually only will eat what they are visually familiar with seeing in their bowls.  They need to see the new foods in there bowls every day over several weeks before they may recognize it as food.  

No, whatever you do, do not starve him of the seed.  Rather, get him converted gradually onto a good pelleted/seed diet.  Cockatiels should be on about a 50% pellet | 50% seed diet in addition to fresh foods.  Roudybush and Harrison's pellets are the best pellets on the market but are not readily available at most chain pet stores.  Bird specialty stores usually always carry them and you can get them at several places online.  If you don't have either of those options available to you - than the next best pellet is Zupreem Natural pellets (stay away from the fruity pellets as they contain artificial coloring/flavoring that sometimes creates allergy problems in birds) that are readily available at stores such as Petsmart and Petco.  

Remember the key here is gradual and consisten.  You want to slowly decrease the amount of seed and increase the pellets.  Week one, start by giving 90% seeds | 10% pellets.  Week two, give 80% seeds | 20% pellets.  Week three give 70% seeds | 30% pellets.  At this point slow it down even more by increments of 5%... 65% seed | 35% pellet and then 60% seed | 40% pellet and so on.  Just keep an eye that he doesn't stop eating and/or drinking all together.  As for the fresh fruits and veggies... be sure they're given in small enough portions for him... diced baby carrot, diced kale, dice two grapes so he can easily pick them up in his beak and not be too cumbersome where he drops them.  You should offer these things regularly - even if he doesn't eat them, so he can come to recognize them as food.  Eventually most birds will start eating the new foods.  

I have written more about my personal experience with this in some of my other answers.  If you can, do a bit of reading in some of those if you want more detail.  But just remember that cockatiels pellet/seed ratio is different from the other big birds I've written about.  

Another great site for you to check out is www.cockatielcottage.com .  Packed full of great cockatiel information.

I hope this helps and I wish you the best of luck!