bird wont eat properly

Question
Dear Maggie,
Back at the start of June, my boyfriend and i purchased an African Grey Parrot from a pet shop. The pet shop owner was very vague about the history of the parrot, only that he is a "young" bird. His eyes are beige in colour so we have an approximate about his age. Although he stuffs himself with Premier Parrot food, he leaves out the little pieces of fruit, dried peas, corn, all the good stuff and just eats sunflower seeds and the odd white seed thats large and flat. I have tried to give him fruits and vegtables, he looks at them and then throws them on the floor. Ive tried raw and cooked food. Ive tried carrots, green beans, sweet corn, cabbage, sprouts, broccoli green pepper, red pepper yellow pepper. Ive tried peaches, plums, bannana, oranges and apples. (thie list is endless). I then thought that he maybe didnt know they were even food, (after all, we dont really know anything about him). So i ate the food in front of him. This seemed to work, he would lean over and take it off me, then just tear it to pieces. I feel awful. Ive bought a parrot book and the diet pages are extensive, 50% this and 10% that. Mr parrot just wont budge. Ive been serching for the parrot pellets,but in England, i dont seem to be able to find them. I dont know what to do. Its obvious that where ever he was before he came to us, they didnt feed him properly. I dont know what to do, the only other thing he will eat is peanuts and i know that these are the big mac and fries of the bird world. Please help!
thanks  

Answer
If your grey is tearing apart the fruits and veggies that is a fantastic start!! :)  Birds waste half of their food (sometimes more)... so this is perfectly normal. And even if he is ONLY tearing the fruit/veggies up (and not actually consuming them yet) it will give him a taste for them. Many birds start eating fresh foods by playing with them first.

As far as pellets, call some local pet stores... I know they have pellets in England.  

If you are still having a hard time finding pellets, contact some rescue groups and get recomendations for pellet suppliers:

http://www.parrotsanctuary.co.uk/

http://www.parrotline.org/

I hope this helps.