My cockatiel wont eat fruits and veggies!?

one thing I do for my cockatiels is I went and got one of those little food choppers holds about a cup and a half of food and I ground up the veggies very fine into little tiny pieces, my tiels seemed to accept this alot better than bigger pieces. I would keep trying with the veggies as tiels are not big on fruit and the fact fruit is not as important in the diet due to the sugars in it. Also try colorful foods such as carrots ground up , corn, pea, grated squash ..all my birds including my tiels love steamed mashed acorn squash and squash is a good source of vitamin A. You can also grind up kale, and mustard greens as well as dark leafy greens are good for them. I also feed my birds cooked brown or wild rice they love it.

Some birds if they were never offered good foods from the breeder or petstore will not recognize veggies as food so all you can do is keep trying and be patient.

With every bird, there are different personalities. Some cockatiels may relish in eating fruits and veggies, but some don't like them at all! Mine's did not eat any at first.

When I started to eat fruits and veggies in front of my bird, she became excited and wanted some too. After that, she enjoyed fruits and veggies naturally.

Or, you can hide the veggies and fruit into your birds food.

It can sometimes take quite awhile for a bird to recognise fruit and veggies as food. Try this, cut up small pieces of fruit or veg into very small cubes, for example, Cut peas and corn kernels into quarters. Start with one or two veggies, mix a tablespoon veggie/fruit with a tablespoon of seed, place in your birds cage in a small flat dish and remove the plain seed. He will pick through the mix and eat the seed to start with but will be tasting the fruit/veg at the same time. You will need to change the food morning and night as it will sour easily. Hopefully he will start to eat the fruit/veg in a week or two and you can then feed it to him on its own and try a new variety. I would try corn or apple first, birds seem to like these if nothing else.

I was having the same problem with my cockatiels. I ended up making a seperate dish for fruits and vedgies. Every day I took a slice of apple (with the peel on) and put it in that dish. Slowly and gradually one bird got interested and began nibbling at it and they've been eating it ever since. It just takes some time.

Start with green leafy vegatables sparingly...my birds took to that right away. I also make mini salads for my birds. I put green leaves, chopped baby carrots, pomagranate seeds (if they're available), some parsley, and apple and they love it!

I've had sarge for 9 years, he only ate wild seed, and special mix seed for cockatiels. I bought a female last week and she eats everything, rice, tomatoes, lettuce, so it just depends on what they like. All the vitamins are in the cockatiel seed from the store.

Birds generally won't eat something foreign (like fruits and vegetables) right away, or even after a small while. You have to supply fresh fruits and veggies every day for your bird, maybe place them in, or near his seed, or on a string near his food or water, but replace them within 24-48hrs so they keep fresh. Make sure you have washed them and they are cut so that he can eat them easily too. Don't expect your bird to even TRY them for at least 3 weeks after introduction. Be consistent with supplying him with them, and eventually, he will get curious and try it. If it's been several months and he won't touch them, he may just not like them. You could try cutting them into small, "bite sized" pieces and leaving them in his seed to help get him interested. You could also try adding dried veggies/fruit pieces to his seed.

It took me 3 years to get my cockatoo to start eating fruits and veggies. Here are some tips;

Mix your tiel's favorite treat into the food, such as mushy foods like oatmeal, berries and even broccoli. That way your bird has to eat the healthy food to get to the treat (millet always works!)

You can also try taking your bird's food out at night and feeding him at his hungriest in the morning with the most healthy foods, then after he has eaten some of it, give him his normal diet to fill up on.

More tips on diet and nutrition;

http://jamiesparrothelp.wordpress.com/category/die...

fruit grows on forest or vines and fruit and vegetables grow in the floor.

I'm not sure if this will help but this is what I did with mine and my budgie. They both have this "treat dish" as we call it, every time we give the goodies we put it that and they have gotten use to it being something tasty int here. We started to put broccoli in there with other vegies and it works!!! but the trick is to cut it up really small....it seems to scare them when it's in big pieces. Hope it helps!

I recently made a cockatiel website. This should help you!

http://www.freewebs.com/cockatiel-lover-1998/cocka...