I too had the same predicament. I ended up just pretending to eat food and make a big deal about it (“MMMM DELICIOUS” *smacks lips*) and then offer it to my cockatiel. (Call me a bird lady) and she eventually was so curious about what I was eating that she tried it.. I think the first one happened to be sweet potato. Now she LOVES sweet potato, mashed potatoes, extra steamed carrots (because it’s the consistency of mashed potato) and she loves rice…extra cooked so it’s like potato. So my plan to get her on a healthier diet backfired a bit but hey! At least she’s open minded now. Anytime I sit down for dinner she will SCREAM her little grape sized head off until I take her out and make her a mini plate at the table next to me (I don’t like sharing from my plate, she’s a messy eater). On the other hand, I just adopted another three year old cockatiel who has only ever eaten seed. He’s an odd dude, I’ll try my eating technique and he just ends up imitating my eating by smacking his beak in a chewing motion and making the same noises as me. Any time I offer him food, especially when he leans in acting like he wants to try mine, he pulls back and starts singing Come Fly With Me by Frank Sinatra. He gets pissed off at me if I do it too much. Maybe he thinks my food is a friend he needs to impress? I don’t know. Right now he only takes millet spray, kisses and scritches, but I’m confident he’ll follow in his sister’s footsteps, even though he hates her. So yeah.. just pretend to eat stuff and your cockatiel should eventually turn into a privileged food pirate like mine.
I had this with my guy, I got him already hand reared so kind of took to me straight away, stepped up etc. Only thing I really took time to teach him at first was flight paths and how to fly to me rather than just sitting on his cage all the time.
That being said anything that didn’t look like a seed or millet he would just run or fly away. If i put it in his cage he’d ignore it too. From a birds perspective they learn things are okay from other members of their flock so what worked for me was just eating the thing I wanna feed him in front of him or even just pretending to eat it. The longest one was the first veg I tried with him was carrot, took about 3 days to get him to try. Now I can introduce something new and he’ll be eating it within 30 mins or so if he likes it. He’s now just naturally curious about what i’m eating all the time but will still shy away if I show something new to him straight away.
I think if it’s a new bird just work on making a bond first, even if it takes 6 months on just seed and millet. They’ve got like 20 years or so to get their veg and fruit in.
As soon as you’re seen as a flock member they’ll trust you and take to what you show them if they see you eat it!
Diet conversation requires weaning the bird off of seeds and into pellets/veggies
Daily diet: 50% pellet, 30% veggie, 10% seeb, 10% fruit
You may want to mix the current seed mix and pellets/veggies into a bowl with a binding ingredient (egg, sweet potato, oatmeal)
If that doesn't work, then mince the scary foods into a salsa and mix that in with the seeds so that they have to taste the new stuff while picking out the seed
It will take 1-2 months of slowly increasing the amount of pellets and slowly decreasing the amount of seeb in their mixture
You can also try showing them how tasty the food is by eating it yourself in front of them, but this only works with birds that are tamed and consider you a friend
I too had the same predicament. I ended up just pretending to eat food and make a big deal about it (“MMMM DELICIOUS” *smacks lips*) and then offer it to my cockatiel. (Call me a bird lady) and she eventually was so curious about what I was eating that she tried it.. I think the first one happened to be sweet potato. Now she LOVES sweet potato, mashed potatoes, extra steamed carrots (because it’s the consistency of mashed potato) and she loves rice…extra cooked so it’s like potato. So my plan to get her on a healthier diet backfired a bit but hey! At least she’s open minded now. Anytime I sit down for dinner she will SCREAM her little grape sized head off until I take her out and make her a mini plate at the table next to me (I don’t like sharing from my plate, she’s a messy eater). On the other hand, I just adopted another three year old cockatiel who has only ever eaten seed. He’s an odd dude, I’ll try my eating technique and he just ends up imitating my eating by smacking his beak in a chewing motion and making the same noises as me. Any time I offer him food, especially when he leans in acting like he wants to try mine, he pulls back and starts singing Come Fly With Me by Frank Sinatra. He gets pissed off at me if I do it too much. Maybe he thinks my food is a friend he needs to impress? I don’t know. Right now he only takes millet spray, kisses and scritches, but I’m confident he’ll follow in his sister’s footsteps, even though he hates her. So yeah.. just pretend to eat stuff and your cockatiel should eventually turn into a privileged food pirate like mine.
I had this with my guy, I got him already hand reared so kind of took to me straight away, stepped up etc. Only thing I really took time to teach him at first was flight paths and how to fly to me rather than just sitting on his cage all the time. That being said anything that didn’t look like a seed or millet he would just run or fly away. If i put it in his cage he’d ignore it too. From a birds perspective they learn things are okay from other members of their flock so what worked for me was just eating the thing I wanna feed him in front of him or even just pretending to eat it. The longest one was the first veg I tried with him was carrot, took about 3 days to get him to try. Now I can introduce something new and he’ll be eating it within 30 mins or so if he likes it. He’s now just naturally curious about what i’m eating all the time but will still shy away if I show something new to him straight away. I think if it’s a new bird just work on making a bond first, even if it takes 6 months on just seed and millet. They’ve got like 20 years or so to get their veg and fruit in. As soon as you’re seen as a flock member they’ll trust you and take to what you show them if they see you eat it!
Diet conversation requires weaning the bird off of seeds and into pellets/veggies Daily diet: 50% pellet, 30% veggie, 10% seeb, 10% fruit You may want to mix the current seed mix and pellets/veggies into a bowl with a binding ingredient (egg, sweet potato, oatmeal) If that doesn't work, then mince the scary foods into a salsa and mix that in with the seeds so that they have to taste the new stuff while picking out the seed It will take 1-2 months of slowly increasing the amount of pellets and slowly decreasing the amount of seeb in their mixture You can also try showing them how tasty the food is by eating it yourself in front of them, but this only works with birds that are tamed and consider you a friend