Picky Eaters

[slwatson]

mrski

I know my first pair of gouldians were very picky, and would only eat seed, but once they saw the societies eating other foods, they finally started doing it themselves. I also have a pair of BCCB's, and they eat a lot of egg food and meal worms with some chopped veggies. I also buy Quiko's Goldy Egg Food for Insectivores and freeze dried blood worms, and I mix those in with their egg food, and they love it. They like live meal worms too.

[paddywack]

Sometimes it helps to get some "teacher" birds, that is, birds that readily eat a variety of things. Since birds learn from one another, they will follow the lead of the more experienced birds. Society finches would be a good choice because they get along well with other finches and can "step in" if eggs need incubated. Make sure you check out their eating habits before buying though. You want to be sure you are getting finches that already eat a variety of foods. No sense in perpetuating the problem with food naïve birds.

[Sojourner]

A little update. I keep trying different things. I have found a new seed mix, which is a little better, without so much waste, so that's good, but my birds still won't eat anything else. I have made egg food and tried giving lettuce and broccoli, but they don't touch it. I bought some live meal worms and then even found some mini-meal worms, thinking maybe the first were too big, but so far nothing interests them.

I'd like to start breeding them, but worry about them not getting the right nutrition on only seeds.

They seem happy and healthy though, so I won't worry too much and will keep trying.

My Bengalese won't touch homemade egg food, nor even moistened commercial stuff. They want a treat cup full of it, dry, directly out of the bag. So that's how I feed it to them.

Fruits and veggies - I just cut a hunk off and stick it in their cage using a millet clip. They blow hot and cold with this. For awhile, they would just absolutely GORGE every time I put something in there with them. Their favorite was spinach.

Now they are turning their little beaks up at the spinach - won't touch it at all. And they're pretty unenthusiastic about anything else at the moment as well.

Carrots and sweet potatoes they won't touch unless I shred them and dry them and put them in a seed cup.

I keep sunflower seed in there with them and have for months, even though they never touched it. Then just this past couple of weeks they started eating it. I'm guessing because its the only oily seed they'll eat and moulting season is coming on.

Actually its probably time to offer them nyjer and flax seed again. They may go for those now that they need the higher oil content.