finally got my zebras eating pellets :-)

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 8:28 pm

Background: My zebras are PICKY eaters and usually eat 25-50% of the seed mix, wasting the rest. The waste makes the seed mix more than 2x more expensive. And the "fortified" stuff in the pellets were being ignored. So to get them to eat more nutritiously and stop wasting food, I decided to switch them to pellets, at least in part.

I finally got my zebras to eat pellets.

All previous attempts failed, they just ignored it.
I used a variation of what is in the FIC.
- I have 2 pellet trays and 2 seed trays.
- 1/2 hr before lights-out I remove the seed trays
- in the morning, I gradually increased the time before I put the seed trays back in from 1 hr up to 4 hrs today.

Now they are eating both, some of the birds going from one to the other. They are even eating pellets where there are seeds in the seed tray. Although they do go nuts for the seeds when I first put them in, just like they do when I put a millet spray in the cage.

Here is something that I accidentally did that might have helped. I had run out of places to put the 2nd pellet tray on the lower part of the cage, where the other food trays are. So I put one of the pellet trays 1/3 way up the cage. This seems to have helped the acceptance of the pellets, as it is just a bit easier to get to this tray than the lower trays. This is similar in nature to an article/post I read where the author put the seeds in a feeder on the floor of is aviary, and the pellets some place above. His birds started eating the pellets, and seemed to not want to fly the extra distance to the seeds.

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 11:26 pm

I noticed an interesting thing about the pellets my zebras ate and did not eat.
I gave them ZuPreem pellets, colors are red/orange/yellow/green.

In the upper tray, they ate all the yellow and green pellets, and most of the orange, leaving mostly the red left.

In the lower tray, they ate all the yellow pellets.

Someone in another post mentioned that his birds selectively ate his pellets based on the color of the pellet. So they can see color and have some kind of preference based on color.

franny · Post by **franny** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 12:51 am

It would make sense - they think the yellow pellets look more like seeds?

BirdCrazy · Post by **BirdCrazy** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 10:22 am

My Parrot and Finches seem to prefer the red, yellow and orange pellets. My Lovebirds like the blue and green. I can't imagine that the pellets taste any different no matter the color so they must just prefer those colors for some reason. I have read that birds do see in color and it is even more vibrant than what we are capable of seeing. Birds just fascinate me!

franny · Post by **franny** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 2:59 pm

There is absolutely no doubt they see in colour. That's why red birds of different species see eachother as rivals. And why my GBs are terrified of me when I'm dressed in yellow. They must think I'm a giant canary!

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 12:31 am

What's with the red color pellets that they leave it for last?
Orange next to last makes me think of the yams that they don't seem very interested in, and carrots even less.

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 12:00 am

I just ran into one of the "problems" with pellets.
My perches are being stained redish and green.

This is because the pellets (ZuPreem) are colored (red, orange, green, yellow), and because of that the birds poop is redish (red/orange) and green.

After transitioning them from seeds to pellets, now I have to find a non-dyed pellet and transition the birds to that pellet. But it was such an effort changing them from seeds to the ZuPreem pellets, that maybe I'll just let the perches get stained.

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 12:29 am

Here's a twist.
For some reason, they changed the color of pellets they eat first.

As you can see from my earlier posts, the birds ate the green and yellow pellets, leaving the orange and red.
Well today when I refilled the trays, I noticed mostly the green and yellow were left in the tray, and the red and orange were almost gone.

Funny birds.

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:05 am

One thing I can say about PetSmart, the last 2 zebras I got from them took to pellets real fast. My last zebra took right to the pellets on day 1. (They also knew how to drink from a water tube.)

My last zebra I noticed the same thing that happened when I was converting the other zebras. She is eating the green pellets first, then yellow, leaving the red and orange behind. I almost want to take the green pellets that the others leave behind and give it to the new bird. But since she is in quarantine, can't do that.

ps. When I gave them seeds as a treat, they go nuts piling up at the seed tray, especially the juveniles who are the most pushy at the food and treat trays (just like unruly teenagers). But when there was a traffic jam at the seed tray, the others went to the pellet tray.

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 1:20 pm

I picked up a female gray zebra that I'm having the reverse problem with.
She eats pellets but when I gave her seeds, she only pokes at the seeds.
That is fine for most times, but I want her on seeds when she is raising chicks, as I understand it is hard for them to regurgitate pellets.
Now I have to do a reverse food training on this one, to get her to eat seeds.

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 2:36 am

I remember the other reason for wanting to get my birds onto pellets.
I gave them a millet spray yesterday, and I had seed hulls blown and scattered all over the floor up to 5 feet from the cage.

The one thing about putting a plastic poop screen around 3 sides of the cage is, when they get excited and flap their wings, the seed hulls go blowing out the only open direction...forward.

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 1:43 am

Just ran into the same problem with 2 of my 3 new society finches. They only eat SOME of the seeds, leaving the remaining seeds and "fortified" pellets behind or scattered on the cage floor and outside the cage. Or maybe they are just eating the seeds that they like first. Society #3 eats pellets. Groan...have to go thru the convert to pellets routine again. But at least now I know how to do it.

MLaRue · Post by **MLaRue** » Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:00 pm

Can I ask why you wouldn't want to feed them their natural food source? Seed.

I see Gouldians is on your list of birds to get, please be careful with them and pellets. They will likely starve themselves before they will eat pellets and try feeding them to babies.

If you have birds not eating all their seed you might try buying seed from Herman Brothers Seed, fairestfinches.com and or ladygouldianfinch.com
I find their mixes dearly loved by all Finches with no wasted seed at all.

ac12 · Post by **ac12** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:21 am

Hi Misty
2 reasons for going to pellets

- 1 - the finches don't eat half of the seeds I give them.
- 1a - This makes the seeds more than 2x more expensive (since they don't eat half of it), and
- 1b - The "enriched" seed mix, does not end up being enriched if they don't eat it all. The "enriched" stuff is the pellets they leave behind.

- 2 the seed hulls go all over the place and out of the cage when they fly about. This is an issue for me as the cages are in the family room.

As for the gouldians, for them I will likely give in and feed them seeds, so that I can vary their diet by season, which I can't do w pellets.

What I'm doing now w my societies, when they are fostering is to give them a buffet of handfeed mix, pellets and seeds. They then choose what they want to eat, and feed the chick. They primarily eat the handfeed mix (~90%), then depending on the individual bird either seed or pellet. I put out the seed because of reports that some birds have trouble regurgitating pellets. Although with them eating ~90% handfeed mix, and the chicks crop being stuffed primarily w the handfeed mix, they are not having problems regurgitating. I plan to try similar buffet for the gouldians.

dfcauley · Post by **dfcauley** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 6:30 am

I have to agree with Misty on this one. This could be one of the problems you are having now with your gouldians. If you are giving them only pellets, they are not happy about their diet I am sure. Could attribute to them not getting alone. Happy birds are very inportant in my opinion even at the cost of "mess". I have to sweep and clean seeds every day.

You could try one of those skirts around your cage. I use one at school in my classroom and I empty it once a week. Hardly any seeds on the floor ever.

The seeds I purchase has no waste at all. My birds love it all and do not pick through it. I get it from ladygouldian.com.