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[sarah63]

First of all hello.  I am new here and have a few questions about our new AG smokey.  We got him less then a week ago and he has settled in lovely!   He is almost 8.  Smokey will only eat pretty bird food and monkey nuts.  We have tried a range of fruit and veg, seeds and nuts and he wont touch any of it.  His previous owners said he wouldnt for them either.  Does anone have any idea of why this is and also what other things do they like that i can try him with?? 

[karen 2]

Hi sarah, first monkey nuts are not good for them . Try giving him veg, if he wont eat it what i do is pretend that its for me and when he see,s me pretending to eat it then he wants some aswell. Have you tried giving him pellets, if he wont eat them straight away you could look on the diet section and there are some recipies for birdie bread,its really easy to make and the birds love it,you can grind up the pellets and put it in so smokey is getting the goodness out of them. It sounds like he has just been used to getting the seed and thats what they like. There is also lots of recipies for birdie mash,then when you have made it just put it into individual bags and freeze it . That way you dont need to make food up every day. Some birds prefer raw food and others like it cooked,so just see what he prefers.

[Bob]

Hi Sarah
It's just a matter of trying different veg/fruit/beans/sprouts until you find something he likes.
Have you tried palm oil on toast or pomegranate? most love them.
Is the pretty bird mix the pellets?

[sarah63]

No i haven't tried those yet.  Where would i get the palm oil from? The pretty bird food is like biscuits... Different coulered and different shapes.  I think they look like cat biscuits!! Lol.

[slate58]

You can get palm oil from a few online stockists, we got ours from midland parrots on a visit there but Ruby won't touch it yet

[sarah]

Hi Sarah, I also have areally fussy eater, so try not to worry, when I first got Murtle she would only eat things that were unhealthy, she still has a seed diet as I cant get her onto pellets at all, no matter how hard I try, she will now eat a small bit of broccoli when it suits her, peas, corn on the cob, pomegranit and grapes.  I went into a blind panic when I read that she should be eating pellets etc but am more relaxed with her now, I still keep tryin the pellets every so often hoping one day she will eat them. But i found that trying things gradually was best for her, because she seems to think that she is doing it on her terms then and not mine and now feeding time is much more relaxed. I know she will get there in the end.

[mary]

 
My Thabo has mixed seed diet and as yet I don't have a prob but every day he gets lots of fruit and veg. I buy palm oil from my local Indian supermarket they have it on the shef all the time and it only costs me 1.99

[Ann-Marie]

with the monkey nuts is you make sure they are human grade.  All you can do is hang in there and keep trying x

[mary]

 
I buy human grade monkey nuts, Thabo goes mad mad mad for them

[Ann]

You have to be patient and try something different every day. Sid was on an awful diet, when we got him approx 5 years ago, sunflower seeds, peanuts and 6 grapes a day. I changed all that after joining this forum and he is now a changed bird. The first day I let him out, I was feeding the kids their tea and he flew to the table and helped himself to a chip. I think his last owner was supplementing his diet with human food, most of it a  He has had a terrible coke habit (pepsi)  but we have weaned him off of that. He now takes herbal or green tea from my cup plus he loves fresh OJ. So to sum up be patient. 

[lizduncan]

Try offering veggies cooked and warm. Some prefer them that way.

Even the human grade monkey nuts can harbour mould spores and it isn't worth the risk    The Pretty Bird pellets are not a particuarly good quality pellets but if you want a good quality coloured pellet try the Zupreem Fruity. even better are the Hagens and they are equivalent pricing to the pretty bird