Is my bird is a sunflower seed addict?

Question

Hi! I recently rescued a peach fronted conure.

All she ever got fed at her previous home was sunflower seeds and almonds.

I also have another bird (green cheeked conure) who loves fruits and veggies and has a great diet.

But my peach fronted won't touch anything but sunflower seeds, almonds, and cooked pasta.

I took them away for two days to try to force her to eat other things, but she wouldn't... so I had to give her back her sunflower seeds.

How can I teach my bird to eat better?

Answer 1

you cant teach wild animals to change their nature

Answer 2

You need to be persistent, it takes time to change their diet, try mixing fruit and veg in with the sunflower seeds, that way she is going to get a taste of them as she eats the seeds.

Just sunflower seeds is not an healthy diet, have you tried adding some pellets in with the seed?

My African Grey likes to have pieces of fruit stuck on his fruit kabob and hung in his cage, then he can eat it as he plays with it.

Answer 3

This is a very natural reaction. If you feed it too many sunflower seeds, it could get overweight and die. You never want to feed it just one thing. Keep the sunflower seeds and almonds away from him, and sooner or later, he will get hungry and follow your conure's example! eventually he will break his bad habit. if you are still having trouble, call a local vet, or petsmart, and talk to a vet. the vet will most likely know what to do! good luck!!

Answer 4

Gradually start mixing pellets and the healthy stuff in his diet little by little, and he'll slowly learn to accept it. The whole point is not to make a drastic change in the diet apparent to the bird. I know so many birds whose diet has been transformed with this ultra-simple technique.

Answer 5

She will eat anything when hungry enough. Cut the sunflowers seeds for a few days and see what she chooses then. After a while give them to her as a treat.

Answer 6

Well, you should try mixing some of those sunflower seeds with whatever you want the bird to eat. Mix a little of that other diet with sunflower seeds and slowly go reducing the amount until you replace its diet completely. It should learn to eat right little by little, don't try forcing it if the bird hasn't eaten anything but sunflower seeds, pasta and almonds.