Hi

I'm being trained by a parrot!

I have a beautiful Quaker parrot. They are very small, mostly green, with a grey face and dark blue tones in the feathers on their wings. There used to be two, but the one died last year. The one that's left is very loving and very tame.

I used to give them special parrot pellets and seeds, but for a few months I could not find the pellets they are prepared to eat (we moved, and I could not find the pellets where we are now.) If they didn't like the food, they just threw it out of the food bowl piece by piece. They refused to eat any other parrot food but these pellets, believe me, I tried!

Two months ago I finally found the pellets I wanted. So I start giving it again to my little parrot. However, she decided she does not like pellets anymore, and insists on having only seeds.

She literally takes these little pellets one by one and throw them on the floor, screeching (a high, very irritating sound!) all the time to indicate her displeasure.

Seeds alone are not healthy for her, so I tried mixing them in with her seeds. She screeched and threw the pellets out.

I tried taking the seeds away to force her to eat the pellets, and you would not believe the noise such a little thing can make! So I put her seeds back.

She definitely trained me to leave her seeds alone...

I tried to feed her the pellets one by one per hand. She grabs it from my fingers, and threw them away. She would eat fruit from my hands, but not pellets!

Now I am at a stand still. She needs to eat these pellets, as they are a balanced diet for her. I can not afford to buy fruit, so I can not add fruit to her diet. Seeds only can result in fatty liver disease...

Do any of you have any idea how to get her to eat pellets again? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The photo shows a monk parrot. Beautiful, aren't they!

Best Regards
Anneliese