Last Updated on February 16, 2023 by Mitch Rezman

Barbara is concerned about her Sennie:

 

My 23 yr. old Senegal has stopped eating his Harrison’s pellets which he has been eating most of his life. 

 

He is eating fruit, veggies, Nutriberries & Avicakes. 

 

Should I be concerned? 

 

Should I try a different pellet?  Thank you for your help.

 

Dear Barbara

 

A bird may stop eating pellets for many reasons.

 

1. They are stale. If you have one bird and are buying the 5 lb bag then they may get stale before you use them up. You may be better off buying only 1 lb bags. Or break down the big bag into smaller packages that are sealed and use only one at a time for freshness.

 

To freshen stale pellets you can tumble them together to break away some of the surface revealing the inner taste again.

 

2. They are getting enough other food options and they just don’t want to or have to eat the pellets anymore.

 

Pellets are not natural, there are no pellet trees in the wild. They are a man-made product for ease of feeding captive parrots.

 

If your bird likes the other foods you have mentioned then stick with them, they will be more than enough to sustain your bird without added pellets.

 

Nutri-berries are pellets with seed coating. Avi-cakes are also pellets with other ingredients.

 

They can serve as the pelleted part of the diet.

 

Please note that Nutri-berries also can get stale and the same care applies to them to keep them from being stale and ignored.

 

Buying smaller amounts more often will please your bird more than having to get food out of large tubs that have sat around.

 

Basically, the best pellet for your bird is the one your bird will eat.

 

To force your bird to accept pellets (regardless of the variety) you would have to remove all other foods from the cage and leave the pellets in a dish as the only food.

 

This is a common way to get your bird to get used to eating pellets.

 

Nutriberries vs Avi-Cakes both great
for your birds and you can reduce waste ~ Video

 

In the morning they should have 3 dishes in the cage.

• One dish of a mix (seeds, etc)
• One dish with veggies and some fruit.
• One dish with pellets.

 

Then later in the day the mix/seed dish and the fresh food dish are removed leaving just the dish with pellets for the rest of the day and overnight.

 

So if the bird is hungry it has to try the pellets or stay hungry until morning when you put in a dish of the mix/seeds and the new veggie/fruit dish. Do this daily for the best results.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Regards,

Catherine