LOL!!! I meant I give them seeds and pellets in seperate bowls now.Originally posted by K9soul
So mix at first and then separate? Cause I'm getting confused. You say separate but then at the end said you mixed it at first. I thought we were talking about how to convert to pellets, hence my thoughts to mix it when introducing
Let me explain my conversion process in a more simple way.
My birds often get their 'treats' in a plate on top of their cage. The treats they get there are usually foods they look forward to eating. That's where they always get their cereal, popcorn, veggies, etc., anything but seeds and pellets, which belong inside their cage.
When I first decided to introduce them to pellets, I bought a bag of pellets and read the instructions. It said to mix them with the seeds, and gradually limit the amount of seeds in the bowls and put mostly pellets. I didn't 'exactly' follow those instructions, but did somewhat.
The first day, I brought their treat plate and put it on top of their cage. Both birds ran out of their cage and climbed to the top, eager to see what I was going to give them. I sprinkled a few pellets in the plate and put nothing else. The look on their face was that of extreme confusion. They looked at the pellets, frowned, and left the plate. I left the plate there, and 2 hours later, they returned to investigate. They were unsure of it and didn't eat anything.
Next day, I did the same thing. I put one flake of cereal in the plate and put a few pellets in the rest. The flake was to attract them to the plate. They came, ate the cereal, and looked for more. Eventually, they started trying to eat the pellets, after realizing that's what I was going to give them. (I only did this during the conversion stage).
Once they realized the pellets were edible items, I started mixing them in their seeds, and followed the instructions. That's when I noticed they weren't eating them mixed. They would pick out the seeds. When I put JUST pellets in their plate on the top, they would eat it and finish it after they got used to them. They wouldn't touch them when I mixed them. I realized they thought pellets were one of those foods they'd get outside of the cage, and seeds were still the only 'inside the cage' food. Step #2 was...I had to change that.
I started mixing pellets in their large bowl of seeds INSIDE the cage (they have 3 food bowls...2 small ones and 1 big one). The first day I put 1 part pellets, 3 parts seeds. Second day, half and half. Third day 3/4 pellets. Fourth day, all pellets. Once seeds and pellets were completely seperate, they started eating them, and enjoying them. That's how I got them to know pellets were food and food that was to be eaten in the cage. It took around 2-3 weeks to fully convert them, but I didn't want to make the changes sudden. It worked well for us.
Hope that helps somewhat. Remember that every birdie thinks differently, so you might have to try different techniques with different birds!
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