Some birds take to Harrison's Bird Foods instantly. The African Grey we had in the office ate Harrison's as soon as we put some in her cage and a week later was turning her nose up at the seed diet she had been on previously. Your bird may be similar and it is worth offering some nuggets and removing their usual diet. An immediate conversion is not unknown.
Most birds, however, take a little longer to convert. Below are some techniques and tips to help with conversion. Whilst some birds may be fussy and stubborn, we believe that in most cases where the bird fails to switch to a Harrison's diet it is due to a lack of patience and persistance on the part of the owner, rather than the bird itself.
Remember that the health of your bird will be improved by a succesful conversion, and whilst we would never advocate cruelty to any parrot, you may have to play the 'bad guy' in their eyes for a few days in order to get some success.
If you need to 'wean' your bird off its existing diet we suggest the following:
A few days prior to attempting conversion, reduce the amount of seed you offer to your bird (approximately 1-2 tablespoons for an African Grey, morning and night) and do not top-up their bowl during the day. This will encourage your bird to eat all that is put in their cage, rather than buffet feeding and picking out its favourite bits, and teach them that they should eat all that they are given. Then, when they are fed the Harrison's, you will already have established that you will not be offering anything else during the day, and that you won't be topping up their bowl with their favourites at any point.
In the morning of the day you start the conversion you should put in their cage whatever food they would usually eat during the day (whether it is seed, pellets etc), and leave it for about half an hour. This will enable the bird to 'have breakfast' and you will know that they have had something to eat. You should then remove this food and put in a limited amount of the Harrison's nuggets. They should then be left with this for the rest of the day. It is important that they are left with no option but to eat the Harrison's. Parrots are creatures of habit with regards to the foods they eat and if offered their regular diet or a new food they will often eat the food they know (much like a child would). So if their regular diet is offered alongside the Harrison's it is less likely they will touch the Harrison's. By serving only Harrison's, if your parrots become hungry they have no choice but to eat it. And, as parrots are naturally inquisitive, in the absence of their regular food, they will investigate the new option. If their usual food is an option they will stick with what they know.
It is important that you only give a limited amount of Harrison's nuggets as it prevents waste. It stops the bird playing with the food, and if they can see the bottom of the dish they won't rummage, looking for seed, and scatter the pellets onto the floor.
In the evening you can then give them fresh fruit and vegetables (which we would always recommend giving along with the Harrison's) or a small amount of seed (if they will not eat fruit or vegetables) and thus ensure they have had 'dinner'. The following day you repeat the pattern, but this time only leave their 'original diet' in their cage for 25 minutes. And the next day for only 20 minutes, every day reducing the time they are exposed to the old diet and increasing the time they are exposed to the Harrison's. After a week you will hopefully be in a position where you can feed them Harrison's from the start of the day.
Whilst you do not want your birds to be undernourished, by ensuring that they have 'breakfast' and 'dinner' you can be confident that during the few days you are weaning your birds that they will not starve. They may become a little hungry but the idea being that, if they don't eat the Harrison's straight away, they will hopefully soon learn that "this is the option - take it or leave it". You may feel you are being cruel and 'starving them'. You are not. They may be a little hungry if they ignore the Harrison's but they will get fruit and vegetables (or a small amount of seed) in the evening so the hunger won't last long.
This technique has a good success rate, but does not work in all cases. A lot of the time this is down to the owner. Some owners don't have the patience. Some are duped by the bird seeming to ignore the pellets, or making a racket, simply so they can get their next 'fix' of the high fat seed to which they are addicted. Some think that by denying them the seed they are being 'cruel'. Your bird may appear to be determined not to eat the food - the key is to be more determined than they are.
However, there are some birds that don't take to the food through this method despite the owner's persistence. As mentioned above, parrots are inquisitive and all will investigate the 'new' option when their usually food source is missing (even if they seem to ignore it, they will have had a look when you've left the room). But, there can be times when they do not recognise the Harrison's as being food. To some it is an alien texture and taste and see it as a toy rather than food (and throw it around the cage rather than eat it). There are a number of methods to overcome this:
Firstly you should serve the Harrison's in the same way as their normal food. They know that the seed in their bowl is food for them in part through force of habit. Therefore if the Harrison's goes in the same bowl, in the same place in the cage it will trigger the same response - they know it is food. There is also the issue of security - some birds will always eat in the same corner of the cage, or on the same branch. If you are putting the Harrison's somewhere in the cage which is different to the usual food they may be reluctant to deviate from their 'safe' eating routine.
Another method is to eat it yourself. The bird will see you eat it and recognise that this is food. And if you then really enjoy eating it (and they are quite palatable - if a little bland to humans who have 100 times more taste buds than parrots) the bird will want to know what is you are enjoying so much. After teasing them with it for a while they will hopefully eat it out of curiosity if nothing else. And they will then recognise it is food, it's quite nice, and when I'm offered it every afternoon perhaps I should eat it rather than throw it around my cage.
You can also moisten the nuggets slightly with their favourite fruit juice. A few drops of juice to give it an orange (or apple or grape, etc.) taste will make them realise it is food. They will then get used to the texture and appearance of the food and will realise that these green/grey cubes are food. You can then stop adding the fruit juice.
You can also use a 'medium' for introducing the food to the birds. If they will eat it when crumbled onto fruit or into vegetables then continue to do this, but every time reducing the amount of the other food and increasing the size of the pieces of Harrison's you mix in. You will soon be offering, in effect, Harrison's nuggets with a little bit of added fruit and then hopefully you could stop adding any fruit.
But, above all, don't give up. You may wish to stop for a few days, and come back to it afresh, but don't abandon it if you don't have instant results. Your patience and persistance will ultimately be rewarded by a healthier bird.
If you require any more advice on conversion then please contact us and we will try and help.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |