Food problems...

[Vanny]

Hi,
I have a problem...
To give you some background, Ricky was raised on Roudybush pellets. Tessa was raised on seeds, and all she eats is white,red, and spray, millet.
Ok, So i'm trying to switch them both to Harrison's pellets, because the only place to buy roudybush is really far away, and harrison's is really close by. Ricky's breeder says that harrison's is a little better than roudybush too. She gave me some advice on how to switch Tessa to pellets, she said that the best way is for her to see another budgie eating them, and she'll do it too.
So here's my problem...
Ricky refuses to eat Harrisons. He only eats roudybush, i don't think he likes the taste of harrison's. Tessa finds roudybush too big for her to hold on to, so i tried harrison's on her, and she's been trying to figure out how to eat it, and i've seen her eat 3 or 4 of harrison's. So even if Tessa eats harrison's, Ricky doesn't like them. And Tessa won't eat roudybush, because it's too big for her, because she's used to tiny little seeds. And my roudybush supply will be gone soon, so Ricky won't have food, and he won't eat harrison's...... Ahhhh!:eek: :eek: :eek: Help! What should I do to get them both to eat Harrison's!!!!
help! help! help!
-Vanny
P.S. Right now i have harrison's in their cage, hoping they'll eat it. I haven't fed them their regular food today except tiny little handfuls every few hours. and once in awhile, i give them a teensy weensy piece of spray millet which they devour.
Help!

[Vanny]

Nevermind..... Tessa and Ricky have started eating harrison's on their own! I guess they were really hungry, so they decided to try it!
Yay!
-Vanny
Could someone please close this thread?

[roadsidexcoalition]

Are you sure they're eating it and not just throwing it out of thier food dish in frustration of looking for their normal food? You have to be sure or they could easily starve to death.

Instead of putting just the Harrison's in their food dishes, you should mix their old food in with the new food and convert them.

For the first week, mix 2 parts old food with 2 parts new food.
The next week, mix 1 part old food with 3 parts new food.

Plus, it is actually good to have a seed/pellet mixture because pellets don't provide all the essentials. I don't know what kind of bird seed is sold at the store close by you, but I give my birds LM Animal Farms Bonanza mixed with Zupreem pellets along with fresh or dehydrated fruits. Each of my birds eat their pellets differently however. My conure will eat them whole, my cockatiel likes them to be ground up, and my budgies eat them only if they can dunk them in their water. Try offering the pellets in different ways to see if they prefer it a certain way. =]

[ronsig]

If you are not really sure that your birds are eating the pellets or enough of them, make sure you have a scale and weigh them!
Mine eat Harrison's and seeds and are doing better with that mixture than they did with seeds alone.
The main problem is that Harrison should only be used for 6 weeks after you open the package. My two will not finish a package in that time.
There is a lot of information on the Harrisons webseite.

Good luck,

Sigrid :budgie: :budge: