# Making progress with Frost!



## haysfmly (Dec 20, 2016)

Hi guys! It's been a few weeks since I've posted, but I'm so excited because we are finally making some progress with Frost! I say "finally", but in reality, we've only had him 7 weeks, so I feel like it's actually going faster than I thought! Frost is still skittish of us, and a little jumpy at sudden noises, but I figured out that if I put some of his seed in my hand and hold it where his food bowl normally is, he will jump onto my hand and eat from it. At first, he was very nervous and jumped all around the cage, getting close to my hand, hesitating, then jumping back away. I just stayed very still and talked to him in a sweet, encouraging way, and he finally started eating from my hand while sitting on his perch. Then when the seed was too far away for him to stretch (and believe me, he stretched his little neck as far as he could -- LOL!), he stepped onto my hand and continued eating. Now, whenever I try this first thing in the morning or just before bed, he isn't nearly as nervous and almost comes right away, depending on how ready to eat he is. It's very exciting for us all! :thumbup:

The only issue is that when he's not hungry, he wants nothing to do with my hand and still acts very nervous and walks away if I just put my hand near him without food, so for now, I'm going to continue feeding him from my hand until he gets alot more comfortable.

One other question -- and if this part needs to be moved to a different section, please feel free -- I have tried to introduce Frost to foods other than his seed mix, but he is having none of it. I bought Harrison's pellets and tried mixing them in with his seed, but he just picks around them. I've offered apple slices, broccoli, carrots, cilantro and cucumber. He refuses to eat any of it. I tried hand feeding him the pellets the other day when I knew he was hungry and he was very curious, coming to look in my hand, but when he saw it wasn't seeds, he wouldn't eat. I even dipped a small piece of cucumber in his seed, hoping he would get the flavor and want to eat it. He picked all the seeds off of it, then pushed the cucumber out of my hand so he could get to the seeds below it. :lol: Smart guy, right?! It bothers me that he is only eating seeds. Any other ideas to get him to branch out and try some new, more nutritious, foods? Thanks!!

Edited to add: I did read through the Diet and Nutrition stickies, but I feel like I've tried the things listed and he is still not showing interest. Also, I've had a cuttlebone in his cage since we got him and can't tell that he's ever used it. Do they instinctively know when to use it and what it's for?


----------



## FaeryBee (May 9, 2011)

*Introducing new foods to budgies takes a great deal of time and patience. Sometimes it will be weeks or even months before they will try something and decide they like it. There are many different tips in the Diet and Nutrition section of the forum.

You can sprinkle Harrison's high potency mash over his seeds rather than using pellets. This way, when the budgie hulls the seed it tastes the pellet mash and ingests bits of it as well. This helps the budgie identify the taste as a food source.

Many members seem to find the easiest pellets to use for introducing pellets to their budgies to be the CANARY sized Zupreem fruity pellets. Most budgies like the taste and the "Canary" sized pellets are tiny enough for them to easily eat them. Once they've become accustomed to the Fruity Pellets, introducing the smallest "natural" pellets is then an easy step.

Other than when I was using the Harrison's mash, I've never mixed my birds' pellets and seed together. My birds have three separate dishes each with a different brand/flavor of pellets available to them 24/7. Their seed is rationed to approximately 2 teaspoons of seed per budgie each day. I give them seed first thing in the morning right after putting clean newspapers on the bottom grate of the cages. I sprinkle their morning ration on the paper so they can forage for the seeds. I then do the same thing in the evenings (after replacing the soiled newspaper with clean) and again allow them to forage for their seed.

All of my birds have the option to eat the available pellets whenever they like throughout the day and they all enjoy them!

Fruit is high in sugar content so vegetables are actually healthier for your budgies with fruits given only occasionally.

The first vegetable which my budgies that had not been weaned to vegetables tried (and loved) was sweet corn kernels sprinkled with a teeny bit of garlic powder (NOT salt).

Many budgies do not utilize their cuttlebone for quite a long period of time. When Frost's body indicates the need for additional calcium, he will "discover" and use his cuttlebone at that point in time.

Best wishes*


----------



## HappiBudgie (Jan 17, 2017)

My budgies really like kale. I introduced it to them by wetting it and putting a tiny sprinkle of millet on top, and then I fed it to them. After they finished the millet they nibbled on the kale out of curiosity, and they loved it. Now they eat it without any trouble


----------

