Converting Your Bird From Seeds to Pellets
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Comic Credit: Emmil Thomas
Why do it?
Formulated pellets are better for birds because they are more balanced in terms of nutrition, compared to seeds. An all-seed diet is high in fat and lacks essential vitamins and minerals e.g. calcium for your bird to be healthy.
A good way to make seeds more nutritious for your bird is to sprout the seeds. The sprouting process burns off the fat and produces more nutrients which your bird can benefit from. Check out our easy step-by-step guide to seed sprouting.
"Never starve your bird into eating pellets because it causes unnecessary stress and it can be quite detrimental to their health. Gradual conversion takes more effort but it is safer and better for you and your bird." - Dr Arman Chen, Veterinary Surgeon & Practice Manager, Gaia Vets
Is it hard?
It can be challenging, but you’ve got to keep in mind why you are doing this. It is for your bird's well-being and health for her to have a pelleted diet instead of an all-seed one. It is also going to be cheaper and less distressing for you in the long run. You are actively taking action to reduce medical bills treating a whole host of diseases that are preventable with diet control. Not to mention, saving yourself from the anxiety and stress over a sick pet.
Conditions for diet conversion:
Your bird should be healthy
Your bird should be at a healthy weight
Be aware of your bird's current baseline i.e. amount, colour and consistency of droppings
Understand your starting point. E.g. if your bird has been given an all-seed diet, and not offered other types of food, you can start off by acclimatising your bird to other textures e.g. fresh vegetables, fruits etc.
If your bird is used to eating a variety of food, it means her palate is more trained to accept different textures and flavours. She is more ready candidate to convert to a diet which consists mostly of pellets.
*Note: If you are unsure whether your bird is healthy enough or at the ideal weight, it is best to check in with your vet before starting diet conversion.
Before you start, remember that the duration stated for each stage is a gauge and can differ for different birds. So be sure that your bird has completed one stage without any weight loss before bringing her to the next stage.
Stage 1 (1 - 3 days):
Give Your Bird a Taste
You can try any of the following method to acclimatise your bird to the taste of pellets. The idea is to mix a small quantity of pellets into your bird's regular seed diet.
Grind the pellets into fine powder and sprinkle it over everything you feed your bird including treats. Mixing the pellet powder well with your bird's old diet of seeds also makes sure she gets a taste of the pellets even if she tends to pick out certain seeds to eat.
Offer pellets by hand like a treat to (hopefully) pique your bird's curiosity.
Soften pellets with water to make the texture a bit more interesting. But be sure to remove any leftovers after 2 hours and replace with fresh pellets because wet food spoils easily.
Stage 2 (7 - 14 days, or even weeks):
Limit Your Bird's Choice
This transitions your bird to take up pellets if she gets hungry between meal times. You can continue to do Stage 1, i.e. sprinkle some pellet powder over her current seed diet as well.
Limit your bird's meal times by offering the current seed diet for 20 - 30 minutes in the morning and 20 - 30 minutes in evening. This also depends on how fast your bird eats, so feel free to adjust the duration. Yes, take her old diet away after this period of time, and offer her only pellets.
Be sure to use the same food dish etc. to contain the pellets so your bird will associate pellets with food and not anything else.
If you want to take this even more gradually, you can offer the current seed diet for the same amount of time,e.g. 20 - 30 minutes in the middle of the day.
*Note: Monitor her droppings to make sure she is still pooping. White and/or liquid poo means she is not eating. Other signs include lethargy, significant weight loss and ruffled feathers. If your bird shows any of these signs, she is not ready and you should offer her some of her old diet. You can use this handy body condition score to monitor your bird's weight.
You can still continue to convert your bird, however, it just means you need to take it even more slowly. How? Go through Stage 1 again to get your bird's palate accustomed to the pellets.
Stage 3 (7 - 14 days, or even weeks):
Bring Your Bird To The Pellet Side
Taking things a step further from Stage 2 here to convert your bird's diet to one which consists mostly of pellets. Determination is key here.
Offer her old diet just once daily for a limited duration e.g. 20 - 30 minutes. Then provide pellets in her food dish for the rest of the day.
Do not offer any treats or human food during this stage so your bird won't learn to hold out for these preferred food. Yes, it is very similar to withholding treats to children when training them to eat proper meals.
You will need to be strict, because your bird may resort to bad behaviour. Just monitor her poo (see *Note under Stage 2) to make sure she is eating.
Stage 4 (14 days):
Cold Turkey Your Bird
This is a crucial step in getting your bird to completely take up a pelleted diet.
Strictly feed her pellets only for about 2 weeks.
Continuing from Stage 3, be sure that you do not offer any treats or human food during this time.
This allows you to confirm that the poo colour, consistency etc. comes from an all-pellet diet. This is important as it forms a new baseline for a new norm. From here on, anything that deviates from this baseline may be a symptom for illness or stress.
You should also continue to monitor your bird's weight using the body condition score chart. If your bird has dropped from score 3 (Ideal) to a score of 2 (Skinny) and below, you should restart the whole process from Stage 1.
Stage 5:
Bring Back The Variety
We recommend a pelleted diet but not a 100% one. Providing variety in flavours and textures via fresh vegetables and fruits is highly beneficial to pet birds.
Keep your bird's new pelleted diet at a 75%, and offer variety in the remaining 25%. This can include fresh fruits and vegetables as treats and even some seeds. You should also check out this list of human food which you should not feed your bird.