Does your grey actually eat the veggies?

[Diana]

My birdie seems to be very finicky. Whenever I give her veggies, she picks through them sucks on a few and
refuses to eat the rest.
Tomorrow morning I am going to make a mash and see if I can get her to eat some of that. I will mix it with some ground nuts.
Should the veggies be chopped up to fine slivers or is that personal preference?
Does her sucking on them sound familiar to anyone else, or is my bird the only one?
I am only giving her 1-2 Tablespoons of seeds and a few nuts.
She seems to like fruit a lot more than vegetables.

[hammyloz]

try roast potatoes with the veg,my kiki loves it

[Janie]

Darwin seems to much prefer fruit to veggies, though with persistence he is gradually eating more of them.  I have a fruit skewer things that hangs in his cage, and I put a large piece of either fruit of veg on it every day in the morning.  Yesterday was carrot and he had a good go at eating it all, or at least tearing it to pieces. Today he has got a slice of apple.

 I then always around mid-day time put a medium sized terracotta dog bowl with fruit and veg pieces in it at the bottom of his cage.  At least once a week I put egg in it, though yesterday was the first time I saw him attempt to eat any.  He likes the shell more which I scrunch up and sprinkle on top.

We can't force them to eat, but it does seem that they will try most things in time.  So just keep giving him the option of eating it, I felt like clapping when I saw Darwin tasting his egg, after a month of never so much as touching it. 

hugs Janie xxx

[autumnmoon]

Yes Diana, my Banter often sucks on a fruit or veggie and drops the uneaten portion.
Also Janie, I completely agree with you about continuing to try different fruits and vegetables. I have the sense that people give up to quickly when something is rejected by their Grey. I think offering different foods over and over in different forms is the key to success in providing a healthy diet. People give up way to fast and say to themselves, "oh she/he doesn't like such and such".

[Diana]

Hi and thank you all for responding. I will keep trying different veggies.
I know first hand that they will like something one day and not the next.
For about a week she loved cherries and blueberries and now if I offer her one
she squeaks and tosses it. Very funny.

[jules]

if you chop veggies up small it makes them easier to mix with other stuff. or use a food processor if you have one (make life easier) i've used frozen veggies too before aswell 

jasper is very picky too and will only nibble at things,sometimes not eating any of them. its very rare he'll old a carrot or piece of broccoli,he wouldnt even hold a grape yesterday. i think he doesnt like getting his feet all sticky 

[karine]

I do use a food processor to finely chop the veggies, then i will mix them with scrambled eggs. They love the eggs but can't help eating the veggies with them .........For a change I will leave bigger pieces of veggies, but like yours, they mostly play with them and eat around them. Makes good foot toys anyhow

[tkessel]

My grey's preferences: 1. seeds (only 1 tbs per day allowed), 2.  fruit like grapes or cherries (2 per day at max) 3. she will pick at the veggies I put in her dish, but toss about half of them out  4. Harrison's pellets (about 22 per day eaten, and 8 others tossed or dunked in her water bowl).

"Raw veggies" seem to be her least favorite, she is more likely to eat them cooked, especially if I hand feed her.  But fresh veggies in her bowl early in the morning are more likely to be tossed than eaten. 

[billysprout]

Vary them, cooked/raw, hot/cold and mashed/ as they are, they like certain veggies certain ways, its your problem to decide how they like them, Bellas tastes vary day to day but Chocko and Bellinos accept them however i give them, they like to give us something to work out. I now just feed them, they either eat  them or they dont.

[tkessel]

Vary them, cooked/raw, hot/cold and mashed/ as they are, they like certain veggies certain ways, its your problem to decide how they like them, Bellas tastes vary day to day but Chocko and Bellinos accept them however i give them, they like to give us something to work out. I now just feed them, they either eat  them or they dont.

I have to agree with this "shotgun" approach.  I have given up on trying to figure out a pattern of what she always will eat. (Other than SEEDS! )

[alicat]

mine like veggy days, and fruit days , but they never eat everything.
they do eat some tho...

i buy frozen veg microwave packs, 4 individual servings for a quid from farmfoods, one pack served the three birds, now buddy gets a few too.

i have grown various berries in the garden and frozen them this year in little portions so im not always spending loads on fruit for them.
in my freezer packs i have redcurrants blackcurrants rasberries and blackberries, i buy bananas and tangerines every week as they dont freeze well and i eat those too so none are wasted.

[autumnmoon]

Something I thought of while reading this thread. Banter loves to eat when I eat. If he sees me liking something....eating it with enthusiasm... then he wants to try it too. He may not eat a lot, but he will almost always give it a try. I think I am getting him hooked on more and more things this way.

[Squid]

autumn, yeah, thats a good way to convert, and eat anything you want them to eat in front of them, then they normally have a go at it!
Mine are on harrisons pellets, veg and fruit in the morning with pellets, then some seed and then soaked or sprouted pulses in the evening. In answer to the initial question, yeah, they do just suck, but think of it like a sunflower seed, they take what they need and spit the rest, thats the way all four of mine are, messy buggars x but they know whats right for them, so everyday is different, somedays they eat more spinach for instance, some days they leave it, we just gotta keep preparing it and offering it, its worth it x