Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!mcnc!uvaarpa!haven!ni.umd.edu!uc780.umd.edu!greg
From: greg@uc780.umd.edu
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: RE: INDOOR: Eat something else please...
Message-ID: <16FEB91.13022307@uc780.umd.edu>
Date: 16 Feb 91 13:02:23 GMT
Sender: usenet@ni.umd.edu (USENET News System)
Organization: The University of Maryland University College
Lines: 53
Nntp-Posting-Host: uc780.umd.edu

>I'm beginning to get worried about my tiels diet.  He's about 6 months
>now (we've had him for 2) and we can't get him to eat anything but
>the yellow millet in the tiel food (with vitamins) or millet spray.

Good reason to worry.  Tiels get set in their ways about food early.

>He will eat a little lettuce but only if hand fed.  He will pick at
>other food and chew it but I think he is just making smaller pieces
>out of bigger ones.  He LOVES to hull peas but doesn't eat them.

Lettuce unfortunately has litle or no nutritional value for birds, as
it is mostly water.  My wife and I have found that dark green veggies
are generally a good bet.  Start with broccoli, as it is mild in taste,
and its flowerlets are shaped like seeds.  Spinach and kale are also
favorites for our kids... they'd been eating spinach, and when we
introduced kale (to vary the diet as they are feeding their first
brood), they immediately picked up on it.  Baby corn is something
they really like, and you might even try some roasted unsalted peanuts.
Another thing you might try is Lafeber's Avi-Cakes.  These are pellet
and seed cakes that are billed as a "complete diet" - they make a 
good supplement, and they seem to be tasty (bird reaction).  A
caution with them is to keep them in a cool place - sometimes they
get buggy.

>We've tried lots of tricks like eating things in front of him
>(Crazy corn is acutally quite tasty :-) ) but he just looks at us.
>Oh, I forgot, he will eat wheat flakes with us at breakfast.  He
>likes to grab a flake off our spoon and nibble it to death.

Cereal is good.  There is nothing wrong with including a few wheat or
corn flakes in their food dish.  In general, almost anything that is
good for humans is good for birds.

>Any advice?
>Will his tastes expand with age?
>Will we succeed with persistance?
>Will he get sick on just millet?
>Any similar experiences?

Patience is definitely the foremost ingredient - and yours will be taxed.
It will take a fair amount of persistence, and tiels are the pickiest birds
I have met.  If you don't already have a subscription to Bird Talk, I would
highly recommend it - I never would have thought about the kale if it hadn't
been for last month's issue.

Above all, I wish you luck.

>Thanks,
>	Jeff

Gregory Wright
BitNET:     greg@uc780
Internet:   greg@socrates.umd.edu