My budgie won't eat without a lot of effort.

[jeff]

Hello, I've got a young budgie who doesn't like to eat. I feed him Harrisons pellets twice a day, and he used to eat just fine, but he went through a tough molt recently and was not interested in his food. So to get him to eat I'd feed him the pellets by hand from my fingers. He got through his molt and is back to his normal self, but now he won't eat unless I feed him the pellets one at a time from my fingers. Sometimes I can put all of the pellets in the palm of my hand and he'll eat, but he certainly won't eat from his bowl. Any ideas on how to get him to go back to eating without my help?

Thanks in advance.

[tweetiepiesmom]

Have you tried putting his food dish with the pellets into his cage, then taking a couple pellets in your fingers, hold it up to him so he sees it but can't reach it to eat and then drop it into his food dish.

[Marianne Marlow]

How old is he? how are his droppings?

If he spends time out of his cage, can you put his pellets on a little budgie mirror so he thinks the bird in the mirror is eating too when he eats?

[jeff]

Thanks for the suggestions. I work from home so he spends most of his time out of his cage in my office. He's maybe a year old I got him in march and he still had bars on his head. He's lost those and his most recent molt was his second since I've had him. His droppings are fine and he's been to the vet for a checkup since the last molt, his gram stain was normal. We didn't talk about the eating issue then because it didn't seem like a problem yet. I weigh him daily and he's 40g give or take a gram every day, so I think he's healthy it really seems more like a behavior issue than a health issue.

I will try the mirror, and the dropping the pellets to try and get him to pick them up. I have tried putting his favorite toy in the bowl but that didn't work. Strangely I can get him to eat from the bowl if I put him on my shoulder and hold the bowl up for him, but that's not much better than feeding him by hand. I'd like to be able to put his bowl down and do some work while he eats.

[ladybird]

Have you tried him on different food? maybe he would prefer seed. Will he eat millet if you put some in his cage?

[jeff]

He will eat millet and seed with no problems, but I think that's because I reserve those as treats for him, they aren't part of his normal diet. He was very happy to eat the pellets without help before his molt. I think the issue is that he's gotten spoiled by my hand feeding him during his molt. He's happy to eat his pellets and he will cry if I'm late feeding him, but he insists that each pellet come from my fingers, he won't even let my girlfriend feed him.

[jeff]

Update the mirror idea didn't work, he just wanted to play with the mirror and ignored the food. The idea about dropping the pellets in his bowl worked a bit. When I pick up the pellets and drop them he'll eat the pellet I dropped, and a couple times he ate a couple more pellets while his head was down in the bowl. I think if I drop the pellets for a while from progressively farther away from the bowl I might be able to train him to eat by himself again. Thanks again for the help.

[tweetiepiesmom]

Sounds good - good luck!

When you have time, we'd love to hear more about your little guy. What's his name? We all love pictures!

[jeff]

This is Dr. Hopkins. I got him because it was too quiet working from home. I was completely unprepared for how personality he has. I thought he would be more like a finch or canary, just a pretty little mindless thing in a cage. I didn't know that he would be able to talk, and that he'd be able to spend most of his time outside of his cage.

His favorite things to say are "I'm Dr. Hopkins," "I'm a bird anthropologist," "F@!% you" (he bites sometimes so I accidently taught him that), and his theme song "The Hopkins dance is your chance to do the hop!" He's the only budgie I've ever had so I can't compare his intelligence to other budgies but he's smarter than any dog I've ever owned. He is target trained, he knows the come command, he'll turn around, and he'll go through tunnels (toilet paper tubes). His first vet visit was traumatic for him so I've taught him a command I call "grab" where he'll let me grab him in my hand, turn him on his back and touch him like the vet does. His second vet visit was much better because of this trick. He's very trainable and he seems to enjoy learning new tricks and interacting with people.

[tweetiepiesmom]

Dr. Hopkins sounds delightful and he is very pretty but I'll admit being partial to the blue and white color combination. I'll bet he's a great companion for you. You are lucky that Dr. Hopkins came into your life - not every budgie talks or trains easily. I hope you have many years of fun with him!

[ffiscool]

A very clever boy. Love his choice of words lol

[ariella]

What a fantastic vocabulary Dr Hopkins has.
Sounds like he certainly livens your days up. Welcome to the forum.

[Marianne Marlow]

Lovely to hear about Dr Hopkins, he sounds wonderful. Yes, unless someone has had birds, they do not understand how varied their personalities can be and also how they endear you to them.

I would also point out that I have known people with Finches and Canaries and they have personalities too.

skysmum has has Zebra Finches and still has one called Frank, he definitely is full of personality!

You're a bird person now, Dr Hopkins has chosen you