My bird won't eat pellets. Is it okay to make him hungry to eat them?

The only way i know of that works is a pretty simple one. you mix the pellets with his old food mix. first day 10% pellets and 90% old food. every day you increase the pellets by 10% and decrease the o;d food by 10% until you switch to pellets completely.

Just like people- birds can become picky eaters. We love to eat potato chips over our veggies, and many birds will enjoy millet over their regular diet! You may need to remove all the 'extras' to see if it will encourage Pepper to start eating his diet again, or mix a little millet in to his regular food (however some birds will pick out their favorites). If he's acting ill in addition to not wanting to eat his regular food, and isn't still improving as you mentioned, or he absolutely refuses even if all millet is removed, seeking vet care is always a good idea to rule out an illness or something such as GI upset that could be causing his preferences to be changed. Until you can get to the vet, keeping him warm, in a separated hospital cage, and with easy access to food and water can help.

Since she is young, consider transitioning her to a commercial pelleted diet such as Harrison's, Lafeber, Pretty Bird or KayTee Exact. You can still supplement with a bit of a fortified seed mix and fresh vegetables and fruits. Moisten pellets with warm water to make a mash and offer to Luna daily. Mix the pellets into her food and gradually increase the amount over a week or two until she is eating mainly pellets.

All you can do is offer her veggies, if she eats them or not is completely up to her, you can't force her eating something she doesn't' want to eat. birds on seed diet will often prefer seeds only, which is another good reason to switch to bird pellets.

Thanks for reaching out about your parakeets. Try measuring and limiting amount of seed offered, allowing them to get hungry. You can remove seed for several hours, only offering the new food. Good luck.

If Mithu is refusing to eat at all I would be concerned that he is ill. It would be best to bring him to a local vet for an exam to rule out issues such as illness, infection, parasites, nutritional issues, etc that could be causing him to feel ill and not want to eat. If he checks out healthy and just doesn't like his food, a balanced seed and pellet diet is a good base diet that provides plenty of nutrients. You can then add in fruits and veggies as treats to help add some variety and balance things out. Visit the Petco website for some [parakeet foods](https://www.petco.com/shop/en/petcostore/category/bird/bird-food-and-treats#facet:43057809711497107101101116&productBeginIndex:0&orderBy:&pageView:grid&minPrice:&maxPrice:&pageSize:&) we offer so you can get a feel for what to feed.

The best thing to offer your parrot is a diet that consists mainly of pellets (80%) and then fruits and veggies (15-20%). Less than 5% of his diet should be from “people food” because it will not give him the proper vitamins and minerals he needs. The good news is that Rangu is still very young and you should be able to adjust his dietary habits fairly easily. Try to refrain from feeding him any people food for the time being except for very small amount when training/working with him. I hope this helps. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Best of luck!