IndianRingNeck.com

as you know we rescued the lil peach face a couple weeks ago. he has been given antibiotics and i have been giving him vitamin substitues because he wont eat pellets or fresh fruit and vege he is still very thin his breast bone juts out alot and you can feel his bones quiet well anywhere you touch he is on a seed diet which i have been trying to change, but how can i put weight on him? also he sleeps alot he had really bad mites which are now gone thankfully would it be because he could be anemic? he is such a good boy already steps up and loves head scratches touch his wings and die any help would be greatly appreciated

it may not be a good idea to convert him to pellets until he has put on some weight?

Julie might be right - try different seeds and even scrambled egg. Loads of protein should help put on weight.

Sunflower seeds will be prob the best seeds for protein too. Try removing the husks yourself or buying them without husks if you can.

No worms?

thanks yeah he eats heaps of sunflower seeds no worms wont eat egg i've tried a billion times wont eat anything but seed do you think a rescue mixture would help if so where ca i get some? doesnt appear to be any in lismore

Have you tried brown rice? oatmeal? sweet potatoes? bananas? My little piggies love all of the above (cook the rice with chicken!), and my spreading body is testament to their caloric content.

yeah i've stuck basically everything in front of him but he wont eat anything a few times i have managed to get food on his beak so he has to taste it but he is so scared of all of it he was neglected for some time

Maybe Nutriberries?

1.It may be the SHAPE of the food that is scaring him.

I know this sounds silly, but you might try making things LOOK like seeds - small round shapes. And mix it in with his seed. Things that are soft can be chopped fine and roll it between your palms to round it into little beads.

2. is he afraid of your face? if not, you can try holding food in your mouth and seeing if he will take it from there

3. you could try coating something else with the seeds (like an icing)- he eats the seeds and keeps going to the lower layer - e.g. peanut butter, bird muffins, etc

4. yeah the smear it on the beak trick frequently works - peanut butter with small amount of bird vitamins mixed in?

5. as a youth he may have adapted to a forumula dropper so he might take that again

sunflower seeds are fairly fattening i believe; mine is nuts about walnuts and pecans which can be chopped fine, also muffins with chopped nuts in them

i've tried mixing a few thing in with his seed but he wont eat it. he isnt scared of the face but i dont trust birds near my face cookie has bitten me a few too many times on the face. i'll try coating his seeds in stuff tried to find red palm oil but couldnt find it any where i managed to get him to eat a teeny tiny nibble of scrambled egg but thats it. the sunflower seeds are fatty and he loves them but is still under weight i guess he'll get better with time he hadnt been fed for at leats a month when we found him he was pretty close to being dead