Cockatiel Won't Eat A Balanced Diet

I have always tried to make sure that my cockatiel gets a balanced diet so I give him fruit and vegetables. I have tried a wide range of these but all he eats is trill and millet and he does not like cockatiel mix. How could I try to get him to eat it or should I get him a vitamin supplement? (Mike Black - Kansas)

In birds, poor nutrition can often be the basis of many health problems, such as obesity and iodine deficiency, and it is essential that owners take time and trouble to find out how to make sure their bird gets the nutrients it needs, as you are doing. Packet seeds are very convenient to use, but birds in the wild would naturally eat a far greater variety of seed types because the different plants come into season at different times of the year.

Commercial seed diets have about 2 - 8 different types of seed, but when the container of seed is given to the bird, it will select 1 or 2 of its favorite seeds. Millet is often the one chosen, and the bird owner will often make things worse by offering a millet spray as well! This means that the bird will have an imbalanced source of nutrients, which can be high in fat. The best thing to do is to offer a smaller amount of good quality varied seed mix, so that the bird will tend to eat a greater seed variety.

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