I'll have to get some cayenne pepper! Last night we tried banana, mango and zuchinni squash. Bingo, of course picked out the bananas and then threw her dish. I think I caught her trying some of the squash though! Emerald ate everything as usual! None of our smaller birds would even touch it. Guess we'll keep trying. We gots lots of stuff to try, so we pick something else out today!

Just a few we have tried so far Charro hates watermelon, kiwi and he is a bit iffy on strawberries. the others are begining to try fruits but usually they let it all go to waste.
Conures are begining to love fruits as well no luck on veggies

Fruits

Pomagranite (A favorite! hard to find at times motts makes a pomagranite sauce no sugar added tried it this morning. Its a hit! and for those of you who hate pomagranite mess this one is for you)


Apple (everything Charro eats is an apple or so he says)
Orange
Pear (mostly Bosc)
Blueberries
mango
papaya
mini bananas (he knows the differance)
pineapple
plum
peach
star fruit
and that is all for the fruits living in a small town our pickings are slim.

Veggies

Corn is a fave
peas
sugar snap peas
endive
brocoli
green peppers
brussel sprouts
carrots
green beans
Bok Choy
Sweet potatoes

we will be putting in our garden cannot wait we are planting around our birds diets from sugar snap peas to mini pumpkins and other squashes

Great idea! I'm going to try that Jim. I love your new icon picture! That is awesome!

It depends on the species of bird whether they are easier or harder to 'convince' to try new foods. I have found that ekkies, macaws, mini-macaws, amazons, keets and quakers are the best eaters and only require the smallest of prods in the right direction. Grays are not. Some people say they are but I think that if you start with one that was not used to eating a wide variety when young, it's hard to get them used to it. But that does not mean it cannot be done and the only trick is persistence, as far as I can tell. It has taken me up to a couple of years to get a real stubborn one to a good start but, once they do, they keep at it and, eventually, end up eating anything you offer to them.

I have this system that establishes a conditioned response by eating their food in the morning with them and repeating the same phrase over and over until they make the connection that the phrase means something good to eat. Once this happens, they will eat anything you offer them. I have a very small rescue so none of my birds came to me as a baby and, with few exceptions, they all had issues and were all seed-junkies but now they all eat a very large variety of raw food which is, of course, much, much better than anything you can cook for them except for stuff like yams or hard-rind squashes and such.

My grays favorite foods are anything juicy... stuff like papaya, oranges, watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, pears, peaches, cherries, etc. but they also like apples, bananas, cucumbers, carrots, sweet potatoes, spaghetti squash, peas, corn, beets, dried cranberries and wax beans. It doesn't really matter what you start with, the important thing is to get the bird used to eating whatever you offer so don't go for the 'healthy' but the 'tasty' and that means sweet or very spicy, as far as they are concerned. Once you establish the conditioned response, the bird will eat anything.

Thanks for the tips! Our gray is VERY picky and stubborn, but our eclectus will eat anything and everything! So far, we can only get our gray to eat bananas and grapes. She only picks at other things and then throws her dish! We will keep trying though!