My 5-6 month-old bird seemed to accept the ZuPreem Canary Sized Fruit Pellets in the past week. Meaning, he would eat them.

I'd been trying mixing the pellets with the seeds and also offering them only (& he would eat them when they were solely in the dish.)

Then yesterday, I tried the tactic where I take the seed dish out at night, introduce the Pellets in the morning... and then leave them there until mid-afternoon. Then, re-indroduce seeds in the evening.

This seemed to work. My bird fed on the Pellets in the morning yesterday, and throughout the day.

Today however... another story. He wouldn't touch the Pellets all morning. Would go to the dish and turn away. Did this a couple times.

Then, I gave him some kale around Noon which he normally likes... wouldn't touch it.

Just now (5 hours later since he woke up) ... I finally caved in and gave him 1 teaspoon of seeds. He ate about 3/4 of that. I left the remaining seeds on the bottom of the cage to forage. The Zupreem Fruit Pellets remain in his dish.

Is this typical? Should I just stay consistent with what I've been doing? [ Seeds at night. Remove them overnight. Pellets Only in the morning until mid- to late- afternoon. ]

I guess I can see how this goes, however I'm concerned he might get trained to only eat in the evening.

One more question: should I store pellets in the freezer?

Also, I read that Harrison's Pellets (which I have a sample of the Super Fine High Potency) advises not to top them off. That seems like it could get expensive. Lots of pellets would be thrown out.

Zupreem doesn't say anything about not topping off, but I've noticed if the pellets sit out a day or two... then they seem to lose their freshness (they don't smell like they do when they come out of the bag. i.e. they have a fruity scent.)

Thanks for your review & thoughts!

I would back up a step in the transition process and leave both pellets and seeds in his cage for a while longer. Another thing I have had some success with is placing the pellet dish high in the cage and the seed dish as low as possible. Sometimes they will opt to eat out of the higher dish, even if it is pellets.

Thanks Minigrace... I will give that a try.... !

I find that giving a ration of seed in the morning and one in the evening works well.
The pellets are left in the cage 24/7 so the budgies have those to eat throughout the day.
I do not fill the food dish however, I only put a Tablespoon or so of pellets in the dish.
I leave the pellets in the cage until they are eaten or crumbled into powder.
Then I dispose of the residue (for the outside birds) and put fresh pellets in the dish.
I don't freeze the pellets, I simply keep them in airtight containers.

When I introduced pellets to my budgie, my Avian Vet recommended using Harrison's High Potency Mash and sprinkling it on the budgie's seed mix every day.
This way, when the budgie hulls the seed it tastes the pellet mash and ingests bits of it as well.
This helps the budgie identify the taste as a food source.

Good luck!

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Thanks Deborah. That sounds like a good plan. I got a sample of the Harrison's Super Fine High Potency pellets but my budgie rejects those. He will eat some of the ZuPreem canary-sized fruit pellets. I'll try the mash. ...Do you use Harrison's pellets?

Thanks for the tips...!

No, I don't use the Harrison's pellets as my budgies didn't like them. I use Roudybush Minis, and Zupreem Fruity Pellets.

I had been using Zupreem Natural but all my birds have determined they prefer the Roudybush Minis over the Zupreem Natural.

I always keep some of the Harrison's High Potency Mash on hand in case anybudgie isn't feeling 100%.
For example, the mash is easy to mix in egg food when they are molting.

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Thanks.. that's great advice. I'll be sure to check out Roundybush. Had read that a lot of people have had success with it, so it was on my list as a possibility. Thx.... !