You have just brought your baby cockatiel home and now you start thinking about what to feed your new pet.

Actually, once you bring him home, it is a little late to just start thinking about food for your new companion. This is something you should have thought about at the time you purchased the cage, perches, toys and other supplies and were making arrangements with a breeder to purchase your cockatiel.

Find out what your bird has been eating. Hopefully, he has been weaned onto pellets, fresh fruits, vegetables, bean mash, sprouts and more - which can include some seeds.

A cockatiel can survive on a seed only diet, but will be healthier if he eats a wide variety of foods. If he has only eaten seeds, it may not be easy to change his habits, but other nutritious foods should be introduced on a daily basis. One day you may find him nibbling on some fresh sprouts or on a piece of carrot or broccoli that has seeds pushed into it. If you offer him a piece of what you are eating in front of him, he will probably be quite interested in trying it out.

Of course, a cockatiel does not eat a lot of food in one day, but you can supply a little bit of several different foods each day.

In the wild, a cockatiel has to forage for food so give your bird something to do to find his own food in your home. A busy bird is a happy bird, so hide a couple of kernels of corn under a piece of paper or wrapped in a bit of paper towel, or just put a piece of paper over top of his food dish. You can weave a
carrot green through the cage bars or push a piece of apple into the bars. You could also put a small amount of food in a little paper bag and place that on the floor of the cage, or in his food dish or tied to the cage bars. He will have fun ripping into the bag and then enjoy the food inside it.

There are now several foraging toys available on the market to use in making the food hunt more interesting for your cockatiel.

For more information about these wonderful birds take a look at my e-book.