[Justin D.]

Well, I took my Karasu to get groomed today and the guy said she was malnourished because of the coloring of her feather or something. I realize a seed-only diet is not recommended, and I have been feeding her a cockitile mix, which I suppose is not right either. I bought some food he had in little containers for two dollar that has to be refrigerated and has seed and vegies. Any suggestions on easy to make, affordable diets? She's not fond of pellets and Harrison's pellets are very expensive.

[Andie's Mom]

OK I'm confused...is Karasu the name of your Quaker?

How old is this bird? You can start feeding or trying to feed her more fresh veggies and fruit, as well as rice and pasta over just straight seed. avoid the Sunflowers seeds...There is also a thread in the diet and nutrition section about Converting birds from seed to Pellets... Called Andie's conversion method, I think If given the choice over seeds or pellets the bird is going to choose the seed hands /wings down cuz its like candy to a child. They'd it 24/7 if you let them...

You can try different recipes one I like to make up is wild rice and I throw small pasta shapes in it and also mixed frozen veggies. or I'll cook up a bunch of different type of beans like 15 bean soup without the soup mix stuff and add other mixed veggies to it. start offering diced up fresh fruits and what not and see how she does...you might need to eat some of it in front of her or pretend you are so she gets the idea that its good... But really do try to get her converted to a pellet if you can...theres a couple of threads recently that give a list of companies and phone numbers where you can ask for free samples and then maybe you can find something that she likes that way.

Hope I've helped a little. Good luck.