Pelleted diets are similar to traditional dry dog and cat foods. Pellets are hard little nuggets (or shapes) that consist of various ingredients sometimes including corn, barley, soybeans, peanuts, lentils, rice, and supplements such as Vitamins E, A, and D3, Riboflavin and Calcium. There are a few different ways to make pellets, but the general purpose is to create a food source that meets all of your bird’s nutritional requirements. This may or may not be the reality, though. Don’t believe everything printed on the package of pellets!
Pellets Aren't Perfect
Think about it. In the wild, birds forage for food and eat whatever is plentiful in their particular region. Sometimes that may be the same food for a week, and then a totally different food for the next month. A bird who lives in South America will eat a completely different diet than a bird who lives in Africa. My point being that parrot nutrition is not an exact science. I do not believe that there is one pelleted diet that is right for all captive birds, and I do not believe in feeding pellets exclusive of any other kinds of food. A 100% pelleted diet just doesn’t feel healthy to me, and I bet your bird would find it incredibly boring! Remember, parrots are very intelligent and a large part of their mental space is taken up by foraging for food in the wild. They deserve a little variety in captivity!
However, I do think that pellets are a good way to provide “backup” nutrition to a picky eater. I personally offer pellets at all times to my flock, though they only snack on them occasionally. I recommend using only certified organic pellets. Birds can be especially sensitive to pesticides, and organic pellets are widely available, though you may have to order through the internet to find them. I also recommend avoiding artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives.
Bird seed has acquired a pretty bad reputation in the bird world. It used to be fed as a total diet, until it was recognized that seeds simply do not provide adequate nutrition alone. Most birds will relish seeds and, if allowed, will eat them exclusive of anything else. Seeds aren’t entirely bad, but they don’t contain enough protein or essential nutrients like Calcium and Vitamin A to maintain good health. They also contain quite a bit of fat, and birds can actually become “seed junkies”, getting hooked on seeds and becoming somewhat portly! And once they get hooked, it can be difficult to get them to eat a healthy diet.
Seed Quality
Another problem with most bird seed is that it is of poor quality. Additionally there might be seeds in the mix that your bird will just never eat. You’ll also see seed that has been “fortified” with Vitamins and minerals, which are just discarded when the bird hulls the seed, and bags of seed in stores are often stored improperly leading to the seed becoming rancid.
Seed Moths
Seed moths (or flour moths) hatch out of improperly stored bird seed. These pesky critters are not dangerous to your bird, but they can quickly become a real problem in your kitchen or pantry. Seed moths breed like crazy! And once you’ve got them it’s difficult to get rid of them. Seed moth traps work well, but to prevent the moths, be sure to store your seed in airtight containers and/or freeze your seed.
Sprouting seeds is a great way to feed them! When you sprout seeds, you release all the wonderful enzymes and other nutrients, and most birds really love sprouted seeds.
I believe that a small amount of seed in the diet is fine for most birds. Ground feeders like Cockatiels and African greys may be ok with a bit more than other birds, as they naturally eat more seeds in their diet in the wild, but the jury is still out on that topic. When feeding seed, I recommend only offering it during one part of the day, such as the afternoon after the bird has already had other healthy food in the morning. Millet still on the branch is also a nice treat that most birds enjoy.
Fresh Foods
One of the best things you can do for your parrot is to feed her fresh foods. Basically, any food that is healthy for a human is healthy for a bird, too. Many parrot diseases and illnesses are diet-related. It’s very easy to feed fresh foods, so don’t let this thought overwhelm you. I work full time and really don’t like to cook and my birds eat fresh foods every day!
Nutrients in Fresh Foods
Some nutrients that are important to birds include Vitamin A (to promote healthy feathers, skin, and immune system) and Calcium (some birds, particularly African greys, have trouble metabolizing Calcium). Calcium is tricky, though, because you need to pay attention to the Calcium to Phosphorous ratio, which should be about 2:1. Too much Phosphorus will mean that your bird won’t metabolize the Calcium properly. For instance, because of all their Phosphorus, bananas are not a good choice for parrots simply because you’d have to feed them 5-7 times as much Calcium-rich foods to counteract that. Corn also has a very high Phosphorus level.
The Avian Diet
How to Feed Your Bird for Health and Happiness
The recommended avian diet has transformed since the early years of bird keeping. In the past, a dish of grocery-store seed and some fresh water was considered a fine diet! Thankfully, avian medicine has come a long way since those days, and knowledge on parrot nutrition has evolved.
There is, however, still a bit of controversy concerning what an “ideal” parrot diet should consist of. It seems that everyone is an expert, and it’s difficult to figure out exactly what you should be feeding your feathered friend. This article will discuss the differences between pelleted diets, seeds, and fresh foods, and I’ll give my recommendations on what and how much to feed your bird.
While fruits are good, many are high in natural sugars and don’t provide much nutrition to birds. They don’t need the fiber like humans do, so focus on deep-colored fruits for their great antioxidants.
Good fruits to feed:
•Papaya
•Pumpkin
•Berries
•Purple grapes
•Cantaloupe
Foods like apples, grapes, and corn don’t provide much nutrition, but they do provide a lot of sugar. Birds tend to really like them, but they’re really not so great to feed on a regular basis.
Quick Cooked Foods
Commercial parrot foods such as Beak Appetit and Crazy Corn are great ways for you to cook for your bird without putting in too much effort. Quick-cooking products often just ask you to add water, and viola! Fresh pasta, cooked veggies, and legumes!
Good Human Foods
Other fresh foods such as whole wheat pasta, unsalted and unbuttered popcorn, sugar-free oatmeal, legumes and lentils are wonderful. Be very careful feeding your bird “table scraps”! Most vets do not recommend this simply because most human diets are not so great. Some human foods can be used as treats, like mashed potatoes, but there are others that should not be fed at all.
Don't feed the following foods:
•Salty foods like chips and pretzels
•Chocolate
•Avocado (a substance in the skin is toxic to birds)
•Alcohol
•Any other human junk foods
Supplements & Feeding Schedule
Supplements
Lots of folks use supplements in their bird’s diet. This can be a good thing, or it can be a very bad thing. While a deficiency of certain Vitamins is a problem, too much of that Vitamin can be toxic (such as Vitamin A). I wouldn’t recommend using supplements unless your vet instructs you to, and teaches you how to give them properly.
Never use liquid supplements that you add to the bird’s water. This only encourages bacteria to grow and thrive. Powdered supplements are better, used on fresh foods like cut up steamed veggies and cut up fruits. Powdered supplements won’t stick to seeds.
Cuttlebones are pretty popular sources of Calcium for birds. In general they’re not harmful and birds seem to enjoy chewing on them. There are also other mineral blocks available for birds. I would check with your avian vet to see if this is something he or she recommends.
All birds should receive some full-spectrum lighting to assist them in metabolizing their nutrients. Full spectrum lighting can come directly from the outdoors (not filtered through a window pane) or from a light bulb that is full spectrum. You can find wall-mounted units or bulbs that can be placed near the bird cage and left on for a portion of the day.
Don't feed grit.Grit is also something that is still widely available at pet stores for birds, though I’m not sure why, since most exotic birds sold for pets do not need grit. In fact, grit can cause dangerous impactions that can lead to death! Don’t feed grit unless your vet specifically advised you to do so for a particular medical problem.
Treats
Go easy on those bird treats at the pet store. You know, those honey and seed sticks, bells made of seed, etc. Birds find them quite tasty, but it’s like giving a child a candy bar. Reserve these as treats only, or, better yet, make your own treats. Take half of an apple, smooth peanut butter over the cut end and dip it in seeds. Or do the same with a carrot or celery stick. Be creative, but remember to use these as infrequent treats only!
Use puzzle food treats!Parrots love to forage for food. Consider using food puzzle games, such as hiding a favorite nut (like almonds, which are high in Calcium) in a toy with a lid, or weaving leafy greens in and out of the cage bars.
Some great foods to feed are vegetables, raw or cooked. Veggies high in Vitamin A and calcium are excellent choices. Birds don’t need outside sources of Vitamin C (like humans do), so citrus foods are not especially important to their diet. Hint: Buy bags of frozen veggies! Then just take out a one portion for your bird and microwave it.
•Peppers (hot peppers, green, red and yellow bell peppers)
•Squash (the dark-flesh winter kind)
•Carrots
•Sweet Potatoes
Feeding schedule
Let me start off by saying that I think most people over-feed their birds. Birds are small! They don’t need to eat as much as we think they do. A good way to gauge how much your parrot is eating is to use a gram scale to measure how much your bird’s food dish weighs with his morning meal and then weigh it again around lunch-time to see how much is actually gone. But remember that birds are really sneaky – they like to chew on food and then toss it to the ground. So, take a look at what’s on the bottom of the cage, too.
Here’s what I recommend as an ideal feeding schedule. I’ll then give you a more scaled down version for people who aren’t home all day. Fresh water should be available all day. Don’t mix wet (fresh) and dry foods!
A good feeding schedule for most birds:
•Morning: Feed fresh foods in one dish, pellets in another.
•Mid-morning: Remove remaining fresh food so it doesn’t spoil. Refresh pellets if needed.
•Mid-afternoon: Serve a small amount of seeds in a clean bowl. For small birds like Cockatiels I’d serve maybe a teaspoon.
•Dinner-time: Remove seeds, serve more fresh foods in clean dish.
•Before bed: Remove remaining fresh foods. Refresh pellets if needed.
If you’re not home all day, I would follow this schedule:
•Morning: Serve fresh foods as soon as you get up.
•Before you leave for work: Remove remaining fresh foods so they don’t spoil.
•When you get home: Serve more fresh foods and a small amount of seeds in separate bowls.
The basic idea is to serve mostly fresh foods, taking care not to leave them in the cage for more than a few hours to avoid spoilage. Foods that have spoiled or (gasp!) grown mold on them can be very dangerous for birds, causing respiratory ailments and the like.
Your best tool in keeping your parrot healthy will be to research avian nutrition. Talk to your vet, attend bird club meetings in your area, read books on avian nutrition, and search the internet for articles on the topic.
Papaya 