Call us 513-791-7912
  MONTGOMERY ANIMAL HOSPITAL
  • Home
  • Covid-19
  • What is AAHA?
  • Services
  • Our Team
  • Tour
  • Contact
  • Videos
  • Blog
  • Shop Now
  • Resources
  • Home
  • Covid-19
  • What is AAHA?
  • Services
  • Our Team
  • Tour
  • Contact
  • Videos
  • Blog
  • Shop Now
  • Resources

How to feed your pet parrot

3/15/2016

5 Comments

 
Picture

We love our birds, and want to give our pets the best food to keep them as healthy as possible. Here’s the bad news: there is no single diet on the market that you can scoop from a bag and be done. But don’t be discouraged. The good news is that there are great diets available for our birds, and it’s easy to supplement them with a variety of healthy foods that you have right in your own kitchen.

Why don’t we have a single perfect diet? That’s a great question - and the answer comes from our birds themselves. Our pet parrot species originate all over the world, and each adapted to their native habitats. So a wild cockatoo from Australia is eating a completely different variety of plants than an amazon from Brazil. Then, each individual bird’s nutritional needs change over time: a mature adult needs far fewer calories per day than a growing chick, and an egg-laying hen needs far more calcium than when she’s not reproducing. Lastly, think of how smart and social your bird is - they often form strong food preferences in the first months of their lives, and self preservation instincts can prevent them from trying new foods (think about those poisonous berries out in the wild - the birds that survive are the cautious ones who only eat what their flock-mates are eating).

Can’t birds just eat seeds? Nope. Seeds are high in fat and deficient in many vitamins. They’re pretty much the bird equivalent of eating at McDonald’s every day: delicious, but so not healthy.
So, what’s the recipe for success?
  • Start with a high quality pelleted diet designed for your bird. This should make up 60-75% of your bird’s daily intake. Good brands include Harrison’s, Roudybush, and Zupreem.
  • Next, offer fresh food daily. This should be 20-30% of your parrot’s daily diet, and includes fruits, vegetables, greens, and cooked beans or pulses (like lentils). Variety is key here - change up your bird’s salad ingredients frequently to ensure a balanced diet. Organic produce is best, but if not available make sure to rinse thoroughly and peel when possible to decrease pesticide residue.
  • Last, up to 10% of your parrot’s diet can be treats: seeds, nuts, dairy (like hard cheeses), and processed grains like bread, crackers, cereal, and pasta.
  • Remember, AVOID avocados, chocolate, rhubarb, onions, and all the pits of stone fruits. These are toxic to parrots.
  • Quantity counts too: a budgie needs only 12-16 Calories per day, while a large macaw tops out around 220 Calories per day.

Parrots don’t need grit or cuttlebones. While many cockatiels will happily ingest small quantities and be perfectly fine, some individuals will swallow large pieces of cuttlebone or too much grit and obstruct their intestinal tract. Parrots hull their seeds before swallowing, so they don’t need grit to break down seeds like pigeons and doves do. That’s also the reason that fortified seed mixes aren’t as healthy as the marketing would have you believe - the added vitamins get left in the seed cup along with the hull.

Help - my bird only eats seeds! What do I do?
This plan applies to any new food - fresh or pellets - whether we’re starting with an all seed diet or just trying to add some variety to a more healthy diet.
  • Start with a vet exam - we never want to abruptly change a sick bird’s diet.
  • Train your bird to meal-feed on the current food (this means getting rid of the full seed cup and measuring how much your bird eats in a given day - then divide this amount into two or three portions).
  • Add a small amount of new food and limit the quantity of old food at each meal (start with 25% new at the very most), then gradually increase the proportion of new food; OR, feed the new food for breakfast, with no old food, and then offer the old food at lunch and dinner. Gradually increase the time until the old food is offered as your bird eats more of the new foods.

Be patient and DON'T GIVE UP!
Parrots are naturally suspicious creatures, and it usually takes over 20 times of seeing a particular food before they will accept it.
  • The transition can take YEARS. Be glad that bird servings are tiny - you will throw away many, many untouched meals.
  • Never try to force your bird - they are quite capable of starving themselves to death.
  • Monitor stool production - if it decreases then your bird may not be eating enough and you need to go more slowly (but color change and some large soft stools can be normal when introducing fresh fruits/veggies).
  • Some birds will never reach “ideal” diet, but even accepting one or two new foods is worth the trouble.

Tips and tricks for seed addicts:
  • Offer a small amount of new food at a time (one piece can be more enticing than a pile).
  • Mix grated veggies in with seeds - even if your bird picks through and only eats the seeds, at least he or she will be on her way to those 20 tastes. Remember to swap out for clean dry seeds after an hour to avoid spoilage.
  • Play with Texture
    • finely chop vegetables or grate them in food processor - or offer huge hunks to large birds
    • mash cooked foods
    • switch between raw, thawed from frozen, or cooked (avoid canned unless salt-free and thoroughly rinsed)
    • for pellets, try blending them to dust and adding to a favorite food, or softening the pellets in water, tomato sauce, juice, applesauce, etc.
  • Vary the color - most pellet colors actually taste the same, but many birds prefer red.
  • Spice it up - many birds love heavily spiced foods. Try cinnamon, chili powder (or whole chili peppers), cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper, etc. Make sure to use spices with no added salt.
  • Model good eating habits - cut a slice of your apple and hand it to your bird, or take a bite of that pellet. Some birds will try new foods when invited into the dining room but not when hanging out in their cage by themselves.
  • Try LaFeber’s Nutriberries - these make a great transition diet for seed junkies. They consist of hulled seeds in a vitamin-enriched matrix. Warm gently in the microwave and break them into seed-sized bites for quicker acceptance, since most seed-eating small birds don’t want to work hard enough to pry the seeds out from the ball at first.

With lots of patience and persistence, your bird can learn to enjoy a variety of foods. Not only is a balanced diet the foundation for a healthy pet, but you'll get to have fun at mealtime with your feathered friend, too.

Photo credit Geek2Nurse, www.flickr.com

5 Comments
navigate to this website link
4/17/2017 06:27:45 am

Just like human beings go through various sicknesses and ailments during their life span, animals also suffer with blood pressure, heart problems, ulcers, arthritis, skin problems etc. Taking care of a pet is as important as caring for a human, in fact more risky or precarious because they cannot communicate their problems like people do, we need to look for signs of distress or pain in them to realise that there is some problem.

Reply
custom writing essays rushessay.com link
9/14/2017 08:49:22 pm

I don’t have a parrot but I do take care of some of love birds. I thought that it is enough to feed my birds with seeds because it is far cheaper and lasts longer. I then realized my birds weren’t active anymore and doesn’t want to eat. They look very sick and when I checked on them the other day, one of my birds was dead. I came to search on the internet the possible causes of my bird’s death. I saw an article about the unhealthy facts about seeds and what was the right food and diet that should be given to them. Now I have a new bird and I always monitor their diet.

Reply
african parrot link
7/21/2019 06:10:37 pm

Hey there, We are Parrot Lovers Community and specifically African grey parrot! We are trying to provide you the new way to look to this amazing space African
African Parrot Grey
The best guide to adopt (african grey) this wonderful pet bird .

You will find all the information concerning regarding parrots especially African Grey Parrot Grey Congo Parrot.
Everything you need to know about parrots health ,diet ,nutrition food, cage size, and Parrot toys, care,breeding, talking parrot, Parrot Flight Training,parrot behavior problems,african grey personality,ways to socialize and training the african grey,teach the parrot to talk,What parrot makes the best pet,Why do they mimic human speech,Facts About African Grey Parrots

African Parrot Grey is your bridge to the parrot world African Grey,Congo, Timneh, Macaw Cockatoo,Amazon,Electuse,Lovebird,Galah,Sun conure,Cockatiel.

https://african-parrot.com/

Reply
Christa Klose
8/5/2020 12:56:24 pm

Cassia/Chinese cinnamon is NOT SAFE because of extremely high levels of coumarin, a blood thinner that is toxic and can cause liver damage or failure.

Reply
Dr. Krumanaker link
8/6/2020 02:33:45 pm

Hi Christa,
You are correct that Cassia cinnamon contains coumarin, although most birds can handle small amounts of the powdered spice mixed into their bird bread occasionally without any ill effects. Ceylon Cinnamon is a safe cinnamon if your birds like to chew on the cinnamon sticks and would be exposed to larger quantities.
Thank you for your comment!
Dr. Krumanaker

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Dr. Krumanaker

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Birds
    Cats
    Diseases
    Dogs
    Fleas And Ticks
    Food And Nutrition
    Pet Care
    Pet Dangers To Avoid

    Archives

    December 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015

    RSS Feed

Office Hours

  • Monday 7:30 am to 6:00 pm
  • Tuesday 7:30 am to 6:00 pm
  • Wednesday 7:30 am to 6:00 pm
  • Thursday 7:30 am to 6:00 pm
  • Friday 7:30 am to 6:00 pm
  • Saturday 8:00 am to 2:00 pm
  • Sunday Closed

Montgomery Animal Hospital

7670 Montgomery Rd
Cincinnati, OH 45236
Phone: (513) 791-7912
AAHA, veterinarian, animal hospital, pet hospital

After Hours Care

Your pet care needs occurring after  business hours can be addressed by one of the local veterinary emergency hospitals.
  • MedVet (Fairfax): (513) 561-0069, 3964 Red Bank Rd.
  • C.A.R.E. Center (Sharonville/Montgomery): (513) 530-0911, 6995 E. Kemper Rd. 
Site powered by Weebly. Managed by IDEXX Laboratories
Photos used under Creative Commons from GemWebb, Sister72, rubyfenn