You should aim to feed your bird a daily variety of foods which results in a low
fat, high carbohydrate diet. Good bird foods will have these details written on
each packet of food. The ideal is a diet which is about 12% protein, and not more
than 10% fat. Carbohydrate should be about 75% .Some seed mixes are totally inadequate.
Loose pet shop seed is usually of very poor quality and should never be fed to
parrots. All seed-only mixes are inadequate as a complete food, so if you are
feeding a seed mix you should supplement the diet with fresh fruit and vegetables,
sprouted seeds and pulses, and a vitamin supplement.
A diet of mainly sunflower seed and peanuts will be about 60% fat. Some parrots
pick these out of a mix and leave the rest uneaten. Too many sunflower seeds and
peanuts usually causes chronic health problems including Vitamin A deficiency.
This can eventually cause respiratory disease, beak, and claw problems, poor plumage,
poor skin on feet, runny nose, and swollen eyes.
Parrots on a poor diet often also suffer from calcium deficiency. The birds become
quiet and inactive with drooping wings culminating eventually in seizures. This
is particularly common among birds kept indoors with no access to sunlight.
You should get advice from a specialist avian vet if your bird has been on the
wrong diet. It will be necessary to take a blood sample to determine calcium levels.
Ask the vet to check at the same time for zinc levels. Discuss changing to a complete
pellet food or to a species-specific mix. There are also seasonal foods and special
breeding, hand rearing and weaning foods. Rob Harvey Specialist Feeds sells all
kinds - 01420 23986 or www.robharvey.com
Also try Avian Specific on 01243 755753. The other possibility is to try Dietek
UK which sells a 5 kilo pack of species specific seed, supplementary fruit and
sprouting seed mix and mash 01723 379201.
Change over from the old seed to the new food slowly. Feed nine tenths old mix
with one tenth new mix, and add one tenth more seed mix each week ten weeks
changeover. Don't let the parrot just pick out some of the seeds. It's not always
easy to change birds over from seed to complete food or even to a new mix. You
cannot starve a bird into eating it will die if it fails to feed at least
twice a day.
Here are some different methods that you can try.
Mix a little of the new food with the old food, and when you see your bird
eating some of the new food, increase the proportion.
If you are trying a complete pelleted food, moisten it with water or fruit
juice, and add some of the old seed. While the bird is picking out the seed
it will get a taste of the complete food. Decrease the liquid generally until
you are feeding only the dry complete diet. If you are using this method,
the damp food should be removed from the cage every 4-6 hours.
Eating is a social activity in parrots. If your bird is trained in basic
obedience, you can encourage it to eat new foods by getting it to copy you.
In this situation, you should eat (or pretend to eat) the new foods yourself
in front of the bird. This is best done, initially, out of sight of the cage.
HOW CAN I GIVE MY PARROT MORE VARIETY IN ITS FOOD?
Use varying food to give your bird something to do. Give fresh corn on the cob,
pomegranates, and peas in the pod, fruit, vegetables and a small amount of whole
nuts, are good for large parrots. Try apples, bananas, pomegranates, carrots,
celery, sprouts, green/French beans, peas in the pod, sweet potato, and broccoli.
Soaked and sprouted bean mix chickpeas, black-eye beans, mung beans
do a little at a time every day and throw out any uneaten food after 4 hours.
