Balanced Bird & Parrot Nutrition for Medium-sized Parrots

Please also refer to: African Greys (African Parrots) Diets … Budgies / Parakeets … Cockatiels / Lovebirds … Cockatoos … Eclectuses … Finches / Canaries … Macaw and Large Parrot Diets … Softbill / Lory Food

The diet should consist of a small to medium-sized parrot mix

I would look for preferably “organic” or at least “all-natural” dry bird mixes. “Fortified diets” are not necessarily good as often inferior, artificial additives are used, which may have no health benefit at all or indeed may even be harmful. It is far better to buy unfortified mixes and add a good quality bird supplement instead.

Dr. Harvey’s Bird Food Mixes or Lafeber are convenient options that lack many of the harmful additives that are commonly found in commercial mixes and have a great variety of quality ingredients (including dried fruits, veggies, herbs / greens and even superfoods, such as bee pollen!) – in short: myriad nourishing ingredients that are not found in other commercially available bird mixes,

However, our biggest grievance with their products is that they use sulphurated dried produce (a process which also requires chemicals), but it is very difficult to find mixes with unsulphurated fruits and veggies.

You could just buy the seeds, nuts and grain mix and buy human-grade unsulphurated dried produce / greens as well as bee pollen and mix them in. Even organic trail mixes (WITHOUT CHOCOLATE!) work great.

With a little creativity you can put a mix together that offers superior nutrition without the chemicals typically found in commercial brands.

Do keep in mind, any drix mix needs to be supplemented with various fruits, green foods, millet spray, and occasionally some mealworms (especially breeding birds) is generally regarded as suitable.

Vegetables and fruits should be part of a daily diet. This includes apples, grapes, many garden vegetables such as spinach, watercress, field lettuce, poppy, chickweed, dandelions, carrots, corn on the cob, peas, endives and sweet potatoes.

• Sprouting is an excellent way to provide nutrient-dense foods to birds who are less cooperative in eating its daily portions of fresh foods.

  • Sprouting is Easy: Step-by-step Instructions
  • You can also germinate the sprouting mix – rather than going through the process of sprouting, which may be somewhat intimidating initially. Germinated seeds offer its own unique set of valuable nutrition and are quicker to obtain and less likely to spoil.
  • Sprouting: The Easy Way

Additional proteins should be offered such as cottage cheese, hardboiled eggs or monkey chow.

Peanuts are also a valuable source of protein — however, peanuts are often contaminated with aflatoxin, a fungal toxin. Aflatoxin is carcinogenic and causes liver damage in birds and other animals. Roasting reduces aflatoxin but does not eliminate it entirely. North American peanut producers are currently working on eliminating contaminated peanuts from their products. Caution is advised when feeding peanuts. Some bird owners, opting to be on the safe side, are eliminating peanuts from their pets’ diet.

A cuttlebone, mineral block, gravel and oyster shell can be provided to provide the necessary calcium and minerals

Fresh water should be provided daily.

Food Items Not to Feed to Birds, or only in Moderation

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