What should i feed my parrot ?

In this article we are going to talk about what we should feed our parrots, when to feed them and how much to feed them.

Table of Contents

• What should we feed parrots?
• What should we not feed our parrots?
• How many times should we feed parrots?
• How much food should I give to parrot?

What should we feed parrots?

There are a lot of different ways to offer excellent nutrition to parrots. While parrots do eat seeds and nuts in the wild, they also eat a wide variety of other foods too.

Feeding them just a mixture of seeds won’t suffice. They would miss out on a lot of essential vitamins and minerals. It could lead to a drastically shorter lifespan, as well as many possible health issues.

So, here’s what the diet of your parrot should look like.

Pellets

Offering a good quality pellet is the easiest way to make sure that your parrot gets his proper nutrients. Parrots, and birds in general, get about 70% of their nutrition from pellets.

Pellets have all essential vitamins and minerals. You won’t need to buy any supplements. With supplements we have to worry about overdose and underdose, but with pellets that’s one headache we can avoid.

So, for breakfast I offer them a base diet of pellets. By base diet I mean that it’s their regular diet.

If your parrot does not like to eat pellets, then you may grind them. I have seen it to work. Sometimes, they do eat smaller size pellets more easily.

However, one downside to this approach is that parrots may find them pretty boring. So, we need to provide them some exotic food too, just to keep them happy. We all know how they start throwing their tantrums around if they are not happy!

Now, a word of caution.

You should prefer pellets from good brands, preferably those without any artificial flavours or preservatives. That is, you should go for organic pellets.

Most of the coloured pellets that you see in the market, are not good for your parrot. They have a lot of sugar, which gives them their sweet fruit flavour. Also, the colour is due to the artificial dyes.

Other downside to feeding them these coloured pellets is that, your parrot won’t like eating any other food, once they develop a taste for them. Parrots like sugary food and you will have to face a lot of stubbornness from them if you try to remove these from their diet later on.

Seeds

You can also provide seeds to your parrot. But do not make this the base diet. This is because, seeds are very high in fat, and parrots (and birds in general) tend to eat a lot of them. So, if you have placed seeds in their cage, then they will most definitely over-eat them and become overweight. Consuming excessive fat may cause them to develop fatty liver disease.

You can use seeds as treats for your parrots during training, or for foraging purposes. So, basically make your parrots earn these seeds.

You may also sprinkle these seeds on the kind of foods that your parrots don’t like. It will make them eat that food too.

Mixture of fresh vegetables

To make their diet more exciting, we should provide them a mixture of fresh vegetables, preferably in the breakfast. Have you seen parrots eating in the wild? They love eating a variety of brightly colored fresh foods.

The veggie mix may include carrot, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, squash, arugula, green beans and cabbage. To this, you may also add beets, yam, kale or parsnip.

Another word of caution.

Kindly do not heed to the advice of some bird food manufacturers, who say that whatever they are providing (pellets etc.) is sufficient for your bird. Vegetables are essential part of a parrot’s diet. Do provide them these on a daily basis.

Apart from vegetables, you may also give them fruits. But do not give them a lot of fruits, as fruits have a lot of sugar. Use fruits as special treats, rather than as regular food. Make sure that you are giving your parrot more vegetables than fruits.

What should we not feed parrots?

Now, there are a few things that you should not feed your parrot. Let’s have a look at a few of these items.

• avocados
• onions
• chocolate
• mushrooms

How many times should we feed parrots?

We should feed our parrots twice a day:

• We should give them their breakfast a few hours after sunrise, say around 9 AM and
• We should provide them dinner about six to eight hours later.

The reason behind offering two meals a day is to ensure that they’re eating their entire diet. Otherwise, if you will just keep a big bowl of food in front of them all the time, they will only eat their favourites and toss out the rest on the floor.

You should let them be hungry for sometime, wherein they look for more food. It’s natural. That’s how parrots eat in the wild too.

So, we now know what to feed our parrots and when to feed them. But how much food do they need on a daily basis? Let’s try to find the answer to this question.

How much food should I give to parrot?

The amount of food you need to give them will depend on two factors:

• The weight of a parrot - Bigger parrots will obviously need more food.
• The metabolism rate of an individual parrot - Apatite of different parrots of the same breed may vary.

To know the right amount of food a parrot needs, you should follow the following steps:

• Step 1: Initially, in the first week or so, offer them more than they can eat.
• Step 2: Watch how many leftovers they leave after an hour or so.
• Step 3: Reduce that amount of food from what you offer them the next time.

If you monitor their diet for a week or so, you will get an idea of how much food a particular parrot needs.

So, that was it. Keep note of these things and your parrot will remain healthy and fit for a long time. Let us know your tips too in the comment section.