Parrotlets? What do you feed yours?

Just wondering what kind of diet each of you use for your parrotlets or similar birds? Treats?

I feed mine the same as I do my Senegal. Except Rio gets Harrison's peppered and Kiwi gets Harrison's HP fine, both get fresh fruits and veggies daily.

I have owned parrotlets in the past, they seem to be looked over in feeding requirements.

there seems to be plenty of food for most species of birds except them.

I fed mine a little of everything, cockatiel,conure,lovebird seed, but 60% of their diet was vegetables,grains,leafy greens, the rest was 10% for fruits.

remember parrotlets are not suppose to have pellets(I can't recall exactly why, however I remember reading it)

In my research I've come across the recommendation of a high quality cockatiel seed and veggies/greens/fruits similar to a larger parrot. Never owned one though, so I can't say for sure. I know seeds aren't supposed to be the largest part of their diet.

It's because a high pelleted diet can lead to kidney failure in parrotlets, specifically those that are a mutation or possibly even split to a mutation.

Normal green parrotlets supposedly do better on pellets than their mutation counterparts... but some birds really do best without pellets in their diets.


Rather than feeding dry seeds, you can always feed sprouted seeds. Incorporate vegetables, some fruits, grains, healthy legumes, etc. into the diet!

I have a parrotlet who has been sick. I just found out today about the goldenfeast recall. I called My Safe Bird Store to ask about his food, because when they repackage it, they do not print the manufacturers use by date on the label, so I had no way to know if his food was safe. An employee told me THEY had no way to tell this either! I got realyy upset, cause I had spent over $150 on food with them. I asked to speak to the owner. When she finally called me back, she told me his food was not affected. Then spent 10 minutes complaining about how busy she was because of all the pet owners calling and emailing about this. I tried to tell her if the date had been on the package, I would not have had to call. She got VERY rude, and told me she is a small business and doesnt have time for "all of that". I told her I was a customer, and didn't appreciate being worried about my birds food potentially killing him. The good news is, she will have some extra time on her hands now, as I will never order from them again.

birdmom, sorry you did not have a good experience with MSBS! She sent out an e-mail that put two blends of their's that was affected.

Here's the message about it...
Goldenfeast Foods Recall UPDATE


When I called and asked about a specific blend of Goldenfeast that she had in stock, she said that she typically doesn't carry it but has been getting a lot of requests for it. She mentioned how Goldenfeast is full of fillers and if they are out of an item that goes in one blend then they'll just toss something else into it, has a bunch of seed in it which she didn't like that, and how it has clumps of stuff in it. I can completely understand that! A lot of it is true. There are some things in the blends that not even I can identify! But I'm not feeding just Goldenfeast... I'm feeding other foods as well! When she got the other blend in, she sent me an e-mail so I could go and order it! (not that I've had a chance to...)


I could have gone without what she said, but I could also see her point of view. So far I have ordered 3 different blends of GF from her and only one of the items wasn't repacked, because I intentionally bought the large bag! Items shipped typically come in quickly and everything is wrapped with care, as if it's a gift. When I ordered for Jayde, before I got her, I received 3 "baby" gift bags! I thought that was so cool!








I suspect that Kathie is currently going through a lot of stress with people freaking out about the Goldenfeast recall and she's getting a lot of phone calls and e-mails about it.... not to mention this weekend and next weekends big sales she's doing. It may not have been right of her if she took it out on you, but she's probably very busy right now and stressed trying to make sure that she didn't sell a bad product to her customers.