Converting Parrots to a Healthier Diet - Tips

[MonicaMc]

Pellet paste? Where do I find the article they are talking about? Newbie with two finicky green cheeks

All it is is mixing pellets with water, to make a thick "paste". If the pellets are particularly hard (i.e. don't soak up water very well), then it may help to grind the pellets into a powder (coffee grinder anyone?) before mixing in the water.



Video again....


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIBbhF7Jk3k"]Conversion from seed to pellet (1).mp4 - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Mom2Oatty]

Wow, what an incredibly awesome thread of information. I'm not one to bring up old threads, but this one should not go without mad respect! Thanks for the hard work! Now, wish me luck! <3

 

[Scott]

Wow, what an incredibly awesome thread of information. I'm not one to bring up old threads, but this one should not go without mad respect! Thanks for the hard work! Now, wish me luck! <3

This is a thread we often link to new members soliciting information! Very much worth digging up!!

 

[carolflan]

I wouldn't worry about pellets...if you provide enough variation with the fruits and vegtables. I only recently incorporated some Roudybush into our b&g's diet - and Jack has eaten nothing but beans, fruit, veg, and nuts since we got him three years ago before this. When we run out of this 40lbs of pellet I got for free, lol - (had to freeze a lot of it, as I will only allow 12 or so pellets a day) I will continue to not worry about it. Keep in mind, I do make a birdie chop with many varied ingredients, heavy on the bean...would be glad to share this with you if you like.

Why do u only allow 12 or so pellet per day? I have a bowl full in my Galah cockatoo cage to nibble at her discretion. . Obviously I feed loads of other thing alongside including a bit of seed now and again and nuts . (Just curious )

Sent from my SM-T560 using Tapatalk

 

[Rainbird]

Wealth of information here, thankyou.
Ive recently got a red tailed black cocky and started introducing her to parrot pellets, thankfully she loves them

 

[annierose]

last week when I got Piper, she was already addicted to a seed mix and really only wanted sunflower and pumpkin seeds. making shish kabobs with fruits and veggies seems to be working regarding getting her to at least taste new foods.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/157094556@N08/40875297973/in/dateposted-public/

 

[HenrytheParakeet]

Thank you for the tips!

 

[TrebleMama]

Great thread, need to read through it a few times and process the info! We just brought our Amazon home a few days ago and he's been on the store's specialty blend, which looks like a bunch of different things. Observing him though, he definitely is picking out the dried fruit and not really eating the pellets.

We bought a few pounds of the mix when we got him, but the store is 3 hours away round trip, so I need to come up with something different for him. I'm working on getting him into a vet, to have a well check-up, so I'll write some notes down from this thread and then ask about diet recommendations when we go in!

 

[Chirpy]

This is a great thread, i havent had a chance to read it all yet but skimmed the 1st post.
I noticed you mentioned the best time to try your bird on new food is when they're their hungriest.
I only recently got a turquoise parakeet which is still young.
I always keep the seed and water in the cage for my parakeet. Even if im trying it on a new food like fruit and vegetables, the seed is there. So should I take the seed out and put whatever I'm trying it on where the seed usualy is?

 

[MonicaMc]

This is a great thread, i havent had a chance to read it all yet but skimmed the 1st post.
I noticed you mentioned the best time to try your bird on new food is when they're their hungriest.
I only recently got a turquoise parakeet which is still young.
I always keep the seed and water in the cage for my parakeet. Even if im trying it on a new food like fruit and vegetables, the seed is there. So should I take the seed out and put whatever I'm trying it on where the seed usualy is?

The short and simple answer is yes. You can always sprinkle the new food with seed to make it more appealing as well. (if you see this)

Seed can be reintroduced once the new food is removed.


Turq's should always have seeds as part of their diet. If you don't want to feed dry seeds, then feed sprouted seeds instead.

 

[H.Hikaru]

A healthy parrot starts with a healthy diet. Although the perfect diet is controversial, many parrot enthusiasts and experts agree on one thing; a seed only diet is a diet that is lacking in essential nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Studies have shown that adding fresh foods and pellets to a parrots diet can not only increase their health but may also prolong their lifespan. A healthy diet can help aid a birds immune system in keeping illnesses away. Feeding a healthy diet and having your bird eat a healthy diet can be entirely two different things! So, how do you get a seed junky, perch potato to eat healthier? In this guide, we will go through a few different techniques that you can use to get your birds eating healthier!



When deciding to change your parrots diet, it is essential to speak with your avian vet about a diet plan. Your avian vet may be able to help you set diet goals for your bird, give you tips and advice on switching over, and help you along the way. The avian vet can tell you if your parrot is underweight, overweight, or 'just right' and the a-vet can do blood work to determine if your parrot should be on a special diet. If your bird is sick, it is best to get your bird healthy before trying to make a diet change.

Make sure that you have a gram scale to weigh your bird daily. The best time to weigh your bird is first thing in the morning after the 'big bomb.' Keep a journal of your parrot's weight so you can figure out if your bird is gaining or loosing weight too quickly, or staying just right. A gram scale can help you determine if you are making the diet change at the right pace or taking things too quickly. Gram scales can be bought at any grocery store, simply look for a kitchen scale or a postal scale. Using a digital gram scale may help you keep more accurate records.

During this transitional diet, it may be advised to also keep track of what diet changes you did in your journal as well as your birds behavior throughout the day, noting how often and when your bird is eating. Keeping a journal or diary may help you spot any behavior changes and can help you determine if you are going forwards or backwards during this conversion.

Using a dye-free, natural and/or organic pellet is best. It's recommended to use pellets as 25-50% of the diet for small species, while the larger species do well with 50-75% pellets. Studies are showing that small birds fed a diet too high in pellets often suffer from kidney problems. Eclectus may do best on the Rice Diet from Roudybush or on a fresh food based diet. Parrotlets, particularly mutation parrotlets, may do best on a dye-free, organic/natural pellet or a fresh food based diet. Each bird is an individual, and what may work for one may not work for another. Getting blood panels done can tell you if you have your bird on the right diet or if additional diet changes may be required.

Hello, im a fairly new bird owner. I have a pair of lovebirds that eat just anything they can touch and they are very healthy and chaotic. I also have a 4 months old cockatiel that is extremely picky with his food, i tried a lot of method from changing on how its chopped, dry food , mixing it with his favorite food (millet) and he still dont wanna eat anything but his millet.

Problem is, he is clearly showing sign of vitamin defeciency, his feet is flaky and i even had a vet check him. He is active and reactive but lack of vitamin, they gave me a liquid vitamin which works but i wouldnt want him to eat only millet in the future. How do i convert him without him starving himself?

 

[wrench13]

MIllet is like crack for some birds! Me, I would strip the millet off the stems and serve it like that, and very gradually intermix some appropriately sized pellets. Over a month or 2, start replacing the millet with the pellets, until his dish is mostly pellets with a tiny bit of millet. If you weigh each and keep track of it, it can tell you if he is eating any of the pellets.

Tough situation, hope it works out for you!

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Sweet Treats

If there is one particular seed that your bird enjoys out of their seed mix, such as sunflower seeds, peanuts, nuts, safflower seeds, etc, remove that one favorite seed from their seed mix. Introduce a treat cup inside the cage, and two to three times throughout the day, put in 1-3 pieces of their favorite seeds. After your bird learns that this particular dish equals treats, the next time you give a piece of a treat, drop in a pellet or two. If you notice that your bird is eating the pellets along with the treats, you can increase the amount of pellets until they become a part of the diet.



Size Matters

Many birds may not find the bigger sized pellets appealing enough to try. This is especially so with budgies and cockatiels who may prefer seed sized pellets instead of the larger ones. Some species may prefer larger sized pellets over the smaller ones. Green cheek conures can eat either the cockatiel sized pellets or the conure sized pellets. If you are having an issue getting your bird to eat pellets, try a larger or smaller sized pellet to get them eating. Some large parrots have been known for enjoying the smaller sized pellets.

If you can find millet colored pellets, you can try buying some millet sized pellets and mixing the two together. Once the birds finishing eating the millet they might try the pellets since it's "somewhat" similar in size and color.



Juicy Supreme

Many parrots may find that pellets are too dry and uninteresting. To spruce things up, try adding some water or fruit juice to the pellets. Birds who enjoy dipping their pellets may be less inclined to make "parrot soup" if their pellets are already moistened a bit!

What I like about Harrison's high potency super fine granules for my Budgies is that they are the size of hulled millet and ground millet is one of the main ingredients (plus all the "good stuff" you want your bird to eat) so it tastes good to them. I mixed them with my baby Rocky's baby formula the last two weeks of hand feeding to give it texture and he weaned onto them. He also wants to eat ANYTHING I'm eating! Unfortunately he also wants to eat the food on our plates even when I make him his own dish!

 

[TheBirdGuy]

Sprouty Goodness

Many parrots love seeds and may quickly take to eating sprouts. Sprouting seeds can be bought at a health food store, some parrot stores, as well as online stores. Here's a list of seeds you can use to sprout.



Grains

• Wheat
• Wheatgrass
• Quinoa
• Millet
• Whole oats
• Hulless Barley
• Spelt
• Kamut
• Amaranth
• Wild Rice
• Brown Rice
• Hulless Oats
• Rye
• Teff

Legumes

• Mung
• Lentils
• Adzuki
• Chick peas
• Whole peas

Seeds

• Sunflower Seeds
• Clover
• Alfalfa
• Broccoli
• Arugula
• Radish
• Fenugreek
• Pumpkin Seeds
• Raw Buckwheat
• Chia
• Sesame Seeds
• Flax
• Fennel
• Mustard Seeds

When sprouting legumes, only use lentils, adzuki, chick peas (garbanzo beans), or peas, and sprout until the tails are 1/4-1/2" in length. Larger beans must be fully cooked and not sprouted. Most sprouts are fine to feed after 1-5 days, depending on length of sprouting times. Whether you buy premixed sprouting seeds or create your own mix, the goal is to get your bird eating sprouts. Sprouts can be left within the cage for several hours. Once the sprouts are ready to be fed, start feeding them! If your bird readily eats the sprouts, after a week, you can start adding in 1-2 finely chopped vegetables. You might try carrots, bell peppers, broccoli, steamed sweet potatoes, corn, cilantro, hot peppers, etc. If you notice your bird starting to eat the vegetables in addition to the sprouts, more vegetables can be added to the sprout mix. Once they are eating the sprout mix well, you can also add in some healthy sprouted and/or cooked grains and legumes, with a small amount of fruits.

Can you turn all the font white in this post? It is not easy to see against the dark background of the forum.

 

[TheBirdGuy]

Add to the dishes

"Cake" bit - just flattened out

And the birds eating it!

Just to add into this....


These were not all my ideas. Quite a few came from other members/people, and these ideas have been gathered through the years so I can't credit everyone properly, but I want to say thanks to everyone out there for "helping me" put this together, even if you were/are unaware of what information I was storing for later use! Couldn't have done it without you guys!



The pellet paste is actually from Vetafarm itself and is the only source I can credit with all due respect. Here is the video!

[ame=[MEDIA=youtube]-zWTxD8Bcw0[/MEDIA] - Conversion from Seed to pellet - YouTube[/ame]​

If anyone else has any other ideas on how to convert a parrot over to a better diet, or would like to expand on something previously mentioned (do you have pictures that would help? or perhaps more information for a specific one already posted?) then please fill free to let me know and I can add it in!

So you are saying to crush my pellets into powder then mix into seeds and add water to compact it then let it dry into something that resembles seed cake?

 

[TheBirdGuy]

So what I do is add some seed at the bottom of the bowl, roudybush crumble on top of the seed and then bleanded baby carrots, kale, spinach or what ever veggie I plan to add to the top of the crumble. This way they eat their fav veggies first then have to forage through the crumble to get to the seed below which usually means they eat the crumble. In the end it works aside from a few budgies who become bowl obsessed and get super fat. Then I have to move them to diff cages and feed them a liver support roudybush food, cut seeds out and they get just crumble, veggies and milk thistle. Till they drop their weight (which takes forever).

 

[rheashard2]

A trick that can work is this. Eat something that resembles what you want them to eat. Look like you're enjoying it. Birds being flock oriented will be more willing to give it a try.