Converting Parrots to a Healthier Diet - Tips

[MonicaMc]

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.

 

[MonicaMc]

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.

 

[MonicaMc]

Mash-terpiece

One issue with getting birds to eat a healthier diet is that many birds enjoy a variety over something that appears plain and dull. I've noticed this especially with my own flock. A dish of cooked rice or a couple of pieces of vegetables can appear quite "boring" to the eye and not very interesting. Making up a batch of mash can intrigue those birds who love variety! A base mash diet consists of 30% grains, 15% legumes, 45% vegetables, and 10% fruits. The grains can be fed cooked or sprouted with the legumes cooked or sprouted with at least 1/4" tails. If using the larger legumes, be sure to fully cook these.

Do not sprout large beans due to the toxins not fully released when sprouting. Most vegetables can be fed raw or steamed, or you can even choose to use frozen vegetables. Be sure to steam potatoes if you feed any. Fresh, organic fruits are best, although frozen fruits can be used as an alternative.

Cook or sprout the grains and legumes separately. For your smaller birds, you may want to chop up the legumes. Vegetables can be chopped finely, diced, sliced, julienned, chopped into chunks, or even run through the food processor. Fruits can be chopped or sliced. Once all the ingredients are prepared, mix them together. Feed to your birds first thing in the morning and leave inside the cage for 2-6 hours, shorter periods of time if you have to deal with heat and humidity.

Your birds may ignore the mash for a day or two, but most birds will try the mash after a few days due to the variety of foods. You can help entice them to eat the mash by mixing in a small amount of seeds or sprouts.

 

[MonicaMc]

Ingenuity

If you own a curious parrot who will check out anything in their cage, you can try taking leafy greens or strips of carrots and weaving them in-between the cage bars, hanging the food from the top of the cage like a toy, or even putting pieces of fruits and vegetables onto a kabob. The curious bird may decide to take a nibble, and if it tastes good, eat some of the bounty!

If that doesn't work, there's always the option of making corn bread with fruits, veggies, and even pellets mixed in. A homemade cornbread is healthier than some of the pre-mixed ones. If making cornbread or muffins, finely chop or dice the fresh foods you are going to add. To mix things up, you can use apple juice instead of water.

Mirrors are not recommended due to the psychological and possible physical damages that they can cause, although many people report great success putting a dish on the floor of the cage and putting fresh foods or pellets on top of the mirror. The birds, curious, peck around the top of the dish and eventually try some of the food.

Birds are often flock creatures, and most being curious, may be willing to try whatever you are eating. This can be as simple as eating food in front of them and sharing it, to making yummy delicious sounds as you eat, acting like you are going to share, hog the food, make the bird jealous, then finally sharing for the bird gets extremely curious as to what it is you are eating that is so good that you cannot share the food. Anyone up for a dish of pellets?

Another idea is to act like you are picking through the birds food using your fingers. Some owners have reported having great success with this technique.

 

[MonicaMc]

Morning Feed

Often times, the best times to introduce new food is when the birds are hungriest. This is usually first thing in the morning and in the afternoon or
evenings. At night, remove any and all foods from the cages when your bird goes to bed. First thing in the morning offer the birds new food in their current dishes. Leave the new food for 2-3 hours before removing and replacing with their old food. Repeat every day until you see your bird eating the food.



Controlled Cold Turkey - The Roudybush Way

This method may be used with finicky, resistant birds that are starting out at a normal or excessive body weight. Remove all the old diet and fill the feeders with pellets. If you have the ability to weigh your bird, weigh first thing in the morning on the day of the switch. Weigh your bird every morning.

If your bird looses more than 3-5% of its body weight, put it back on its old diet for 1-2 weeks, then try the switch again. If you are unable to weigh your bird, change the cage papers the day you make the switch and do not use litters, so you can evaluate droppings. If the fecal part of the dropping is small and dark green or black or if the droppings have no fecal portion, it means your bird is not eating. You can go for two full days for small species of birds and three full days for large species of birds. If your bird's droppings are still anorexic at the end of the switch period, put your bird back on his old diet for 1-2 weeks and then try the switch again. Most birds will switch the first time. The most finicky birds may take three attempts.



From Seeds to Pellets - The Roudybush Way

This technique works with birds that will try and eat many different foods. Mix 3/4 of the original diet with 1/4 of the Roudybush pellets or crumbles. Feed this mixture for one to two weeks. Increase the proportion of Roudybush to 1/3 and feed for one to two weeks. Continue increasing the proportion of Roudybush. When you reach 3/4 or more of Roudybush, change the cage papers and do not use litter so you can evaluate droppings. If you see anorexic droppings (see description above in Controlled Cold Turkey), add more of the original diet for a week or two. This method is slower, but safer for those owners who cannot closely monitor their birds.

 

[MonicaMc]

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!

 

[MonicaMc]

Pellet Paste



Get some dye-free pellets and crush them in a coffee blender or food processor until they are dust. Then mix 50/50 with a basic (preferably, dye-free) seed mix. Before you feed, add a small amount of water to make a thick paste. If you get the consistency right, you can make pellet/seed balls, or even "seed cakes" with the stuff, or the pellet paste can be fed 'as is'. Even if your bird doesn't eat the crushed/wet pellets, so long as your bird will dig through the stuff to find the seeds to eat them they will still be tasting the pellets. Do this for about a week.



After a week is up, make the same recipe again, only before you feed it, add in some dried pellets and do this for another week. You can slowly increase the amount of dry pellets while decreasing the amount of wet pellets, and eventually your bird may eat the dry stuff, too!







Seed mix (Sweet Harvest Budgie mix)

Pellets (Roudybush Maintenance Mini)

Pellets in a coffee blender

Pellets being grounded down to a dust

The pellet dust

50/50 Seeds and Pellets

The seeds/pellets divided into daily containers

Some water

Mix a tiny amount of water (you don't want it runny) with the pellets and seeds.

 

[MonicaMc]

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=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zWTxD8Bcw0]Vetafarm - 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!

 

[Eloy]

Great article!
Can not believe no one has commented before.

 

[MonicaMc]

Great article!
Can not believe no one has commented before.

No biggy if no one comments as long as someone finds the information within this thread useful.

 

[aliray]

Great article I have bookmarked it for further reading. thank you for sharing

 

[George gourlay]

This is interesting i had never thought of removing the food after a time this may help my situation i am having to feed small drops of fruit, due to any that Azarra leaves is atracting small flies. So i hadnt thought to remove the fruit bowl after she has had her breakfast and just leave the fresh seed and water, must try that tomorrow as the flies appear from nowhere and are most annoying...

 

[MonicaMc]

With fruit flies around, you don't want to leave fresh food out for more than an hour or two anyway.

You might try leaving out some apple cider vinegar in a container and adding a couple of drops of soap to it. Better yet, a container with a lid or cover with holes in it! Worked wonders when I had a horrible fruit fly infestation! (except mine didn't have a cover over it... so it took longer to kill all of them as some flew out when startled...)

If ACV isn't available, you can always use wine... I don't drink alcohol in any form, and I wasn't allowed to use any of the wine, either.... lol

Another option is leaving out a bag of leftover fruits/veggies in a zip lock bag. Leave it out overnight and zip it close in the morning and toss. Repeat until gone.

 

[George gourlay]

Yip i do the ACV trick when necessary in a cut 2 Ltr bottle with the top half cut and turned upside down in the bottom to make the trap i also spray ( beaphar defest spray ) inside the opening and it kills the stragglers instantly....

 

[happycat]

So many good ideas! At least one of these has to work. Thanks!

 

[AngelicaandBandit]

Thanks for this article and video! I am currently having trouble converting my RB2 into a pellet diet. I have Vetafarm

 

[MonicaMc]

Best of luck! I hope something helps!

 

[Mommajack]

My Rudy, who is 4 months old, refuses to eat pellets at all. What exactly is in them? They don't eat pellets in the wild, so if I give him enough seed, nuts, fruits and veggies are they absolutely necessary?

I got Rudy June 8th. I noticed that he only ate sunflower seeds out of his seed bowl and nothing else, but he was quite happy to eat the fruit and veggies I gave him. I have since had the opportunity to visit the people's house who had raised him, and saw that they gave their birds a seed diet of what looked like 80% sunflower seeds They did hand feed him, so I don't know how long he was actually eating solid food, but it couldn't be too long, right? At any rate, he was popping sunflower seeds like candy so I now manually pick out all but a few from his feed when I give it to him, in the hopes he will eat the rest.

Now he picks out the safflower seeds and nothing else, except the few sunflower seeds and other bits I've added in >.<

I try to give him a varied diet of fruit and veggies, in different combinations each time. For fruit he's given watermelon with the seeds, honeydew, cantaloupe, dehydrated cranberries, frozen black raspberries, apples without their seeds, plums, and occasionally a bit of pineapple.

For veggies he gets dried chilies, raw broccoli and cauliflower, mashed sweet potato, cooked green beans and corn, cooked English peas, fresh snap peas, raw bell pepper, fresh cucumber and tomatoes, fresh yellow squash and zucchini, and occasionally a little bit of frozen spinach.

I also give him cooked pasta, almonds or almond meal, crushed flax seed meal, pumpkin seeds, sugar/salt free wheat squares, raw rolled oatmeal, and occasionally cheerios and bits of boiled egg with a bit of shell. Every once in a while I give him a little bit of a flour tortilla. When I give the almond and flax seed meal, I add it in with the fruit and veggie bowl so that it sticks to everything and doesn't just settle to the bottom. He also gets a bit of cinnamon stick to gnaw on.

I have purchased some fresh mint sprigs and walnuts but haven't tried to give him any yet. I tried giving him raw carrots and he hates them, I will try them cooked later. He also hates rye bread and cooked Lima beans. I haven't tried any other kind of bean yet. I do heat up everything before I give them to him.

Is his diet varied enough? Should I just keep offering him pellets? He is really hungry in the morning and wants fruit and veggies all day, which I give him twice a day, but I keep the pellets in front of him 24/7. He occasionally goes and picks something out of the pellet bowl, but it's obviously just the other stuff I've added (pumpkin seeds, etc.). He preens and has normal looking poop, and plays like a healthy bird should.

So should I worry about the pellets?

 

[JerseyWendy]

You wondered what are in pellets? Have a look at this, please

http://www.parrotforums.com/general-parrot-information/28242-ingredients-pellets.html

 

[jacksmom]

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.