Free as a bird
Well-known member
- Jul 29, 2023
- 650
- 801
- Parrots
- 2 cockatiels
My apologies for the late response, I was going for a snack run.
I was using that section to point out why all seed diets arenāt good. It said how all seed diets are not nutritious, and are high in fats- both of which arenāt good for birds. Fatty liver and malnutrition are extremely harmful.
And it wasnāt saying there wasnāt seeds in Australia, it said: āHowever, agricultural crops were not planted in Australia until some 200 years ago so the grains found in commercial seed mixes are not indigenous to the natural habitat of Australian parrots. In fact, many of these grains originate from the American continent and thus are not natural food items for African or Asiatic species either.ā
It said that many of the grains and seeds commonly found in commercial seed mixes arenāt native to Australia, as they come from America.
If you want the full nutritional section, Iāll show it here:
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Sorry I misread the part about Australia.
The thing about that theory is that it assumes that our pet birds eat as much as wild birds do, consuming more energy than they're burning. If that was the case then we would see fat budgies and tiels, that has not been my experience over the years.
Im not advocating for an ALL seed diet.
My vet said to give my tiel a seed BASED diet with fruit and veg and pellets but to try find a mix with fewer sunflower seeds.
My confusion is how some other people say "seeds are bad for birds so I feed my birds pellets instead".
Well pellets are made from seeds so that makes no sense. Interestingly the literature you posted doesn't say that, it's arguing against an all seed diet as you pointed out, and I'm ok with that.