As a person who has had parrots most of my adult life, who has consulted with more than one highly reputable avian vets in my state & who also currently has been working over 10 yrs. for an animal hospital & does wild bird rehab, this is my understanding of the many opinions of the proper food for captive parrots: yes, depending on the species of the bird & their native habitat, they will have different natural dietary differences which reflects the food available to them in the wild. Amazon parrots eat different things than Australian grass parakeets for example (who naturally eat more seeds & are typically ground foragers). The tropical birds like macaws obviously eat a larger amount of nuts & a good majority will eat various native fruits & some greens & clay for minerals. One thing that is a huge difference though, is that ALL of them naturally fly for miles each day. They can eat a lot of seeds & nuts & sugar from fruits, but it gets burned off daily. The captive parrot rarely flies at all. Even a free flying bird in an aviary is restricted to very little flight in comparison. Also the amount that most people feed their parrots daily is usually very excessive, which people often don't realize. For example, the total amount of food a captive conure should be getting a day (this includes veggies, seeds, & pellets, chop, etc.-all of it), is really only around 3-4 tablespoons. To give an entire single grape to a conure is similar to the equivalent sugar wise of giving a whole small cake to a person at one sitting. If you give a conure a walnut it should really only be the size of a pencil eraser (per what my avian vet has told me). People make the mistake of giving their birds several whole nuts a day. So, regardless of what you are feeding them, they are usually eating excessive fat, calories & sugars/carbs each day. It is the equivalent of a couch potato person who doesn't exercise, or their only exercise is walking around a bit who eats a lot of sweets, fats, & carbs. THIS, over years = the health problems we see in parrots from fatty liver disease to kidney issues to gout & high uric acid levels. The consumption of high oxalate veggies & estrogenic foods (which people never seem to talk about) can also be very problematic if they are eating it all the time for years. I personally have a big issue with the pellets that are available because usually the first 2 ingredients are always cornmeal & soymeal, neither of which are natural for birds to be eating daily & in such amounts! Corn is high carb/low nutrition. Soy-no birds naturally go around eating soybeans-& they are estrogenic & can cause hormonal issues. They also can cause skin issues, allergy issues, which in turn can lead to plucking. I personally believe pellets should not be given as the primary food source, but more like 30% of the overall diet because of what they are made of. There are a couple brands that don't have corn or soy & these may be safer options. I would like to add that Tops pellets are not at all nutritionally complete & since they are mainly alfalfa, can be very problematic over time. I just learned from one avian vet who has had lots of patients coming in w/kidney issues due to feeding Tops because alfalfa has too much phosphorous for birds to naturally process & it is hard on the kidneys. She said no alfalfa pellets, so people should be aware of Tops. Harrison's has alfalfa in it, but maybe ingredient #10 on their list, so in smaller quantities. Harrison's has almost the same ingredients as Roudybush, however Roudybush processes their pellets differently & are harder to digest for birds (what that same avian vet told me). I don't like either due to corn & soy being their main ingredients. Both gave one of my birds an allergic reaction after eating them for a long time & another got diarrhea & can no longer digest them. I switched her diet though & she is fine w/no corn/no soy now. The issue of seeds is this-to my understanding. Seeds are a high calorie/high fat food. Not as high as nuts though. Seeds in large amounts daily with little exercise over years is what is problematic. They also aren't nutritionally complete on their own. So, it's not that seeds are bad, but eating lots of seeds & nuts daily raises cholesterol levels & will cause fatty liver disease in birds. One must adjust the amount they are feeding their birds depending on their size, their activity level (which is super low compared to in the wild-this is couch potato compared to olympic athlete training)! A regular sedentary person cannot eat like a weight lifter doing a dozen eggs & 6 chicken breasts daily either, or you will get kidney problems. Same concept with birds. People tend to forget these are little creatures. Their stomach is the size of small grape or chickpea & we tend to give them like 3/4 c. of food a day. They sit around & get bored so they eat more than they normally ever would. Abundance of food & fats & carbs stimulate nesting & mating signals. The connections are obvious. I believe it's in everyone's best interest as a bird owner to really think about how they live in the wild, where they live, their natural behaviors, & realize that all captive birds are technically cough potatoes even if they free fly daily. We simply can't provide them the miles of flying & calorie burning they really need to thrive physically, so feed them wisely. Balanced diet with veggies, but limit the high carb ones like sweet potatoes & corn, limited fruits & smaller portion sizes because of the sugars, smarter ingredient pellets & maybe less of them & don't overdue the seed & keep it to better seeds like millet & not sunflower. Nuts in moderation as a daily foraging treat & portion size aware. Good fat nuts like walnut is better-ditch the peanuts! NO PEOPLE FOOD TABLE SCRAPS! The worst thing is giving them stuff they shouldn't eat like pizza & pasta & things w/sauces & fries & chips & cookies, etc. Just the salt alone in such things can really cause harm. Stay wise, stay proactive, always read ingredients & opt. for organic always & even then always wash your produce & peel the skins. Seeds are not bad for birds. They need to eat seeds, but captive birds don't need to eat a lot of seeds. 1 teaspoon a day for something like a conure is enough for their little bodies.
I should probably pay better attention.
No I wouldn’t say anything to someone about their diet. I’ve struggled with my weight my entire adult life, and it’s not because I’ve ever been too thin.
