17/07/2018
Diet for parrots
By Tony Silva
In the 1980s, many parrots fell ill and died. When these birds were necropsied by a veterinarian, either malnutrition or disease linked to malnutrition was the most typical cause of mortality. At the time most parrot owners fed a parrot seed mix, which contained sunflower seeds, peanuts, corn, milo, chili peppers, corn kibble and a few other ingredients. Sunflower seeds formed the bulk of these mixes and they along with the peanuts were the primary diet of caged parrots. Some bird owners fed fruits and vegetables but seeds were the predominant element in the diet.
In the 1990s the word in aviculture was that sunflower seeds were addictive and that they should be replaced by safflower seeds. Many followed this new diet but still dietary related deaths were common.
Around the same time, pellets were introduced. At first there were many issues, including acceptability problems and kidney damage. I can recall losing several Dusky-headed Conures Aratinga weddellii from kidney disease linked to the formulated diet.
With time, these issues were resolved and today pellets are widely fed throughout the world, though nowhere are they as popular as in the USA. The pellets currently on the market are not perfect. Their composition has not been based on parrot research, but they are far better than the diet of yesteryear and they have seen a significant reduction in dietary related illness.
Why are pellets not the perfect dietary solution? The answer is in the root of their composition: the commercial chicken, whose studies form the formulation for pelleted diets.
Poultry are terrestrial, have a short lifespan and are precocial—the chicks can feed themselves from the minute they hatch. Parrots are the complete opposite. They are altricial, meaning that the chicks require assistance for some time before they can fend for themselves. Pellets, however, provide an assurance that a nutritional deficiency can be avoided, as they provide the vitamins, minerals and amino acids absent in most seeds. Pellets are unequivocally better than a diet based primarily on sunflower seeds and peanuts.
As I travel the world, the long-forgotten effects of a poor diet periodically come back to the forefront. In every trip I am reminded that diet is one of the most important husbandry aspects in maintaining a parrot healthy; when caged parrots are fed a poor diet their health will soon reflect this. Obesity, white plaques in the mouth from a vitamin deficiency, an overgrown beak, spiraling nails, respiratory tract infection, plumage stress marks or color changes, poor breeding results and more all soon become apparent. Birds displaying these signs are fortunately fewer and fewer, this as aviculturists strive to insure a healthy life. For the pet owner this means extending the life of a loved pet and for the breeder it is insuring that the birds are in optimum condition to breed.
It is important to always repeat the words that I mention at every lecture: To keep a parrot healthy the diet must be varied, nutritious and interesting. It must also be presented in such a manner so as to make it attractive to the bird.
Birds, like humans, will eat what they like most if given an opportunity. These foods tend to be fat laden. This is why many decades ago they selected the sunflower seeds and peanuts from the seed mixes. This is also why we as humans love fried foods, sweets and desserts. But these foods are fattening, often contain unhealthy oils, tend to be loaded with sugar and are carbohydrate bombs. The same happens with parrots. If fed a bowl of mixed fruits, vegetables, chopped greens, a conventional seed mix and nuts, they will eat the sunflower or safflower seeds and nuts first, followed by h**p, then the other seeds if they go hungry. The healthy foods are ignored because they simply do not provide the energy euphoria that the less healthy fatty seeds provide. This means that the seed mix offered to the birds should be selected for the species for which they are intended, insuring that the fat content requirement is never exceeded, or more ideally the seeds should be replaced with pellets.
If fed seed mixes, Amazons, Galahs Eolophus roseicapillus and some Australian parrots become obese very easily on fatty seeds; some develop fatty tumors as a result of such fat laden diets. Because of this, their diet should be selected so that it is varied and requires considerable effort to consume; the calorie expenditure to shell one sunflower seed is the same as a millet seed, except that to compensate for the volume the bird must shell a dozen millet seeds. These small, time consuming seeds can be fed along with pellets and other foods, especially greens. As an example, once or twice a week whole greens can be chopped, moistened lightly and sprinkled with an assortment of millets; the millet will stick to the moistened leaves. This provides enrichment and forces the bird to spend energy to feed itself. On another day the diet can consist of the smallest pellets available. Vegetables and other foods can be incorporated throughout the week.
Macaws, on the other hand, require fat in their diet. The same applies to African Greys Psittacus erithacus, which like the large macaws evolved to process fatty palm seeds. To insure that my birds receive what is healthy, I like to have several mixes available and to provide the different mixes to the different species. The seeds complement the pelleted diet (approximately 60% of the diet), which we also feed and which together with vegetables, greens, pulses, fruits, cooked mixes, sprouts and more form the daily diet. The pellets are often misted with coconut, cashew, almond or Brazilnut oil to boost the fat content. The pellets absorb these healthy fats and retain their integrity.
For those species not covered in the above categories, approximately 20% of the food should consists of vegetables, a little fruit and other foods, including germinating seeds and grains, whole grain bread, cooked whole grain pasta, quinoa and brown rice. I err more towards vegetables and greens than fruits; indeed for every 6 vegetables types I feed one type of fruit. This is because wild parrots feed predominately on unripe fruits. They do this to avoid competition with mammals (particularly primates and bats) and frugivorous birds, including toucans and hornbills. The unripe fruit is low in sugar and often bitter and astringent. These facts are borne each time I give my birds an item that they normally eat in the wild. As an example, I recently chewed on the seed of Spondias mombin. It was bitter and astringent, but the macaws they were given to rushed for them and spent hours eating the greenish flesh and then playing with the seeds.
Why do I eschew fruit? Commercial fruits have been produced to become ultra sweet. This is easily proven: bite into a wild apple and then a commercial apple. I am sure the unpleasant taste of the first will be pervasive. The extremely sweet cultivated fruits should thus be avoided. If you feed fruits, select tropical varieties which are nutritionally superior to temperate fruits like apple, pear, grapes and cherries, or choose types that are less sweet, such as the heirloom cooking apples, or select fruit that are not yet ripe; the ripening process boosts the sugar content.
Vegetables will be eaten as readily as fruit once the birds are habituated. Some vegetables should steamed to break the fiber and facilitate access to certain nutrients in the gut. Classic examples are carrot, pumpkin and sweet potatoes, which are rich in beta carotene, but this pro vitamin A is sequestered in the fibers and is difficult to access except when these vegetables are partly cooked. High beta carotene intake is seen in many parrots. The best example is the African Grey Psittacus erithacus, whose wild diet is heavy in the beta carotene rich seeds of the oil palm Elaeeis guinensis.
Another dietary element that can be used is pulses. Lentils, garbanzo, pinto beans, mung beans and other beans and grains can be partly cooked or germinated. Either process is required to reduce lectins, which are naturally present in these foods and are harmful to the body, often interfering with metabolism and the uptake of nutrients. Moreover, sprouting these pulses makes them nutritiously superior to the dry form; in sprouts, fibers, proteins, essential fatty acids and enzymes become easier to access during digestion. As an example, the vitamin content in sprouting mung beans can increase 200%. The same applies to germinating seeds. A mixture of germinating seeds and pulses provides a healthy food, which the parrots will readily eat and which can complement the rest of the fare. When sprouting, it is imperative to wash the sprouts extremely well and to use a bacterial re**rdant during the initial soaking process. We have used bleach, apple cider vinegar and grapefruit seed extract during the 6-8 hours of initial soaking. The seeds and pulses are then washed in copious amounts of water several times daily. Once the pulses and seeds begin to show a tiny sprout, they are soaked for two hours in a bacterial re**rdant (usually grapefruit seed extract) and then washed again. The sprouts are then examined and smelled. They should never have an acrid or acidic odor. If they do, discard them and start over. Good, clean sprouts should have a sweet and desirable odor. The sprouts can then be fed. I always leave them sit in a colander for 20-30 minutes to get rid of the excess water and feed them very early in the morning. The bowls are removed after an hour or two. This is to prevent the husks and remaining grains and beans from fermenting in our hot climate.
The excess sprouting pulses and grains are refrigerated. They are stored for no more than two days. During this period they should be washed several times daily. Refrigeration and washing are intended to re**rd growth and to deter bacterial proliferation.
Another means of destroying bacteria in sprouts is to blanch them in boiling water. This process does destroy some of the nutritious elements but the end result is still healthy.
An alternative to sprout is to soak and then cook pulses and seeds. Corn, garbanzo, mung and pinto beans, buckwheat, sunflower, safflower and many more can be soaked for an hour and then boiled until they become slightly soft. Generally speaking garbanzo takes longer to cook than lentils, so it is best to add the different grains and seeds to the different stages of cooking. The mix should not be overcooked, as most parrots dislike mush. You can add vegetables and pasta to this mix. Again, in a warm climate provide it only in the morning and remove any uneaten amount after an hour or two to deter the foods from souring.
With all parrots, food presentation is key. Parrots like colorful foods. This is why most species select the pellets containing color over the varieties that are a natural wheat color. When feeding a cooked mix, add colorful vegetables—beets, carrots, pumpkin, corn off the cob, peas and more. Also, present the healthy foods early in the morning, when they are hungriest. If the birds refuse these foods, remove their seeds or pellets the night before so that they are especially hungry in the morning. Feeding the food hot can also have a stimulating effect.
The vegetables and the greens should be chopped small. Large chunks will have a bite taken from them and the rest dropped. Parrots are notorious wasters and will literally waste a whole bowl of coarsely chopped foods while ingesting only 10%. The amount consumed increases exponentially if the items are finely chopped. Grinding is not recommended because, as previously stated, most parrots dislike mush. I learned this many decades ago when John Stoodley introduced his diet of cooked pulses, root vegetables and other items, all chopped and ground with the aid of offal broth and made into a mash. My birds hated the food. They had always eaten vegetables but refused the macerated mélange. Once the same diet was fed in a recognizable form the parrots consumed it again.
Some will argue that parrots that eat seeds cannot be converted to a healthy died. I refuse to accept this argument. In my many years as an aviculturist I have never seen a bird that could not be coaxed to eating a healthy diet, which includes pellets, vegetables and other food items.
One final word on pellets is important. Pellets come in organic, natural and non-organic types. The organic label is used by some companies to charge a premium and rely on the ever growing number of people who believe these products are superior. In Australia, Argentina and elsewhere wild parrots have been raiding non organic crops for many decades and no one has reported any negative effect. On the other hand, the overuse of chemicals in food production should be avoided. There is also the problem of certification: who can assure the end consumer that the food being sold for their pets is truly organic and what does the “natural” label truly mean? My recommendation is to investigate in detail each type and to make the decision not on emotion but on facts.
In closing, feed your bird healthy and the results will reveal themselves.
Please visit and follow Stop the World Parrot Trust on Facebook. The World Parrot Trust is not a friend of aviculture and cannot be funded or supported.
