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If you ate only potato chips and water your whole life, how healthy would you be? That's about the nutritional content of most seed diets! Seed diets are high in fat and low in nutrients. In the wild, seeds would only comprise 10%-20% of a birds diet and would actually only be available to the birds at the end of the growing season when fresh fruits, vegetables and insects are no longer as available to them. In the wild, birds have the ability to burn off these high fat contents with daily long flights, migration and survival. In a pet home, birds just have no use for all that fat. Consequently pet birds have a tendency to develop fatty tumors and fatty liver disease, greatly reducing their life span.
Pet birds have longer life spans and overall better health and plumage when fed pellet diets, fresh cooked foods, fresh vegetables, fruits and breads. Although the specific nutritional requirements for each species of bird are not known, we do know that they require many of the same nutrients as other animals. Pellet Diets are designed for the needs of pet birds. They are low in fat and high in nutrients, reduce the risk of fatty tumors and fatty liver disease and they are a lot less messy than seed hulls thrown everywhere. Fresh cooked foods offer the birds variety of texture and flavor and vegetables, fruits and breads are just plain good for them.
So how come most birds are raised on seeds? Well for many years, seeds were the easiest and most available convenient diet. These days, as we learn more about our own nutritional needs we have also learned more about our pets. Some breeders are now moving to pellet diets, yet many birds are still being raised on seed diets. We hand raise cockatiels and the first solid food that we introduce to them is pellets, but unfortunately since most people are only familiar with seed diets, we do allow them seed also. When birds from other breeders arrive, we immediately start introducing them to pellets and all sorts of fresh and cooked foods. We highly encourage all our customers to continue to wean seeds out of the birds diets. We carry a large assortment of pellet diets and cooking diets for you to choose from.
I.e. :
Lafebers® Premium Daily Diets (all pellet sizes)
Lafebers® Nutriberries (all pellet sizes)
Lafebers® Avicakes
Roudybush™ Maintenance Diets (all pellet sizes)
Zupreem© Fruitblend (all pellet sizes)
Pretty Bird® Daily Select (all pellet sizes)
Kaytee® Exact (limited)
Crazy Corn® Cooking mixture (all flavors)
Hapsburg™ Bean Mix (with and without carrots)
Now the trick is getting the birds to eat them! Lets face it, if you gave a child the choice between potato chips and vegetables, which do you think they are going to chose? The following are some tricks of the trade for getting them started on pellet diets. Be patient, you could be at it for months, the out come though will be a healthier, happier bird.
1. Start by mixing the seeds and pellets 1/2 and 1/2 for a few weeks.
2. Use pellet and seed treats, such as Lafebers® Nutriberries and or Lafebers® Avicakes.
3. Use a smaller or larger pellet size than that which is recommended for your bird. This worked for our pionus who had been on sunflower/peanut mix for over 30 years, she mistakes the pellets for peanuts.
4. Use brightly colored, sweet and interesting shaped pellets such as Zupreem© Fruitblend or Pretty Bird Daily Select.
5. Once you are reasonably certain that your bird will eat the pellets, remove the seeds at night. Birds are always very hungry at first light in the morning, if they have started to accept pellets, then they will be willing to eat them when the seeds are unavailable. For awhile you will want to put the seeds back in the afternoon, just to make sure they have eaten enough.
DO NOT TRY TO FORCE A BIRD TO EAT PELLETS COLD TURKEY.
If they do not recognize pellets as a food item, they can starve themselves.
Here are some tricks for feeding fresh vegetables and fruits, cooked foods and breads:
1. "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence", try hanging fresh foods on the outside of the cage so that the bird can just reach them through the bars.
2. Birds are greedy, if they see you eat it they will want it also. Try feeding it off your plate.
3. Try feeding it out of your hand.
4. Try different presentations, such as chopped, strips, or whole.
5. Broccoli upside down, clipped to the inside of the cage can encourage the bird to try to preen the little buds thus encouraging him to eat it.
The following is an approximate outline of the 4 basic food groups for most pet birds.
1. GRAINS-BREADS AND CEREAL GROUP
Approximately 50% of the daily diet can be selections from this group. Theses items are rich in vitamin B (which are contained in seed hulls that birds do not eat).
Suggestions: whole wheat bread, cooked brown rice, monkey biscuits (also high in protein), other whole grain products.
2. FRESH VEGETABLES AND FRUITS
As much as 45% of the diet can contain vegetables.
Suggestions: broccoli, endive, carrots, parsley, pumpkin, winter squash, collard greens, sweet potato.
Only small amounts of fruit should be offered making up the last 5% of the diet in combination with the last 2 food
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