Diet Suggestions We are asked many times what should my pet parrot eat. Well if you think about it, birds do not just eat seed or pelleted diets in the wild. They eat a large variety of grains and seeds and fruits available to them through each season.
This is the diet that we feed our breeders and pet birds. That includes Macaws, Amazons, Greys and Senegal parrots. Other birds may have very different requirements.
We recommend a mixture of beans & grains, fruits & vegetables and an assorted seed mix. There are a few different ways to prepare the bean mix. You can use a "Pigeon mix" which is available at most feed stores or you can buy an assortment of beans from the market and mix them together(or buy a 12 bean soup mix). There is also a mix available through China Prairie Company that is very good.
If you buy beans from the store you would include beans like garbanzo beans, red peas, lima beans, white beans, red wheat & lentils.
To prepare the bean mix place in a pan and cover with water and soak over night. In the morning drain and cover with fresh cool water. Bring beans to a boil and cook for a couple of minutes. Drain, rinse and cool. You can divide enough for each day into small bags and freeze. Take out the night before and defrost for the following day.
To the bean mix add a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables. These include broccoli, carrots, apples, oranges, celery and fuyus (Japanese Persimmons). You can also use green beans, zucchini, pears, peaches, cucumber, kale, corn on the cob, squashes, okra, grapes, and figs. (Never feed Avocado.)
The beans and raw fruit & vegetables are mixed together and added to a dry seed mix. You can also add vitamins to the mixture. Macaws require a lot of fat and oil in their diet. Therefore we provide mixed nuts in the shell for the large macaw species. Hyacinth macaws also are fed fresh coconut. Nuts that we feed include Brazil, almonds, & macadamias. (* We do not feed walnuts to our Hyacinths. )
We do not feed pelleted food but if you would like to add a small amount to the above diet that would be fine. We do not however recommend feeding a diet of exclusively pelleted food.
The seed mix we use includes sunflower & peanuts, that have been hulled, safflower, millet, buckwheat, canary, pumpkin,oat groats, hemp, wheat & cracked corn. There are some very good seed mixes out there also available through your local pet or feed store.
- So to recap.
- You should feed every day:
- Fresh water in their bowl.
- and a mixture of:
- 1/3 seed mix
- 1/3 bean mix
- 1/3 fruits and vegetables
For Hyacinths and big Macaws add 2 to 4 Zu Preem monkey chow
and 2 to 4 nuts in the morning and at night, depending on the birds needs.You must determine the amount of food a bird receives each day by closely watching the amount of food that is left in the bowl the following morning and by closely monitoring the birds weight. Birds tend to pick out what they like to eat first and leave the rest. We slowly cut back on the amount of total food given and when we reach an amount that the bird is eating almost all of the food given, without much left over, then we know that they are eating a balanced diet. A word of caution: You will want to make sure you are feeding enough food and not under feeding your bird. When introducing a new diet you need to monitor the birds food consumption so they do not lose to much weight.
A few things to avoid are Avocado, chocolate, alcohol, greasy foods and foods high in sugar.
* We do not feed walnuts to our Hyacinths. We and a few others have had a digestion disorder arise from feeding walnuts to Hyacinths.
** If you have any questions about feeding your new baby that you got from us please call.
- ***(For newly acquired babies from us, we recommend that you keep a full bowl of seed and another bowl with the cooked beans and the fruits and vegetables and seed. We suggest feeding your new baby this way for the first 2 weeks to a month so that they will maintain their weight as they become accustom to their new surroundings.)
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