Best Foods For Parrots

Pellets

A parrot’s diet needs to consist of at least 50% pellet-type food, although even more pellet food in your bird’s diet can be beneficial as well.

There are many brands and styles of pellet foods on the market, and each one has its strengths and weaknesses. It’s up to you to choose a well-balanced option that your bird is interested in eating.

If your bird is not used to eating pellets, you may need to introduce them slowly at first as they are not going to like them, especially if they have been eating a seed based diet all their lives.

You can read more about pellet-based diets here.

Here are a few great recommendations you can order online.

ZuPreem NutBlend Smart Pellets Bird Food for Medium Birds is a great choice as it has all the essential vitamins and Minerals for Cockatiels, Quakers, Lovebirds, and even Small Conures. It is also tasty, so most birds will nibble on this. Even my fussy cockatiel will eat it. It can be used as a sole food source, although for variety it is recommended you include some fruit and veggies.

Lafeber’s Premium Daily Diet Pellets for Parrots is also a great choice for the larger parrots. These pellets are made of ground corn, wheat, oat groats, soybean meal, cane molasses, dried whole egg,  and corn gluten meal. There are not artificial colorants or flavourants included.

Dr. Harvey also has a great parrot blend you may want to try.

Here is some helpful advice if you are wanting to wean your parrot off of its old food and onto pellets.

Pellet food may not necessarily always be in the shape of pellets. If your bird prefers food crumbles or other shapes, you can find them at most pet food stores as well.

Vegetables

After pellet food, the next most significant part of your bird’s diet should be comprised of vegetables. Vegetables should be at least 25% of your parrot’s daily meal intake, but more is always better. There are some types of vegetables that are better for birds than others.

Green leafy vegies are mostly loved by birds and they all enjoy eating carrots.

Fruit

Fruit is very sweet and should only be fed in moderation. However, you can give your bird enough fruit to comprise about 5% of your pet’s daily nutritional intake. Do not let your bird eat the pits or seeds of fruits, though, as many of these are highly toxic.

Remember never to give your bird Avocado. 

This article will list some other foods that are not good to feed birds.

Grains and Beans

Grains and beans are not essential to your parrots health, but birds enjoy these so occasionally you can treat them.

Other bonus treats you can include occasionally include cooked pasta, brown rice, barley and oats.

Seeds

Although many parrots and other birds love to eat seeds, it is best to avoid giving them to your pet at all. Seeds can quickly become a junk food to parrots, and they may not be interested in eating anything else. Because there is very little nutritional value in seeds, an all seed diet alone can be detrimental to your birds health in the long run.

The only exception to this rule is sprouted seeds, which are seeds that have just recently sprouted for the first time. These seeds are packed with nutrients, as long as your bird eats the sprouts as well as the seed portion.