Pellets: For most
of my birds, I like a mix of pelleted foods. Like birds in the wild, pet
birds shouldn't have a single food item that excludes all other tastes
and textures! My babies are weaned on a mixture of the most awesome Bird
Paradise Benji blend, or the regular Ultimate blend (it's just a bit
bigger pellet size than the benji). To that, I add in a bit of Zupreem
cockatiel sized pellets and their Wild and Spicy blend.
Eclectus babies are not weaned on pellets and only get a small amount of
species specific pellet as a treat in their food. Your baby will also
usually have a blend of Roudybush, Harrisons and other pellets as they
learn to eat solid foods. Why don’t I force my birds to conform to more
‘healthy’ pellets? I want them to eat, not starve and birds will
absolutely refuse food they do not like, even if it gets to the point
they’ll starve themselves to death. What’s healthier then?
Sorry Harrison’s!
Let me add here… You can read the brochure from Harrison’s diets and talk to
your Avian vet until their face turns blue from repeating the same stuff
over and over “Feed Harrisons, feed Harrisons..” Let me tell you some facts.
There is ZERO pellet out there that is a ‘complete’ food. If you check the
list of ingredients on Harrisons, it’s not very different than other blends.
Vets are given a lot of kick backs to support Harrison’s diets (so says my
Diplomat avian vet), and when cornered, you won’t find a single vet saying
one pellet is specifically better over the other.
So,
if your bird will eat the expensive Harrison’s; Great! If not, do not
fret and hand wring wondering what has gone wrong. You
want your bird to eat, and if that means he or she will chomp down
Pretty Bird, Zupreem, Roudybush or Tropimix and snub the Harrison’s…
then feed what it will eat! Better a happy, healthy bird than a dead one
that’s starved to death. Right? Right.
Eclectus babies are not weaned on pellets and
only get a small amount of species specific pellet as a treat in their
food.
The Most Awesome Mix EVER!:
I've tried a lot of seed blends, ranging from expensive Golden Feast, to
Hagens, to Higgins "Mayan" line. They are all winners to some extent and
losers to some extent. Your bird will eat what I give it, because that is
all it knows and it’s a baby. However, birds develop personalities as they
mature and they certainly decide to change their minds! Expect this. While
‘baby’ sure loved dried green beans and coconut chunks when weaning, that
doesn’t mean ‘baby’ will enjoy them as an adult. Also, keep in mind that YOU
won’t eat the same diet week after week, and nor will they. Mix it up, have
some fun with it!
The current blend
I’m using is a great blend of mixed pellets, fruits, nuts, crunchy
things and some seed too! It's called the Bird Paradise Blend. I feed it
to -everyone- and it's universally consumed with a lot of happy trills
and purrs! This great mix is why my babies don't usually linger on the
hand-feeding, they're too busy gorging on this blend of foods, and the
fresh mix they get as well! Who needs yuckie formula!
My breeders, pets
and weaning birds all seem to enjoy it (for now!). It’s
called
Bird Paradise blend.at
www.mybirdstore.com
aka Bird Paradise. Rule of thumb here, buy a small amount (1-2lbs)
of 'Benji' size and ‘Ultimate’ size. The reason for this is that a lot
of birds will not eat the normal ‘species’ determined size of food (note
above I feed COCKATIEL sized pellets to Greys?). If you buy a small
amount of both sizes, you can cleanly tell what your bird prefers. This
goes for all foods, btw, not just Bird Paradise foods.
More on seed… Yes,
seed is ‘bad’. It’s so bad that it makes up a good percentage of a wild
bird’s diet. Can’t be too bad, can it? The trick is to give seed but to
moderate the amount. You don't need a great amount of seed in your bird's
diet, and try to truly limit the sunflower and safflower. Don’t be fooled by
safflower either, it’s simply a more bitter, smaller sunflower. Tricky,
aren’t they? I
find a good compromise of 20% seed blend to the 80% pellet mix for 24/7 food
bowls.
My daily routine:
My morning/evening 'wet food' mix is
Volkman's Soak 'n Simmer.
That is my food base.
You don’t have to use Volkman’s, you could use pretty much any ‘soak ‘n
simmer’ type of bean mix. In fact, make your own with various beans, rice,
pasta, whatever. I buy Volkman’s because I like the blend, and I buy in
large quantities. I get a bulk discount, you won’t. However… if you DO buy
from Volkman’s, keep in mind that cost over time will be work it. Just
sayin’.
Typically what you
want is various beans, corn, rice. I like to toss in Mung Beans,
Lentils, and whatever else sounds bird-yummy. Make a batch
up by soaking it over night, then bringing it to a boil, simmering it,
add in a bit of Cajun spice or peppers (they LOVE that!) until it’s soft
but not too soft – just on the firm side. Drain and stick in your fridge
for 4-5 days max, freeze the excess.
To that I
add the following:
TROPICAL fruits:
papaya, mango, banana, passion fruit, guava, pineapple, etc.
The reason I stress tropical fruits is because leading avian vets state
these are the fruits that matter in a psittacine diet. Domestic fruits
(ie: apples) have no real nutritional value.
Domestic fruits: appleDidn’t
I just say it didn’t have any nutritional value? Sure doesn’t, but they
do love it, and while it’s nothing good for them, it’s nothing bad
either. I only add some apple for flavor. Birds love apple, so it's
pretty much 'junk food' but they like it. Same with citrus - and you
definitely want to limit your bird's citrus intake.
Vegetables: kale, bok choy, beet roots,
corn, peas, winter squash, *sweet potato (NOT
yams), steamed carrots, broccoli, green
beans, spinach, etc.I
will feed some summer squashes, but there is no real nutritional value
for psittacines (or people!) in these vegetables. I do not feed yams
because there is some feedback in the vet circles about how yams react
with the hormonal levels in birds by mimicking estrogen. Not certain of
it all, so I stay away from the yams.
Once a week, I'll
give them some scrambled egg and a bit of cheese or bread as a treat.*
Yes, I know sweet potatos are actually tropical fruit. However, most
people don't recognize them as a fruit, so I've listed it under
vegetable.
To that (for pet birds), I add
Hagen's Prime
supplement, once a day.
Also to that, I
add in Red Palm Oil (Dende Oil). It really is good for them. Only a bit
will do, don’t go overboard.
Sprouts:
Then, each bird gets one serving of sprouted seeds and grains. I buy my
sprouting mix at
China Prairie,
but you can really use most any sprouting mixture. I also add in Fresh
Addition supplement from www.chinaprairie.com as well. There
it is, what my birds are weaned on, and what my personal pets get. So,
if you want to mimic what they're used to at my aviary when you get your
new baby, there you have it.
