best diet for parrots?

Answer 1

Variety is the key to a healthy parrot.
The basic rule of thumb is:
if it's good for you, it's good for your parrot.
Feeding seeds exclusively will cut your parrot's life expectancy tremendously.
Harrison's is an excellent product but be sure to refrigerate the bag once you open it. It has no preservatives.
Please lean heavily on fresh or frozen vegetables (heavy on the dark orange and dark green), sprouts, rice, pasta, beans, yams or sweet potatoes, nuts, and occasionally you can give them scrambled eggs, yogurt, a piece of chicken, and cheese as a treat.
Fruit is good a few times a week. Easy on the grapes, it's high in sugar..apple is good, as well as cranberry, canteloupe, and bananas.
think about purchasing some flax seed oil from a health food store and a few drops on his veggies helps a lot.
An additional calcium supplement and a vitamin supplement is extrmemly helpful: "Pro-Vita" or "Blair's Super Preen" nutritional supplement sprinkled onto their veggies will really make a difference.
The number one reason for companion parrot fatalitites is malnutrition.
The bigger variety you offer to your birds, that is, the wider array of veggies they get, the more healthy they will be. I puchase frozen mixed veggie bags (no sauce) and mix them all together so that when my Greys are fed, they are offered about 20 different veggies. I blend in the healthy seed, cooked rice, add a bean glop mix from boiled beans, put in some nuts.
There are hundreds of recipes on the web you can find that will assist you in keeping your guy in great shape, but you really have to know what to feed to keep them in good condition. Keep reading and and researching.
The following links will help you:

http://www.plannedparrothood.com/diet.html

http://www.landofvos.com/articles/kitchenxiii.html
http://www.petparrot.com/ParrotCareDiet.htm

http://www.birdsnways.com/birds/artdiets.htm

No chocolate, no avacado, no alcohol, no rhubarb.
All those links will help you tremendously in better understanding what is a good diet for your parrot.

Answer 2

Contrary to what most people think seeds are not very good for birds. They have no nutritoinal value. Even the ones that say they are vitamin enriched (this just means the shells are sprayed with vitamins, this doesn't give the bird any vitamins because birds don't eat the shells). Any pellet diet will be your best choice for a staple diet. There are a lot of pellet diets that have all kinds of colors and shapes in them, this is so the birds can pick their favorite one but still get all the same nutritional value. However, it is a good idea to offer fresh fruits and veg. once a day. Watch getting too large of pellets, the larger the pellets the harder they have to work teaching them how strong their beaks are which can lead to biting.

Answer 3

For Amzons, Macaws, and Cockatoos a variety of fresh (or frozen) veggies and fruit with occasional seeds (no black sunflower seeds) and shelled nuts. Limit macadamia nuts to cockatoos because Macaws can develop fatty liver diease. They have a mixed dry food on the market that is a okay for a treat now and then. never give your parrots an all seed diet. They do not eat this in the wild as an exclusive diet!

Answer 4

I usually try to mix 2 different bags or parrot food together, one containing lots of sunflower seeds, another having a variety of food, including dried fruit. I reject all food that does not look fresh, or has evidence of insects (little particles abound), then I mix in a little organic chicken flavored kitty kibble. Also I feed my bird snacks from our food - but never anything with sugar, white bread or pasta or bananas. I heard somewhere bananas are not good for them. I try to make sure she gets quite a bit of fruit and cheese in her diet. She seems to like our food more than hers, which can be a problem when we are trying to board her. I noticed that the bulk parrot food available in bird specialty stores does not look like it is better than what I feed her. Which kinds of parrot food you might mix would depend on what kind of parrot your bird is. Ours is a yellow nape.

Answer 5

Harrison's Bird Foord. All natural, ORGANIC, extruded. Correct fat content, etc, etc. All 9 of our birds are on it from the parakeets to the BF Amazon.