Ask Lafeber

Looking hungry

Ran out of millets so I gave my birds oats for few days. I start to notice that they are all puffing their feathers and looking tired. They also rush to the food bowels when refilling. What is this? Are they starving? They do look hungry despite the large amount of oats. I heard birds have preferences in food, but my birds eat oats just fine. I assume it is the oats since oats provide little white dust per seed. Or perhaps they prefer millets more. Maybe I should get millets again. (My birds are given vegetables and fruits sometimes).

Hi,

You are essentially slowing starving your birds by only feeding millet or oats. They will not thrive and will end up dying due to the inadequate diet. Seeds that you can buy offer almost no nutritional value because they are not fresh. Smaller parrots like budgies & cockatiels do eat seeds in the wild, but they are eating fresh seeds and greens as they feed. They also eat other foods that they forage for. You should be feeding your birds a nutritionally balanced diet such as pellets or our foraging diets. Our foraging diets do contain whole, fresh seeds with the hulls removed, combined with other nutritious ingredients. If you feed loose seeds and add vitamins, all of the vitamins are lost when the bird removes the hull, and they do not drinks enough water to get enough benefit from vitamins in the water. You need to convert your birds to pellets or our foraging diet or they will not live very long. I’ll give you the link to our feeding guide so you can better understand why what you are feeding is lacking in everything they need to be healthy and happy.

Bird Food Guide

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda