My cockatiel is 5 months old. My bird is very picky…He eats seeds and veggies, but very little , so I give him soft food instead of hand-feeding. He loves rice, pasta, and wheat bread but can birds eat them daily? Will it harm their health? And I give him very small amount.
Hi,
Birds really aren’t picky – but bird owners do tend to give in and let their birds have what they want rather than what they need. LOL This is common and usually it’s a matter of being consistent and continuing to offer healthy foods without giving in and letting him eat junk foods or foods that do not offer enough nutrition. He is young and still learning, so you need to work with him on eating healthy foods. He should not be eating loose seeds – those offer almost no nutritional value, and he will overeat trying to get the nutrition he needs but instead he will get fat. He should be eating a nutritionally balanced diet like pellets as 80% of his diet. The remaining 20% should be leafy greens, chopped veggies, a small amount of fruit and healthy table foods. Rice and pasta are OK, but a few bites are enough. The same goes with wheat bread. We do make a foraging pellet that is formulated the same as a pellet, but the ingredients are not ground up. These contain fresh, human grade seeds with the hulls removed, then they are combined with other ingredients and held together with a nutritionally balanced binder. The problem with loose seeds is they generally are not very fresh, and any added nutrients are lost when the bird removes the hull. I’ll give you the link to our food guide and a couple of webinars that discuss nutrition and how to get your bird to try new foods.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
