Ask Lafeber

Question:

June 2, 2020

Feeding


What is your view on feeding pellets? What would you suggest would be a good ratio of pellets to fresh foods daily?


Answer:

Hi Pritom,

Pellets are an excellent alternative to a loose seed diet. That being said, I am not a fan of pellets as their sole daily diet, even with fresh foods included. Pellets are nutritionally balanced and 100% consumable. Most birds will not over eat on pellets because their nutritional needs have been met. They are an easy, convenient diet for the owner, but not the most natural food for a parrot. We manufacture pellets – in fact we developed the first commercial pellet for pet birds back in the early 1970’s. But we learn more about our bird’s needs all the time and one thing that has been well documented is the fact that parrots are foragers and pet birds do not spend nearly enough time working for their food. We now also make several foraging diets that are nutritionally balanced the same as a pellet, but they still contain whole ingredients and provide important foraging exercise. The main difference is that the parrot needs to learn to eat most of each Nutri-Berry, Avi-Cake or Pellet Berry to get the full benefit of the food. This just means you can’t give them a huge bowl of these or they are likely to pick a few favorite bites out and waste the rest. I recommend keeping a small dish of pellets in the cage at all times and offering a few Nutri-Berries or Avi-Cakes at a time. This way the bird has another food available if he eats all of his foraging food and still needs more. Most birds will eat anywhere from 6 to 12 Nutri-Berries daily or 4 to 8 Avi-Cakes. You can feed all of these food in combination and also offer fresh foods. As far as the ratio, fresh foods are going to be a much smaller percentage than the daily diet. Maybe 10 to 15% but that can vary depending on how much he actually eats. And some days they aren’t in the mood for fresh foods. Here is a link to our feeding guide with more information.

Bird Food Guide

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda

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