Hi Mari,
I consider “chop” as the current pet bird diet trend. As with human diets, there are always new theories on bird diets and plenty of “experts” to push the new trends. Our Vets and nutrition experts have discussed this in our nutrition webinars and in Q&A during other webinars. The true experts all agree on one thing – at least 80% of your bird’s diet should consist of a nutritionally balanced diet based on science. This means pellets or a diet like our foraging diets – Nutri-Berries, Avi-Cakes and Pellet-Berries. These foraging diets are balanced the same as a pellet, but they are not ground up. They can be fed alone or combined with pellets. The need for the foraging diets is for mental and physical stimulation because pellets alone can be boring and they offer no natural foraging exercise.
As to the fresh foods – these are great to offer and ideally your bird will eat them. However, the bird is not likely to suffer nutritionally if he refuses fresh foods, as long as he is eating a nutritionally balanced staple. On the other side of things, a pet bird is not going to get the daily nutritional support he needs from a main diet of fresh foods. This is because the nutrients in fresh foods can vary greatly depending on how and where it was grown, and how and when it was harvested. We now know that other than eating directly out of your own garden, most frozen vegetables have more nutrients than the fresh veggies you buy at the grocery store. Adding supplements is also not reliable. Dr. Heather Barron presented an eye opening webinar about alternative medicine, which is any natural supplement you give your bird that is not a conventional medicine. What it says on the label is not necessarily what you get, as it is only regulated for safety and not content.
So I wouldn’t worry too much about Yoshi. He already has the major health advantage of being fully flighted. As long as he isn’t eating a loose seed mix, he will be healthy on a good balanced pellet or again, our foraging diets. I’ve owned several lovebirds and all lived to an advanced age, and all were fully flighted. I had one, Taz, who I could toss like a football, on his back head first, and he would flip over in mid-air, spin around and fly back to me. I called him my living boomerang! He lived well into his 20’s in spite of having a badly splayed leg. I credit his lifelong diet of Nutri-Berries and his love of flying.
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
