Ask Lafeber

Summer Diet Plan after Breeding Season

Hello Dear Lafeber,
I hope this message finds you well. I really appreciate your unconditional support for birds all over the world. I seek your guidance regarding daily diet plan of my parrots (Alexanderines and Rose-ringed Indian Parakeets (around 25 pairs) after the end of breeding season and during the off-season when birds’ nest boxes are removed. As the breeding season has come to an end, all the parrots have been shifted to aviary having size of 24×18 feet. Almost all birds are on seasonal moult which is why I didn’t deworm the birds and intends to do it three weeks before the breeding season that starts from October. It summer and scorching heat heat here in our region. Temperatures go higher and higher (night: 30-33 degree Celsius and day: 40-48 degree Celsius). Our daily diet routine is as follows:
1. 24 hours Soaked Black Native Grams in the morning
2. Vegetable or Fruit (each day different vegetable or fruit) in the noon
3. Mix Seeds before the evening
4. Vitamins +electrolytes supplement (Replenish) in water almost 4 days per week
5. American Garden Apple Vinegar in the water once in 10 days).

Hi,

I have to be honest, I’m not sure at all what the first item is? It seems we do things a lot differently here in the US. First, it is important that parrots have food available to them at all times because in the wild, they forage all day. It can cause a lot of stress if they do not have food in the cage all the time. We recommend a nutritionally balanced food as 80% of the diet – this is typically a pelleted food, or our foraging diets. I’m sure you have pelleted diets available, but you may or may not have access to our foraging diets. The only difference is the ingredients in the pellets are ground up and made into a pellet. In addition, we recommend fresh greens, veggies and fruits as the remaining 20% of their diet. We do not recommend loose seeds at all, because they are generally not fresh enough to retain their nutrients. As for vitamins in the water, if you feed a pelleted food, additional vitamins are not needed. Vitamins in the water are not always effective – they lose their potency quickly, and parrots do not drink a lot of water because they get a lot of moisture from fruits and vegetables. They ca n also cause the water to spoil in high temperatures. Our Vets have not found any benefit to offering apple cider vinegar, but it doesn’t seem to cause any harm, either. The only thing we recommend adding for breeding season is an egg food – either a dried commercial egg food or cooked eggs with the shell washed, crushed and cooked with the eggs. I’ll give you the link to our diet guide.

Bird Food Guide

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda