Ask Lafeber

Which Nutri-Berry for my bird

I have a Parrotlet that is almost 2 months old now. I have been giving him the food the store gave me, I am almost out. He refuses to eat pellets and he has become a seed junkie. He is on the thin side so I want to get him some of your Classic Nutri-Berries but your site is so confusing as to which one is right for him. I looked at Parrot Nutri-Berries because he is a parrot but he doesn’t eat with his feet. You’re Conure Nutri-Berries because it said it was for smaller parrots but again there was the mention of eating with his feet. Then I was looking at your Parakeet Nutri-Berries and it does mention Parrotlets, but at the same time, he is a parrot and I worry about the nutrition because it is for Parakeets. can you please be a little more precise about which Classic Nutri-Berries is good for Parroletts?

Hi Tiya,

Any of the formulations are going to be fine for your parrotlet as far as being nutritionally complete. Parrotlets, parakeets, cockatiels, lovebirds & conures are all parrots. You would not want to feed the canary or finch formulas because the nutrition would be a little bit lacking for a parrot, but any of the other sizes are just fine – we only specify bird types as a guide or suggestion. Since he is a young bird, he might do better with parakeet and cockatiel sizes right now. As he gets older, he might like some of the larger foods. While the size difference is the berry size, it is also some of the ingredients – he might have trouble eating some of the ingredient in the macaw size, for example, but I have known some parrotlets who like the Parrot sizes of our foods. And since parrots do like varieties, you might try him on some of the gourmet flavors in the future.

So as far as classic Nutri-Berries, I would start him out on the parakeet size. Remember that the entire berry is consumable because we do hull the seeds. When first feeding these, there will be more waste. Once you are confident that he is eating them well, then reduce how many you give him at a time and give him more when he has eaten most or all of the current serving. Your goal is for him to eat the entire berry and not to just pick out his favorite bits and waste the rest, which he will do if fed too many at a time. But again, you need to make sure he is eating them before you cut back on amounts. And with some birds, you may need to crumble the berries at first.

Thank you for asking Lafeber,

Brenda