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Nutritional Strategies for the Companion Parrot

There are various approaches to provide food for the companion parrot. Each nutritional strategy has its own advantages and disadvantages including seed-only diets, pelleted diets, extruded diets, and/or foraging diets.

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Formulated Diets in Avian Nutrition

Providing a bird with good nutrition often has different meanings for clinicians and clients. While the goal is to provide a diet that mimics the diet of that particular species in the wild, in captivity those strategies for feeding parrots are very different.

Client Education Handout 

Feeding Your Pet Bird a Healthy Diet

In their native habitat, some parrots like cockatiels, budgerigar parakeets, as well as many
cockatoos and macaws are seed-eaters. These birds are able to balance their diet because of the
large numbers of seeds eaten (over 60 types). Companion birds are often weaned onto all-seed
diets, but the number and type of seeds offered in captivity is insufficient to offer a balanced
nutrition. Commercial seed mixes lack the normal complement of nutrients including vitamins A,
D3, E and K, certain amino acids (the building blocks of protein), calcium, and other minerals.
Over time, seed diets lead to vitamin A deficiency, poor feather quality, and…

Client Education Handout 

Converting Your Bird to a Healthy Diet

Conversion to a healthy diet will improve the well-being of your pet bird. This client education handout first describes the evaluation by an avian veterinarian that your pet bird should undergo before beginning a dietary conversion. Several common techniques for converting the bird’s diet are then discussed. Download the PDF version of this client education handout, or modify the DOCX version  for your veterinary hospital.