Latest Secrets to Parrot Feeding

The sense of well-being and happiness in your pet parrot is largely dictated by the food you give to your parrot. This article shares some of the latest secrets to parrot feeding, which will provide parrot owners with useful clues to feed their pet parrots with wholesome and nutritious diets, which will go a long way in ensuring good health, happiness and the usual birdie chirpiness in your parrot.

Feeding a parrot is quite a challenging job in itself. Unless a parrot owner understands the basics of parrot feeding, he/she will not be able to bestow good health, contentment and a long disease-free life to his beloved pet parrot. Sometimes, the parrot owner fails to understand the intricacies associated with parrot feeding, such as – the timing that is ideal for feeding, the type of food that must be ideally fed to a parrot, the manner in which the food should be presented to the parrot as well as the attitude with which the food must be offered – but all these factors do greatly influence the parrot’s feeding behavior in captivity. So, a parrot owner must invariably learn about all these different aspects associated with parrot feeding.

Timings of Parrot Feeding

Ideally, parrots must be fed two main meals, twice a day – once in the morning, around 6 to 8 a.m. and once in the late afternoon or early evening, around 4 to 6 p.m. Parrots should, however, never be fed with a mid-day meal or lunch because inherently, they are not used to mid-day meals. However, the owner may offer his parrots food from the family dinner about 1.5 to 2 hours after the parrots have taken their evening meal.

The types of foods to be offered

Every parrot owner must equip himself with proper knowledge about nutritional requirements of a parrot and then decide upon the ideal food for his parrots. For optimum growth and maintenance of the bones, muscle tissues, beak, claws, feather condition and color, as well as for proper immune functioning, a parrots food must contain a delicate balance of the following classes of nutrients – proteins, fats, carbohydrates, as well as vitamins and minerals.

The types of foods that must ideally be fed to a parrot include –

•Proteins: Proteins and Amino Acids are known as the “building blocks of life” and must be supplied to the body in the correct quantities to ensure good growth and maintenance of the parrot’s body.

Although the non-essential type of amino acids can be produced within the parrot’s body, there are about ten different types of essential amino acids, that cannot be produce within their body and must therefore, be supplemented through a parrot’s diet. Parrot owners must learn about which food items are the best protein sources for their parrots. Since food items like eggs, lean meat, fish, cheese, and different types of beans, lentils, and peas contain high levels of all of the essential amino acids, pet parrots must be fed with small amounts of these food everyday. Although pelleted diets are very much in vogue and are considered as the ultimate in bird nutrition, these should not completely replace organic parrot food.

Although there is no accurate figure to define the daily protein requirement for parrots, it is thought that a daily protein intake of 10% to 16% would suffice their requirements. If a parrot’s diet does not supply it with the required amount and type of protein diet, then it can suffer from ill health. In fact, amino acid deficiencies can trigger off a set of other symptoms, such as – poor feather condition, increased tendency of feather picking, greater vulnerability to infectious diseases, etc. The parrot’s protein requirements get escalated when the parrot is in its growth phase, or in its breeding phase, or when it is molting and growing new feathers. Protein and amino acid deficiencies during the growth, molting and breeding phases of your parrot’s life can lead to hampered growth and a diminished rate of fertility in breeding parrots. However, it is not a good idea to feed excessive amounts of protein-rich diets to your pet parrot too, as it can possibly lead to physiological disorders such as gout, or renal damage, which are commonly observed in parrots which are fed only on pelleted diets and no organic parrot food at all.

•Fats: Non-oily seeds provide the much required essential fatty acids to the parrot’s body, however, an excess of seeds and nuts can lead to the development of obesity in the birds. Therefore, a limited number of seeds and nuts can be served as snacks to the pet parrot because they are rich in essential fatty acids (and they are also rich in protein and minerals).

•Carbohydrates: Carbohydrates are also very essential for bestowing our body with energy supplies and good health. Food items such as whole grains, fruits and certain vegetables (such as potatoes and sweet potatoes) provide the parrot’s body with fiber as well as carbohydrates. Parrot owners can feed whole grains such as brown rice, cereal rye, oat bran, maize, barley, sorghum, wheat, millets, and canary seeds to the parrots. These can be served sprouted or lightly cooked, or softened by soaking them in water overnight before serving to the birds. Over-consumption of carbohydrates such as enriched pasta and rice in caged birds (which have limited mobility) can lead to the development of obesity, which is highly undesirable.

•Vitamins And Minerals: Vitamins such as vitamin-A, vitamin-B, vitamin-C, vitamin-D, vitamin-E and vitamin-K are considered very essential for the optimum growth and good health of parrots. If the parrot’s diet is deficient in vitamins, then it can lead to the manifestation of various deficiency symptoms. For instance, a deficiency in vitamin-A (which is required for maintaining proper condition of the parrot’s skin and feathers, maintaining proper eyesight and for fighting body infections), can trigger the destruction of respiratory cilia, making the parrot prone to bacterial and fungal infections. Similarly, vitamin-A deficiency can also cause fading of the parrot’s feather pigments, making the feathers appear dull. Good sources of Vitamin-A include fresh green vegetables (such as green pepper, broccoli and spinach); yellowish-orange vegetables (like pumpkin, carrots and red pepper); or fresh fruits (like peach, papaya and cherry).

Minerals, such as calcium, sodium, phosphorus, manganese, iodine, etc are also very important for optimum health of the parrot. For example, in parrots, calcium is very important for the bone formation, muscular contraction, heart functioning and to aid in blood coagulation. In female parrots, calcium is also required in a higher percentage to aid in egg formation. The best source of calcium includes eggs, cheese, vegetables (like cabbage, beans, carrots, broccoli), nuts like almonds and apricots, etc.

A parrot owner must learn about all these different aspects associated with parrot feeding because unless he understands the basics of parrot feeding, he will not be able to make his pet parrot happy and bestow good health, contentment and a long disease-free life to his beloved pet parrot.