Complete Diets
Discussed at the East Midlands Parrot Club, we spoke about feeding your companion bird a complete diet. Most Avian vets will advise you to feed a complete diet to your parrot. As I said previously there are always the owners who say that “Parrots don’t eat pellets in the wild. No, they don’t, but they are of course wild birds and not companion birds, don’t forget that we have actually changed their lifestyle. In the wild they need to find their own food and of course they will not only eat seasonal but need to survive and will eat whatever they can find .In captivity we change their lifestyle and of also the way they live. A parrot in the wild will live on average around something like 20-25 years whereas in captivity they can live to a ripe old age and in fact we all know someone who has a parrot that is over 40 years old.
Nutrition and vitamins are important to your bird and what we sometimes don’t realise is that feeding a complete diet is only a different concept of feeding
Your bird is getting exactly the same as he does if you offer seed, but only in a different way and with some added vitamins and minerals to keep him fit and healthy.
Less mess and all you are really doing by offering a complete diet is taking away the selective eating.
When you give a seed mix to a parrot it is like taking a young child to a party and telling him to get himself something from the buffet table.
What will he be coming back to the table with?
We all know the answer to that one. A sausage on a stick and a plate of crisps.
Parrots will do the exact same and decide to leave the nutritious food and eat the rubbish. Therefore by feeding a complete diet, or pelleted diet as we all know it by, we are ensuring that he gets a quality diet,
As we have already mentioned we at Midland Parrots feed both a complete diet and also a quality Johnston and Jeff seed mix
Once again we stress the point that it is your bird and your choice. Please remember that with parrots there are guidelines but no right or wrong.