What Is The Best Parrot Diet?

In order for your pet parrot to live a long and healthy life, it is imperative that you feed it the correct food. You could do everything else absolutely perfectly, such as interacting with your parrot, and grooming it etc…, but, if you feed it the wrong parrot diet, your efforts will have been wasted!

So, what is a healthy parrot diet? Well, the truth is no one is 100% certain, because not enough research has been undertaken regarding the foods that parrots eat in the wild, which means that parrot experts can’t agree on the perfect diet for pet parrots. However, they do agree that just feeding a parrot a diet of seeds isn’t adequate, because seeds are deficient in many nutrients, such as calcium and vitamin, and they also contain too much fat. The consensus amongst parrot experts is that no more than about 10% of a parrot’s diet should consist of seeds.

It is possible to only feed a parrot on the pellet foods that have been specially developed for parrots, because they consist of a good balance of vegetables, fruits, seeds, grains, minerals and vitamins. However, parrots are a lot like humans, in that they can easily become bored of eating the same food all of the time, regardless of how balanced and nutritious it is! Therefore, the consensus view is that these pellet foods should account for no more than about 60% of a parrot’s diet.

At least 30% of a parrot’s diet should be made up of fresh vegetables and fruits. As well as being tasty and nutritious for your pet, they will also stimulate him, because he will have to hold onto them with his claws whilst he is feeding.

The following vegetables are ideal for your parrot:

• Cucumber.
• Carrots.
• Green beans.
• Sweet peppers.
• Corn.
• Cauliflower.
• Aubergine (i.e. eggplant).

The following fruits are ideal for your parrot:

• Papaya.
• Melon.
• Kiwi.
• Mangos.
• Pineapple.
• Bananas.
• Grapes (Note - be careful to remove any pips or seeds from grapes, or any other fruit, because they could be toxic to your parrot).
• Apples.
• Peaches.
• Oranges.
• Cherries.

The following foods are toxic to parrots, and should therefore be avoided at all costs:

• Cocoa.
• Guacamole.
• Alcohol.
• Chocolate.
• Mushrooms.
• Caffeine.
• Any food containing a lot of grease, preservatives, food colouring, and salt,

Usually, your parrot won’t eat a type of food that he doesn’t like, which lessens the chance of mistakenly poisoning your pet. However, this can lead to another problem, which is malnutrition. Malnutrition is one of the biggest causes of parrot problems, so it is extremely important that, as well as trying to feed the proper parrot diet to your pet, that you carefully monitor his food intake, to ensure he is getting the right balance of foods.