First of all, having read through your post, I wonder whether you are weighing your parrots? What was their weights before the food change, and what are they now? This is essential to know so you can manage how much they get, and to know how much they need.
JaydeParrot wrote:Hi, my senegals are 7 years old, they used to be alright with a half filled small bowl of seed and a half filled small bowl of mixed fruit a day, now they've started screaming everytime that the bowls are empty, I'll refill each bowl, they eat and scream again.
I might be misunderstanding you here, but if you refill the bowls when they scream, you are teaching them that screaming leads to more food, which isnt what you want.
They are probably spoiled
, used to having seeds all day.
I'll only refill each bowl twice a day but if I don't refill when they scream, they climb down to the bottom of the cage and start trying to pull seed husks up from behind the grate.
Is this a design flaw from your cage, or is it possible to prevent?
Their cage is open most of the time and I take them for indoor shoulder walks, I dunno if a parrot boredom-eats. I feel bad for my birds when they scream for more food, but it has gotten so often that my family's started joking the birds are going to get too heavy to fly. -I can't help agreeing with them
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Freefeeding, regardless of whether its pellets or seeds that are offered can lead to obesesity.
Also, loads of people here talk about pellets rather than seeds, is that just an American thing cuz when I asked the pet shops my in area, the shop keepers didn't seem to know what I was going on about,
Its not an american thing, infact, from my own understanding (which may be totally off, and if any of you think so I appologise*), I sometimes get the feeling lots of people buy parrots in the US without much thought as to what animal they are buying. Parrots seem readily available there in pet shops, which is a huge part of the problem, imo.
Feeding pellets is (or should be)the result of you having done your research and come up with that it is the best solution availabe.
With that said, a pellet only diet isnt good. I prefer to their diet to be pellets, veggies and fruit, and seeds only as treats. Our birds get pellets for breakfast (a determined amount based on their weights), and are fed lots of veggies/fruit in the evening. That way you get the best of both worlds.
I've found some on ebay but put simply, a 1kg of seed costs £1.25 and lasts just more than a week, while a 1kg pack of parrot pellets costs around £8 to £10. Basically, it would cost more in a week to feed my small parrots than it would to feed my 27 kg dog.
Owning parrots is expensive, 8-10£ a week for their pellet supply is nothing. Parrot food is many times more expensive than dog/cat food, simply because its a less common pet, demand is lower, and thus they can charge alot of the people who actually need the stuff.
I estimate that my two parrots have an upkeep of around 100-150£ per month, this being the total cost of toys, food, vet care, cages etc.
Feeding seeds because they are cheaper is a bad idea, as they arent as nutrious, and way too fatty and can cause serious liver problems down the line. This can lead to either a dead parrot, or huge vet bills.
Honestly, I'm a bit wary of pellets, I don't know what's in them, the cheapest are brightly coloured, which people say are bad anyway. At least when I give them seeds and fruit I know what their eating, parrots don't eat pellets in the wild and I really don't see how feeding them an expensive processed biscuit (pellet) with mulipule ingredients is better than feeding them natural unprocessed seeds.
Stay away from the cheap and colorful ones. Grey_moon made a list of pellets brands and their ingredients etc, see if you can find it with the search function.
Anyone got any fors and againsts about pellets?
Yes, see above
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*Mainly based on a lot of posts made here on this forum.
! That puts the cost down to roughly ~3£/week, surely thats not too expensive 
