Homemade Parrot food

[Scotty]

Of course there are some things for various birds not to feed, so just learn what those are.

But for the most part, the way I see it, birds are like vegetarians, capable of eating pretty much anything healthy veggie we eat as humans...

Of course protein needed, someone quote me if wrong, but it seems like for most birds, that's in the 15%-20% ish range....

I believe too that some nutts should be kept as treats, and sunflower seeds...

[Pajarita]

Actually, my birds only get that much protein during breeding and molting season, they get less during the winter but it also depends on the species (grays, senegals and toos getting more than amazons, conures, tiels, budgies, jardine).

[Jakrob4]

Many studies show that wild birds live short lives because of malnutrition? Could you please post links to two or three of them? Because I've never seen any and I do research every single day.

And, yes, you are correct that parrots do not eat sweet potato in the wild but you can't really be serious about comparing sweet potatoes (the KING of all vegetables in terms of nutrition with absolutely zero negative points) and seaweed which is so very high in sodium and iodine (and an element which over-supplementing is now been studied for possible link to certain types of cancer as well as hyperthyroidism - see here: http://www.livestrong.com/article/49554 ... nd-iodine/). Let me explain my point. Parrots eat plant materials like fruits, buds, leaves, nuts, etc. Now, the highest iodine content in plant material occurs in strawberries which have 15 micrograms (1 gram = 1,000,000 micrograms) per cup of fruit but parrots don't eat an entire cup and they certainly don't eat strawberries everyday but they would eat the pellets every day and clorella, spirulina and any other seaweed have a lot of iodine, which doesn't seem to be a necessity for a parrot (some of them in the hundreds of thousands of micrograms - see this: http://www.naturalways.com/chlorella-nu ... alysis.htm). Plus, seaweed increases uric acid levels -another problem with parrots.

I understand that you incorporated the seaweed in order to boost nutritional values naturally but you might want to consider another natural source for those minerals.

I could be wrong, I haven't done any hands on research myself but it is my belief that many wild parrots are living with malnutrition from what I have read in the past.
Here is some references:
Article written by Howard Voren-http://www.voren.com/articles/are-natural-diets-nutritional/ he did the research himself. I have spoken to Howard on a few occasions regarding parrot nutrition and he is one of the most knowledgeable in the field.

Quote from an article released by Harrisons bird food -
"Some of these dietary theories are based on observations of what birds eat in the wild.
Whilst a knowledge of wild feeding ecology, nutritional composition and availability of
wild foods including their seasonal variations is useful, placing too much emphasis on
this approach can be harmful. There is only a moderate understanding of what free
ranging birds do eat, partly because their diets vary with the seasons and because the
majority of companion birds are opportunistic feeders. Research has shown that many
wild birds die from malnutrition when the correct foods are not available or not fed by the
parent birds resulting in a high infant mortality." http://hbf-uk.co.uk/downloads/nutrition.pdf

I have read more but do not have the time to find them.

I really think you should step away from trying to base your birds diet on what they might naturally eat. Humans wouldn't naturally eat majority of the chemicals made in labs to act as vitamins and other nutrients, yet they seem to be curing many deficiencies worldwide without too many adverse effects. Majority of pellets are so far from a real food its disturbing, yet they are keeping many birds alive for quite long lifespans in comparison to most peoples attempts at a "healthy diet". Now I''m no advocate for processed foods with fortified or enriched nutrients, though it seems they are pretty close to real thing. If you can trust feeding Cyanocobalamin as a source of b12 (b12 supplement in all pellets), that is made by adding pottasium cyanide to a bacterial fermentation, I'm sure we can get away with using some seaweed as a iodine supplement.

Now regarding the seaweed and algae.
First of all, you have no idea what quantity of seaweed and algae is being fed, so you have no idea what amount of sodium or iodine is being adding to their diet.

The link to the chlorella nutritonal analysis you posted states that it only contains 400mcg of iodine per 100g. You would be pushing it to feed 10g of chlorella per kg of food eaten (1% of diet). 10g would contain 40 mcg of iodine.
Spirulina contains only about 500mcg of iodine per 100g. Again just say we are adding 10g/kg (1% of diet) which would equal 50mcg of iodine.
Add these together and you have 90 mcg of iodine per kg of food eaten - Current knowledge is most parrots need about 300mcg of iodine per kg of food eaten.
Now it would appear if using spirulina and chlorella as 2% of the diet we are still falling short of the recommended intake by 210 mcg/kg.

Dulse and kelp on the other hand are extremely high in iodine and should be used vary sparingly, though they do make a great booster to fill up that last 210 mcg of iodine needed.

Seaweeds and algaes have been used by aviculturists for quite some time now without any recorded problems, except for some unfounded claims on foot tapping in eclectus. They are also an ingredient in many of the current pellets on the market, and are promoted by many popular parrot trainers and parrot dietitians. I have no doubts that excess iodine causes problems, I still think these sources are an excellent choice if used in small quantities. They also have a very strong flavour and most parrots won't eat more than a very small amount.