New Diet for my Cockatiels?

[rriseden]

I have two cockatiels- a male and a female- and plan on attempting to breed them in a few months. I want them to have the healthiest diet possible so the breeding will go smoothly. However, they aren't really on any organized food schedule and I was hoping to change that. Currently they eat a pellet/seed mixture, have millet for snacks occasionally, and we have a play tree for them with red millet and sun flower seeds they can forage for. They also get vegetables like cilantro, broccoli, and lettuce, just not as often as I'd like or on a schedule. So basically I would just like to know what you all feed your cockatiels on a daily basis, specifically if you're a breeder. Thanks.

[Pajarita]

I don't breed parrots, I am completely against it. Especially cockatiels and budgies of which you find hundreds in CL... Also, if you are in the States, the breeding season is right now and it will be over in a couple of months so make sure you know everything there is to know about their physiology and how their endocrine system works because breeding out of season is not something a good, knowledgeable breeder would do.

My tiels eat gloop with leafy greens for breakfast and a budgie seed mix for dinner (I don't like pellets, I think they are ultimately unhealthy for a parrot, especially the smaller species that are partial ground foragers like tiels, budgies, lovies, plets). Gloop is a dish made out of cooked whole grains mixed with cooked and diced or chopped veggies. My recipe has oat groats, dehulled barley, wheat kernels, black rice, brown basmati rice from India or Indonesia, kamut, lentils, small white beans, broccoli, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, corn, peas, carrots, mote (it's a South American giant hominy corn), green beans, flax, sesame and chia seeds and one extra ingredient which varies from batch to batch, sometimes it's artichoke hearts, sometimes it's beets, sometimes its palm hearts, etc. This becomes the basic recipe and everyday, I add some other stuff to it as well as seasonings to give it the flavor of the day which I alternate between fruity and spicy. I also give them whatever fruit I give to the other parrots but there is only one that eats apples and wild blueberries, the other 5 don't. But they do like their leafy greens and they get a different one every day. As to their dinner, all 6 of them get two fistfuls of the budgie seed mix which would add up to a measuring cup, roughly.

[rriseden]

Well, breeding isn't the most important thing, I still want them to have a healthier diet even if they don't mate. My male tiel's last owner fed him chips and sugary cereal and he said he tried to feed him vegetables and he wouldn't eat them but that was definitely a lie because he loooves broccoli and leafy lettuce. Out of curiousity, why do you believe pellets are unhealthy for parrots? I was told that pellets are better for them than seed. Their meals you described sound really good! I'll have to try that. I don't know about all the ingredients because I think some of the seeds are expensive but I could modify it I guess. I'm sure they'll like it and I like to cook for them. Usually we give them food that's not their seed on a little plate and keep the seed in the cage all day but maybe I should change that? Like put what I cook for them in their cage in the morning and switch it to seed later?