Red Fronted Macaw seed

[fishfan5]

My Red Fronted Macaw loves nuts, its her favorite thing to eat. I feed her peanuts, almonds, walnuts, hazelnut, and brazil nut. But she has trouble eating some of them, the walnuts and brazil nuts are to big for her, and she cant crack the hazelnut. Can anyone suggest a nut mix that is better suited for her, thanks.

[Wolf]

A couple of quick questions for you and I will try to give you an answer to yours. Are these nuts fed as food or as treats? What is the rest of her diet? How old is she?

[Pajarita]

I would eliminate the peanuts but, aside from that, if these nuts are the only source of protein (no seeds, no pellets, no nutriberries, etc) or used as treats, the mix is fine (much more nutritious than a seed mix, that's for sure). Red-fronted are called 'the smallest of the large macaws' but they are more like 'the largest of the minis' and the minis don't have the beak size and strength to crack the harder nuts so what you need to do is crack them open a bit (a single, semi-hard hit with a hammer so the shell is cracked but doesn't quite fall apart). Pistachios are a very nice nut for parrots because it's lower in saturated fat than the others (brazil nuts are the highest, I think, so you might want to reconsider them).

A word of caution, they are not large macaws and they don't require as much protein or fat as they do so don't feed too many of them. Red macaws come from an area where the natural vegetation (dry forest) has disappeared long ago and has become desert-like (plenty of cacti) so they eat crops like maize, wheat and fruits so keep that in mind when planning its diet.

[fishfan5]

She is 10 years old. I do not only feed her nuts, her main seed is kaytee fiest food and zupreem fruit blend. But I do throw nuts in there because she likes them.

[Wolf]

I was concerned that she might be too young to crack open the nuts, but that is not the case. I would guess that she doesn't chew a lot of wood, but I could be wrong on that. Anyway Pajarita has pretty much answered, but I think that you could try sprouted sunflower seed to her diet. I am not the biggest fan of pellets, but even less so of the colored ones. I would suggest that you add some fruit and veggies to her dirt and cut back on the seed mix and pellets as you get her to eat more fruits and veggies, which are better for her anyway.

[fishfan5]

OK thanks for the help guys.

[Pajarita]

She is 10 years old. I do not only feed her nuts, her main seed is kaytee fiest food and zupreem fruit blend. But I do throw nuts in there because she likes them.

Ay, I am sorry to say that neither are really any good. Kaytee Fiesta has sulfured fruits, raw peanuts and artificial coloring (among other bad things like corn gluten, cracked corn -another potential source of aspergillus and aflatoxin- soybean meal, etc) and Zupreen fruit blend is pretty much the worst pellet ever for parrots (lots and lots of artificial colors and sugar!). I don't feed pellets because I've done a lot of research and, in my personal opinion, they are not the best dietary option for parrots but, if you are going to feed them, please consider using TOPs and no other. Also, both foods are too high in protein so free-feeding them and giving nuts at the same time is too much.