New parrot Making my own pellets

[Bongoboy]

Hello

My name is Kieran and i am the proud new owner of a Black Headed Caique named Bongo!

while i am used to having parrots at home due to my family owning a Red Lored Amazon this is the first time ive owned a parrot myself.

its his second day home and hes 12 weeks old.


My family amazon was until recently fed on a seed mix diet and has only recently been converted to pellets.

However Pellets can be quite expensive in the UK and are virtually no existant in shops so can only been ordered online.

so i decided to have a go at making my own

i used:

- wholegrain oats 60%
- pumpkin and sunflower seeds (5%)
- assorted nuts (5%)
- dried veg in the form of peas and died mash potato (no sulphur dioxide) (20 %)
- dried fruit in the form of raisins and dried pinapple (citrus extract as preservative)
- very small amount of oyster shell for calcium


The following was processed into a powder

i then added a very tiny amount of water to bind it together and pressed it out thin on a baking tray and but it in the oven until it had completely dried and set.

one i had crumbled it up the result were a dried pellet like substance which was ALOT cheaper and not much effort.

Parrot seems to eat it.

do people think this is an ok diet for the parrot ?(along with his fresh fruit veg of course and seeds and nuts as treats)

[Pajarita]

Well, I would add more whole grains and not use the dry potato flakes or the sunflower seeds which don't really add any nutritional value to it. The pineapple is OK as long as it's the kind that is dried naturally (which looks awful but it's healthy -I reconstitute it by soaking it overnight in hot water and chop it for one of the gloop flavors and the 'fruity' birdie bread) but you might want to rethink the recipe as it doesn't really have any betacarotene or a whole lot of vitamins and minerals in it. And adding calcium is OK but without vit D3 it's pretty useless.

Personally, I would not bother with a homemade pellet. If you are willing to cook for him, why dry up his food in the oven? One of the biggest problems with pellets is that they are way too dry for animals that were created to eat food that has a water content of 85 to 95% so the best food for them is quite moist. I give mine a dish of cooked grains (oat groats, hulled barley, wheat kernels, brown basmati/red/black/wild rice, kamut), pulses (black/brown lentils, small white beans) and cooked veggies (anything big is chopped into small pieces but not minutely, just small: corn, peas, carrots, broccoli, white hominy, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, green beans and one other element which varies but, most usually, it ends up been artichoke hearts because they are so good for their livers). All you have to do is split it into daily portions, freeze them individually, take one out for the following day so it thaws naturally and add the 'flavor' of the day (things like raisins, currants, the reconstituted dried pineapple, unsweetened coconut, naturally dried and unsulfured apple chips, etc for a fruity flavor and black olives, green/yellow/orange/red pepper, chopped sundried tomatoes, etc for the 'spicy' flavors -I also add seasonings like garlic, oregano, basil, chili powder, pepper, etc).