Cockatiel food: What to use, when and how much?

[BozidarL]

Currently, Im feeding my female Lutino with just a normal seed mix for cockatiels and budgies, but after I heard that birds get cancers, bloody pee n all those bad stuff, I scared for my bird, because shes earing this for more than a year! I live in a small town near Croatia's capitol city Zagreb, and here is only one small pet store. Im never buying food from here simply cuz it is not, uhm how do I say it, I ll say it doesnt look good to me. We always go to Zagreb to buy food. We were buying it from the same big pet store we got Sunny from before, but now, whenever we need to buy food, we just go in the nearest pet store to buy "convenient" and we aim for the same mix, ofc not the same but, close :/. I want to know what do I need to buy for my cockatiel and in what quantityies and when should I use it. Also, should I use the seed mix or just that what I buy? And just so you dont say Im lazy and asking you for everything, I indeed was looking up in these forums but I never got a accurate diet for cockatiel.

[Roonil Wazlib]

I'm not sure about the proper diet for her, as i haven' researched cockatiel diets, however, I would defiantly begin with adding some fresh fruit and veg, every day - don't be discouraged if shes doesn't eat it - if she hasn't had them before, she probably wont be interested straight away. You might 'waste' a fair bit of food leading up to this, but she does need it in her diet. An all seed diet causes weight gain, fatty liver disease and other medical problems. By offering fresh fruit and veg daily, although she might not eat it, she will begin to play with it, and then she'll be on her way to eating it. Google a list of toxic and non-toxic fruit and veg for your parrot, and you should get a good idea of what is suitable for her - when i first bought fruit and veg for my boy, i felt like one of 'those' people who was going on like, a health food craze, hippy diet

Oh, and personally, i like to think that no question is a stupid question - you are doing the very best you can as a 'human pet' for your parrot, and this is what we are here for -- even if your simply asking a question just to double check or get reassurance that you are doing the correct thing is absolutely a-ok

[Wolf]

I buy most of my birds foods from the supermarkets when I buy my foods. The only thing that I buy online or from a pet store is the seed mixes that I feed them for dinner. Whole grains vegetables, fruits, leafy greens, beans, lentils, are all things that I also eat so I just buy enough to give them their foods from my grocery list.

[Pajarita]

Well, if you can buy whole grains like oats, wheat, barley, brown rice, etc. you can cook them, mix them with white beans and cooked vegetables and make gloop which is great for tiels (several recipes in other threads). Out of the roughly 70 or 80 tiels I've had under my care, only two ate a fruit willingly (just apple and nothing else) so don't worry if yours doesn't. But they all like greens (lettuce, escarole, dandelion greens, kale, broccoli, etc) a lot so, as long as you give yours different greens and gloop for breakfast, and a seed mix that doesn't have a lot of sunflower seeds (you can use millet, canary seed, safflower, quinoa, thistle, etc), it will be fine. They also love corn on the cob and pomegranate seeds.

[BozidarL]

Alright guys, thanks! Im talking about my schedule for my bird, see my post about it:
I will give her the mix in the morning, for the first feeding time I will give her some apple, just to see if she will eat a bit, like, tiny pieces, in between when I said I wont feed her or give her a bit - I will leave her 1/8 of a mug with the mix, so she isnt hungry, for the second feeding time I will give her vegetables, probably some carrot or persley, and for the last feeding I will give her the mix of seeds, fruits and vegetables like you Pajarita told me in PM.

[Wolf]

I have suggested that you spend some time doing research on your bird and am again urging you to put some time in to research your bird. Like most other parrots, cockatiels primarily eat twice a day which is in the mornings and again in the evenings. While it is not uncommon for them to nibble at various times during the day, they eat the majority of their food in the mornings and in the evenings.
When you have a bird in your care it is always best to learn what the birds natural behaviors and habits are and learn to use them in you interactions with the bird. How can you hope to create a viable schedule for your bird until you learn its natural behaviors?

[Roonil Wazlib]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhPY7yNKPp0

This guy and his wife have a flock of a tun of parrots (including a toucan) and do parrot shows and are trainers, etc... They give wonderful information

[Pajarita]

I don't trust the advice of anybody who exploits animals for a living. The way I look at it is that if they loved the animals, they would not be exploiting them and, if they don't love them, their advice is highly questionable because they will always opt for the easy or cheap way of doing things. Parrots are very, very, very hard to keep well. It takes a lot of time, money, commitment, patience and dedication and anybody who regards keeping animals as a money producing endeavor is not going to do what's best for them but what's best for him/her because a business bottom line is profit but a bird guardian's bottom line is the wellbeing of the bird.

And he proves it by recommending pellets which most bird people know are not good for tiels in the long term (kidney issues) but are an easy and relatively inexpensive solution.

[Roonil Wazlib]

Pretthttp://www.freedomorganicsaustrali ... rmula.html sure dave and jamie love thier parrots. Thier life is all about parrots. Just because they have combined hobby/love into doing something that earns them money while helping parrots in need, and giving out information to help educate, doesnt mean they dont love their parrots. By making their jobs about the parrots they are able to dedicate more time with them - how is that not love?

My vet doesnt want me to feed grains, but said pellets. And to get rid of sead completly. I think grains/pellets is a fifty fifty split and tje research still is not clear, as we know. Im sitting here wondering if I should take your advise as a faceless person on the internet, or my vet whom ive met fave to face and works on a specially vet for exotics. in the end, im going to do what i think is best, and that may be a combination of both. But just because, for example, a mother breastsfeeds or bottlefeeds, doesnt mean they love their child any less or anymore.

As for which one is the 'correct thing' to feed. U have your opinion and others have theirs, and from their standpoint, they are clear on what is best for what ever reason. If i choose to feed my parrot 10% grains and 10% pellets, that doesnt make me a bad person - it just means im doing what i think, whith the information from place a and b and my own research, is the best thing.

this: http://www.freedomorganicsaustralia.com.au/formula.html is something I may get to supplement - I wouldnt get anything with presertivies. But most likly, I will be feeding him the proper ingredients used to make the pellets rather then the pellets themselves - but the pellets will be a good substitute (organic) when hes staying at my parents and I cant take him camping for the weekend. As long as the pellets only act as a small percentage of the diet, or used when cooking is unable to happen, I think they would be fine and actually a good thing for the parrot to eat and like in casw of emergencys

[Wolf]

Sounds much better than the pellets that are available here in the States. Many of the reasons that I don't feed pellets and instead cook for my birds are mentioned in their site.