Dietary Differences in Parrots

[Wolf]

While browsing through the postings to see where I might be able to be helpful I came across this post in reply to a members request for dietary information.

You are bringing up something very important here, and that is that different parrots do have different dietary requirements. it would be really nice if we had more information about those differences in this forum in one document as so many members would benefit. Would you happen to know of one?

I do not know of any such document or topic of this nature either here on this forum, or in any other forum which I have visited or am a member of. I have not even found anything of this nature in any of the Avian medical books that I use as references, nor have I run across any studies that actually address this issue. The only thing that I have found in regards to something of this nature is that we should each make the effort to research for ourselves to discover the natural diets for the individual species of parrots that we have are, so that we can base their diets on this information. This is most often what is recommended by people that actually have parrots, but does not seem to be considered to be especially important by the parrot food manufacturers or by the avian medical community as a whole.

While, I do think that this is important and do recommend that we do this type of research into the dietary requirements of our birds, I do not really know how to begin such an undertaking considering that there are over 300 different species of parrots. I do not know if it would be adequate to break this information down by each species or if parrot family would be adequate or if it would even be possible to do in a forum type of environment.

So I thought that I would ask our membership what they thought about this and that is the reason for this topic, let me know what your thoughts on this are.

[Pajarita]

I agree with you. It's impossible to put all the dietary needs of all the species of parrots kept as pets in a single place. One could make generalizations like all parrots have diets that consist of high moisture items, African parrots can stand more protein than South American parrots, cockatoos eat more insects than any other species of parrots, amazons can't take high fat and protein, canope eaters consume more green plant material, ground foragers protein sources are usually grass seeds and are not known for eating fruits... that kind of thing. But these statements, while true, are so very vague that are not really helpful at all. But it could be done in a more specific way if we could have separate forums for 'groups' (like macaws, cockatoos, amazons, pois, etc) and 'pins' or 'stickies' (threads that are always at the top of the forum) that would detail their specific natural diet and what their nutritional parameters are.

[Bird woman]

Great idea!!!!!

[seagoatdeb]

I posted that question and because we have all done research for our types of parrots, I though we all may have some thing we could contribue and then make a post in here of what we have so far. So thanks Wolf. For the owners that have a lot of parrrots they tend to feed a chop/gloop to all their parrots but most members have only one or two parrots and so gloops and chops are sometimes not the best option for them. I have two small Pois.

For me it has become much easier to just feed large pieces of Vegetables to my pois in the morning ( they are talon eaters) which may have legumes or a grain in it, and then for snacks they get a bit of what i am eating/and or bits of nuts. I have started eating some veggies in the morning with them and it is good for me too...lol.... For their dinner they get fruit with any dry food I am feeding that day seeds/nuts etc..... Gaugan taught me a long time ago that she likes to have some fruit and then some dry food and then some more fruit. She likes to mix her wet with dry. I save my fruit untill the second meal, because if i didnt they would not eat their veggies.

[seagoatdeb]

I agree with you. It's impossible to put all the dietary needs of all the species of parrots kept as pets in a single place. One could make generalizations like all parrots have diets that consist of high moisture items, African parrots can stand more protein than South American parrots, cockatoos eat more insects than any other species of parrots, amazons can't take high fat and protein, canope eaters consume more green plant material, ground foragers protein sources are usually grass seeds and are not known for eating fruits... that kind of thing. But these statements, while true, are so very vague that are not really helpful at all. But it could be done in a more specific way if we could have separate forums for 'groups' (like macaws, cockatoos, amazons, pois, etc) and 'pins' or 'stickies' (threads that are always at the top of the forum) that would detail their specific natural diet and what their nutritional parameters are.

That would be a great idea and I like it too.

[Wolf]

I tend to agree that this could and would be a good way to address this issue, but I do not have the authority to create these forums ( even if I knew how) nor do I have the authority to make stickies.

What needs to happen if there are enough members who are interested in seeing either these forums added or for there to be stickies on these topics if to either contact Michael and ask him about them and give him your opinions as to why you feel that this would benefit the forum in general, or post your thoughts and reasons here in this topic and I will be happy to help direct his attention to this thread where he can read your thoughts and opinions for himself. Michael will listen to well thought out suggestions and come back to us with his thoughts about it as well.

[seagoatdeb]

i would like to have one on the poicephalus parrots. It would be great as they are unique as a group. The tend to eat more nuts than some other parrots. Also the other African Parrots as well are different. i have researched about how Selenium is very high in African soil and most African species need to have more Selenium than other parrots.

[BerthaCrawford]

When feeding pet birds, we must realize that the species of birds we have as companion pets do not all have the same dietary needs. Just as our North American wild birds such as chickadees, woodpeckers, and hummingbirds do not eat the same foods, neither do our companion birds.
Dry diets (except pelleted diets) do need to be supplemented with a good vitamin/mineral/amino acid combo fine powder that adheres to seed. Nuts such as pistachios, pignolis (pine nuts), pecans and macadamias can be given sparingly for variety. Macaws' diet should consist of mainly mixed nuts in-shell, some seed mix and plenty of produce. Working to get nut meat out of a shell is all part of the joy a parrot or macaw gets from their diet.