Am I giving my cockatiel the best diet?

[Eric&Rebecca]

Hi everyone,

Having read a few threads on cockatiel diets I wanted to check that I'm doing it right:

Our cockatiel is 5 months old, has not had first molt yet. He has Prestige Cockatiel mix which has a small amount of pellets in the mix of seeds (I remove sunflower seeds so he only has a few), he has 2-3 tablespoons of this a day. We are supplementing this with 1 tblespoon of pellets (Harrison's). He also has 5cm of millet spray every other day and some sort of fruit (usually apple or pear in the morning he's not big on fruits) and the vegetables/salad (watercress, carrot, brocolli etc). We remove the seed mix from the cage when we feed him the fruits and veggies. Also once per month he is allowed a treat stick.

Our cockatiel is healthy, extremely active (he is out of his cage a lot and flies a lot, sings, whistles, chirps, mimics, climbs and plays with.... the whole repetoire of male behaviour) and his breast bone can be felt easily but is not visible at any time. He was normal weight for his age at last check up.

Does this sound like a balanced diet/good diet for a young cockatiel?- we are trying to increase the pellets over time. Our previous cockatiels have been on an all seed diet with veggies and fruit and have lived to 15-20 years old with little to no health issues. As this is my first cockatiel outside of family pets I decided to do things a little differently.

[Polarn]

sounds pretty good, only changes I may personally have done is to use the milletspray as treats and not provide any as part of meals (if yours is as much of a milletjunkie as mine is).

another suggestion to get some greens in for a taste might be to mix it in with some wholegrain pasta (all of mine goes crazy when they get pasta and greens cooked for em, this is also a good way to get some new greens thrown in, couse they'll eat anything the pasta has been next to pretty much).

[Eric&Rebecca]

sounds pretty good, only changes I may personally have done is to use the milletspray as treats and not provide any as part of meals (if yours is as much of a milletjunkie as mine is).

another suggestion to get some greens in for a taste might be to mix it in with some wholegrain pasta (all of mine goes crazy when they get pasta and greens cooked for em, this is also a good way to get some new greens thrown in, couse they'll eat anything the pasta has been next to pretty much).

Hi Polarn,

Thanks for the advice about the millet. Ours can't seem to figure out how to eat pasta but I will maybe try him with wholegrain rice as it's smaller. Ours went after it like it was crack which is why we limited it to 5cm, the vet said he needs it regularly until he is about a year because he is so active but I understand what you mean about it. We also try to put it in a position in the cage where he has to climb to get to it.

Thanks for your help I will try some greens too. What greens specifically do you recommend... just normal ones from the grocers washed and lightly steamed?

[Polarn]

Yeah I'm not suggesting any reduction in millet really, just use it as a way for him to get to you to get it (if he eats from your hand that is) Pretty much use it as something he only gets to eat when spending time with you making you ascosiated with the millet.

As for greens, there are people far more knowledgable than me to birdies diets, I try my best but some things I honestly doesnt know what their called in english and while researching or looking for new things to introduce to the diet I always have to look up what the proper thing is. like lettuce I know its called lettuce but I'm not sure exactly what kind of lettuce (if there is different kinds) if i look for a translation for it I get "sallad" and we have variouse kinds of green leafy things named "something"-sallad, besides calling a prepped salad with alot of greens the same thing... I suggest searching the forums for old threads, there are plenty of information written/rewritten and written again if you start looking into older threads

[Eric&Rebecca]

Thanks Polarn, I'll have a look and it's fine if you want to say in Swedish... Eric my boyfriend is Swedish from Helsenbourg!

Thanks for your help

[Polarn]

Tell him thats not sweden, thats denmark (arguably northern germany!) J/K lived in "klippan" for a short period of time

[Elizebird]

Sounds pretty good to me. I go a little more all out on the veggies, but your cockatiel has it great.

My tiel is just like polarn's - total millet junky (she gets it every now and again as a rare treat), obsessed with pasta, and anything pasta touches. She does like and eat all her veg and fruit though, I don't worry about what she throws away, like with my 'too.

Try broccoli. My birds prefer it steamed, but I figure it's healthier with all the enzymes intact and raw. The texture is similar to millet on the head and my tiel goes crazy.

Another tip, my birds don't like cold veg/fruit straight from the fridge. They prefer it room temperature, and occasionally I warm things up slightly.

[Eric&Rebecca]

Sounds pretty good to me. I go a little more all out on the veggies, but your cockatiel has it great.

My tiel is just like polarn's - total millet junky (she gets it every now and again as a rare treat), obsessed with pasta, and anything pasta touches. She does like and eat all her veg and fruit though, I don't worry about what she throws away, like with my 'too.

Try broccoli. My birds prefer it steamed, but I figure it's healthier with all the enzymes intact and raw. The texture is similar to millet on the head and my tiel goes crazy.

Another tip, my birds don't like cold veg/fruit straight from the fridge. They prefer it room temperature, and occasionally I warm things up slightly.

Thanks Elizebird!

Our cockatiel is now eating brown rice with steamed greens (kale, brocolli, etc) as well as now being on 80% pellet diet with some of his seed mix. We only give him small amounts of millet spray per day because our vet says he needs it as he a young bird and it's apparently good for them until after their first molt. After that we are definitely planning on it only being a treat. He took to the pellet diet straight away when we put him on it which was really good. We didn't have to go through the awkward transition phase I sometimes hear about.

He's going for his check up on Saturday and probably a manicure so I'll ask the vet too but thank you everyone for their help.

[GreenWing]

I like Polarn's suggestion of millet sticks as a treat (Tiki is cray over millet), but may I suggest quinoa pasta? It's a great grain and good for our birdies.

[MikeLK]

Kudos on the care that you are giving your cockatiel! The diet you are giving to him along with the added advice the others gave is perfect. I wish that everybody that owns birds would take the time to educate themselves on the proper care like you have.
Mike
http://www.what-do-parrots-eat.com