by Pajarita » Fri Jul 19, 2019 8:01 am
Hi, Dooley and Gray (you did not tell us his/her name), welcome to the forum.
As to what diet... well, that's pretty much up to you. I suggest you do research on your own about their natural diet in the wild but I would be the first one to admit that this is much easier said than done (and I know because I've been doing it for over 25 years). What I can do is tell you what I have learned and what I feed my own and you can then make your own decision.
As far as I have been able to ascertain, grays are picky eaters so the sooner you start them on a good diet and the more consisten and persistent you are, the better off the bird will be. Going by what I have read, African birds, in general, can consume a bit more protein than South or Central American birds - Australian bird vary, some require very little protein (like tiels, budgies, ekkies, etc) and some can take much more (especially some species of cockatoos).
Now, my research into pellets versus seeds/nuts has shown me that pellets are not and never will be the best dietary option for parrots. Why? Because they are too processed (no phytonutrients) WAAAYYYY too dry (10% max versus 85-95% moisture of the wild diets and, no, most birds do not make up the difference by drinking more water because they are not hard-wired for it -crepuscular feeders!), the greatest majority of them have inferior (animal feed grade) ingredients, soy (real bad for animals because of the estrogenic and goitrogenic side effects) and man-made vitamins (which are not utilized by the body efficiently) plus artificial stuff (colorants, flavors, etc) AND, to put the icing on the cake, you never know how much protein you are feeding (because NONE of them have an actual value, they are all 'more than' or 'minimum'). I feed my birds gloop with raw produce for breakfast and all day picking and a measured portion of seeds/nuts (for the gray, it's mostly nuts which vary from batch to batch but they is always, at least, 3 different ones). I supplement with a multivitamin/mineral mainly so as to provide vit D3 and to catch whatever lack there might be in the diet. It has worked great for all my birds for many, many years... the healthy ones stay healthy and the sick ones (liver or kidney damage from a diet too high in protein) get better.