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| Avian Nutrition  Avian Nutrition is one of the most important aspects of owning a bird. Bird's have a very different digestive system then most animals; they must be fed a proper diet to stay healthy. There are many different brands and companies selling bird food and each claim that theirs alone is best. In the wild, birds eat many different types of food. They are not just eating seed, or pellet, or a single diet of anything. There needs to be a variety as well as a balance to stay healthy. If you compare what an Eclectus eats in the wild, to what we feed them in captivity; there is a major difference and you may see some important food groups lacking in their captive diet. The amount of exercise a wild parrot has daily is considerably different as well. A captive diet given to a wild parrot would not be able to sustain him for long distance travel or other wild parrot activities as our captive diets have a much lower caloric content. Considering most parrot owners do not have their birds in flights (flight cages), allowing them to fly for hours a day, our captive diets are sufficient as they are lower in sugar, calories and fat. Balance is crucial to our birds diet! Our birds depend on us to give them a proper and well balanced diet consisting of fresh fruits and vegetables, protein, mixed nuts and grains, as well as pellets. This diet will consist of different amounts of each food depending on each species of bird.
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| Specialized Diets: 
Lorys and Lorikeets have a diet that consists of primarily fruit, nectar and pollen. Lorikeets should not be fed a seed or pellet based diet. Lorikeets have a paint brush like tongue in which they use to drink nectar. In the wild they crush up fruits with their beak, drink the liquid and discard the solid. When considering a Lory or Lorikeet you must think of its dietary needs and if you are able to provide for them. Their food, nectar mix must be changed every 4 hours. As a result of their liquid based diet...you guessed it...projectile, liquid feces. These birds are able to shoot their feces across the room. 
Eclectus require a special diet, different from other parrots. Many people get an Eclectus because, "they are pretty". I hear it time and time again. Once they get them they are not fed properly. Reba was not fed a proper diet consisting of TOO much sunflower seeds. She now has the beginning stages of fatty liver disease. Eclectus MUST have more fresh fruits and veggies, as well as grains to stay healthy.  The Ekkie Diet:  1 1/2 cups dry beans (mixed like for soup) cook off for 1 1/5 hours and rinse until clean.
1 cup of whole grain macaroni noodles, cooked off and not tender like for humans. Cook 1/2 of the time.
1 cup pellet
1 whole mango (minus the pit of course) chopped
1 whole pear (no seeds) chopped
1 cup of applesauce
1 bag of frozen mixed veggies.
1 whole plum (no pit)
1 cup of dried parrot diet ( like you use as supplement)
Mix all together and freeze in individual bags.
Can I feed an all seed diet? A diet based on just seeds is not a healthy or nutritious diet. Parakeets are know to live 25 years in the wild; however, as pets, due to poor diet they only tend to live to 10 years of age. 
Malnutrition and other diseases brought on by malnutrition is a big reason that pet birds die at a young age. Not long ago (15 years ago) all birds were fed a diet of basic seeds and that was all known that birds ate in the wild and in cages. As of 1996 all imports of birds were stopped and more studies and investigating were done to document the dietary needs, mating habits, and plucking in birds in the wild. In the wild birds do not pluck, can you guess why? We create these problems with birds and then point fingers at vets, pet stores, breeders, and anyone else that can be blamed for these issues. Lack of education is the main reason these things happen to these birds, which could have been stopped before it even began.  
Remer and Chico were fed a very poor diet. These two were the worst case of malnutrition that my vet had ever seen. Remer has the beginning stages of fatty liver disease. There are many diseases that can accompany malnutrition, tumors may appear, birds sometimes will pluck due to a poor diet, fatty liver disease, sudden death due to liver faliure, and there are many more that I have not listed.  
This sweet little girl is Jocko, she was fed a normal cockatiel seed and as stated above, there is too much fat, sugar, and caloric content in an all seed diet for a captive bird. Jocko has devoloped tumors on both of her wings and beginning near her eyes. She is now eating an organic grain and fresh diet, this will hopefully stop the tumour growth. | | Mixed Seed Diets: A diet of nuts and mixed seed is pretty controversial. Some vets say not to feed them seed mix at all, but I believe it is an important part of their diet as well. I don't feed sunflower seeds to my birds because they usually have been on way too much their life. I do feed them a diet high in nuts, and other goodies. Pellet Diets:   Pellets are also an important part of your birds diet.You should provide your bird a pellet that is high in quality. You should offer pellet at all times in order to provide a healthy diet. Dietary Requirements: 
Fruits:
Fruit should make up approx. 15% of your bird's diet. 
Fruits consist of mostly sugar and water, you should feed them in small amounds. Balance is key when it comes to avian nutrition. You must not have too much of a particular food group, you also need variety. Do not give your birds grapes everyday. Switch it up and offer them Oranges, Kiwi, Lemons, Strawberry, Blueberry, Rasberries, Banana, Grapes, Pomegrante, and Apples. This is a HOOKBILL only diet, as soft bills have different dietary requirements. Vegetables:
Vegetables should make up approx. 25% of your bird's diet. 
Leafy greens, tomato, carrots, broccoli, zucchini, squash, peas, beets, green beens, and any color pepper, even hot jalapenos (don't give your bird kisses after they eat them!) should make up a large part of their diet. Frozen veggies are very nutitious as well as easy to make. Grains, Pastas & Legumes:
50% of your bird's diet should be made up of Grains, Pastas & Legumes. 
There are many different dry mixed versions as well and you cam make it yourself. The dry mix should be given to your birds while you are not able to give them fresh foods. These are very imortant and should be given to your bird daily and offered 3 - 4 times a day. Dry Mix is not Seed Mix. There are a lot of recipes for you to make at home to ad these grains and goodies into your bird's diet. Birdie Cookbook 
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