Considering how long parrots have been kept and bred in captivity, one might think that an article about proper nutrition is just a dry treatise of basic information. But the topic of the right diet was and is a difficult and emotional journey for me and my birds, as well as for the pet bird hobby as a whole. On the one hand, there is a large discrepancy between scientific findings and practice, but also hardened fronts between experienced owners/breeders and these new findings, some of which are sometimes highly emotionally disputed. This emotionality is hardly surprising when it comes to this topic, because the right diet, along with the husbandry conditions, is the most important factor when it comes to the health and well-being of our feathered friends and one of the determining factors as to whether a bird is kept species-appropriately or not. And no one wants to find out that they have been doing something not optimal or wrong for years, perhaps decades. But let's start from the beginning.
If you are just here for guidance on proper feeding, you can skip to the section Conclusion: The right diet for parrotlets.
The seed-based diet
Seed-eaters eat seeds - right?
When we ask ourselves the question of how to properly feed an animal, we first have to look at what that animal naturally eats. In their natural range, parrotlets feed primarily on semi-ripe seeds and grasses. They also feed on berries, tree and cactus fruits, often still half-ripe, but also ripe and even dried. To a large extent, only the seeds and, more rarely, the pulp are eaten, but both are part of their diet. In addition, depending on what is available, parrotlets also feed on flowers, buds and nectar, as well as green parts of plants. Parrotlets opportunistically feed on a wide range of different plants (Birds of the world; Silva & Melo 2018).
For parrots that primarily eat seeds (called granivores), such as parrotlets, the traditional diet consists of a mix of seeds tailored to them, as well as fresh food in the form of vegetables, fruit and green plants. A suitable seed mixture should not be too rich in fat or protein and should contain a relatively small proportion of commercial fodder seeds such as millet, canary grass or oats, as these are richer than their wild original forms or wild seeds in general. Therefore, suitable mixtures are rich in grass seeds. This is also how I fed my two pacific parrotlets for the first year and a half.
Maybe, like so many people, I would have continued feeding my parrots like this throughout their lives and not given it a second thought. I knew that pellets and extrudates were an alternative, and my avian vet even recommended them to me. However, like most, I believed that seeds were a more natural diet and also had a higher activity value. That would soon prove to be wrong.
How I came to question the traditional feeding
In May 2023 I began to notice a growing problem with my parrotlets. My female, Sunny, started becoming very aggressive and territorial towards Milo, the male. She continued to gain weight while Milo lost weight. At that time I only fed very little from bowls; the two of them had to find and work for most of the food themselves. But because Sunny is very self-confident and clever, she increasingly claimed all the food hiding places just for herself. In addition, the more food hiding places I offered, the more aggressive she became, since in the interest of variety, food could now be lurking almost everywhere. So she started generally shooing Milo away whenever he nibbled on something (even if it wasn't food).
In order to get this problem and the weight of the two under control again, I had to drastically reduce the amount of foraging enrichment and feed more from bowls again, since that caused the least arguments. For a while things were working quite well with digging boxes, food bouquets and a few hiding places. I also do clicker training with both of them, which I then did more often and it also gave me the opportunity to give Milo some extra treats.
The annual check-up with my avian vet was due in October 2023. Unsurprisingly, Sunny was a little too chunky. But to my great shock, Sunny showed slightly sore calluses on her feet. My vet began her standard lecture about proper perches. However, when I told her about my equipment, she was very pleasantly surprised, but it left us both perplexed. Likewise, she couldn't make sense of Sunny's aggressiveness because it didn't really fit the symptoms of breeding mood. So we left it at a light diet and added iodine in case the behavioral change had something to do with the thyroid.
Over the next few months I tried my best to optimize their diet without letting boredom become a new trigger for aggression. I added grass seeds to the grain mixture, strictly reduced treats and mixed grated fresh food into the seeds in the hope that they would now eat more of it. I also prepared tea baths for calluses and swollen feet, wrapped all of Sunny's favourite seats with self-adhesive bandages for cushioning, and carried out almost daily foot and weight checks.
To my relief, the foot calluses improved quite quickly and sustainably, unlike the weights of the two. No matter how much hemp, safflower seeds and millet I gave Milo and refused Sunny, I couldn't keep Sunny below 35g (her vet-confirmed ideal weight is 33g) and Milo couldn't keep a weight over 31g. The aggressiveness only changed in phases, too, even over the winter.
Now I was starting to get really worried that the two of them had a really unbalanced diet, Sunny too high in fat and protein, Milo too high in carbohydrates, because I suspected that Sunny ate the “best” first and Milo got the rest. I was also worried because Milo had always had worse plumage than Sunny for as long as I had them. Now the question arose for me: Could pellets or extrudates perhaps help here?
So I began to look intensively into the topic of what parrot/let)s need for a species-appropriate and balanced diet and to what extent seeds, fresh food and pellets cover this. And the results of my research really surprised me. Now I was able to experience and prove from my own example that neither experience, nor education, nor intensive research protect you from making mistakes. You can never know everything. Responsible ownership means continuing to educate yourself throughout your pet's life and remaining open to new things! But enough of the preamble, what does science say?!
The current state of science on the right diet
Consumption - What do parrots need?
Unfortunately, this question is already not that easy to answer. One problem is that parrots are very difficult to study in the wild. As tree dwellers, they are often difficult to find and difficult to reach in densely overgrown jungles. On top of that, parrots can fly - and scientists cannot. Systematic field studies are therefore very complex, often lengthy and yet incomplete. What makes it worse for parrotlets is that they are small and green, making them even more difficult to observe.
Although there are some comprehensive field studies of what some species eat (including parrotlets, e.g. Silva & Melo 2018), for the most part no nutrient analyses are available for this variety of food sources. So we know what parrots naturally eat, but not what is in it. For this reason, studies on commercial poultry are often still the only source of nutrient guidelines (Koutsos et al. 2001).
The second problem is that there is a lack of veterinary studies on exotic pets that experimentally examine the effects of different diets on different species. There are some studies on parrots that show connections between certain diets and disease or dietary changes and improvements in health or reproductive success. However, the methods are sometimes inaccurate, the number of animals examined is small and the results are only applicable to a few species. The conclusions that can be drawn from this research situation are therefore quite limited. However, the situation is not hopeless!
Selectivity - Are parrots able to balance their diet themselves?
One thing that studies on captive parrots have shown relatively clearly is that parrots are unable to balance their diet on their own (e.g. Ullrey et al. 1991; Kollias 1995; Koustos et al. 2001; Kalmar 2011; Saldanha et al. 2023). Many people have a persistent belief that you just have to offer a variety of foods and the birds will pick out what they need, that they have a kind of “nutritional wisdom.” In fact, I haven't found a single study that would confirm this, but I have found many that refute it. Thus, parrots are no different than us. Hand on heart, if you have the choice between steamed broccoli and chocolate cake, what do you eat? 😉 Parrots are just as much junk food junkies as we are and prefer to eat rich seeds.
In parrot husbandry, the problem is that an excess of food contributes greatly to disrupting the balance. As soon as the bird no longer eats the entire seed mix, it consumes a significantly larger proportion of unhealthy food than the owners had planned. In addition, your birds do not “report” when they are missing something. And slight but persistent deficiencies often only become noticeable to us gradually and after a long time but are then often not correctly recognized and treated due to the ambiguous symptoms (Wolf et al. 1998). In the case of parrotlets, this cannot be easily checked with blood tests either, as you would do in us humans, for one thing because only very little blood can be taken and for another because there are no guideline values.
This problem is particularly pronounced when you mix pellets and seeds. In studies, this diet is usually no better than feeding seeds alone (e.g. Saldanha et al. 2023). The proportion of pellets must be more than 50% of the total amount of food (including fresh food) so that the nutritional status improves measurably (Hess et al. 2002). One study even shows this impressively in pacific parrotlets, which prefer to eat a completely unbalanced and unhealthy diet of only sunflower seeds over eating pellets (Machado et al. 2018).
The problem of selectivity can be curbed by strictly feeding only as much as the birds need to maintain weight. However, this is often associated with a lot of stress for the birds as well as their owners, which I can confirm from my own experience. I won't miss the screaming for seeds when the fresh food bowl was full.
Seeds, fruits and vegetables - Nutrient content of traditional feeding
Aber ist eine ausgewogene Ernährung auf Körnerbasis denn generell möglich? Der generelle wissenschaftliche Konsens ist: nein. Trockene Körner, wie wir sie verfüttern, können einige essentielle Nährstoffe nicht abdecken. Dazu gehören Vitamin A, D, K und E, Calcium und der Fettgehalt ist in der Regel zu hoch (Wolf 2002; Harrison et al. 2006). Außerdem sind kommerzielle Saatenmischungen oft zu reich an Omega-6-Fettsäuren (McDonald 2004) und haben ein schlechtes Verhältnis von Phosphor zu Calcium (Stanford 2006). Außerdem sind Saaten zwar im allgemeinen proteinreich genug, jedoch enthalten sie nicht alle essentiellen Aminosäuren; Lysin und Methionin sind z.B. nicht ausreichend vorhanden (Roudybush & Grau 1985). Ein vollständiges Aminosäuren-Profil ist unter anderem wichtig für Federbildung, Schnabel- und Krallenwachstum, sowie Hautgesundheit.
A large number of studies also show that these deficits cannot be covered by supplementing with fruit and vegetables. On the one hand, this is again due to the problem of selective eating, and on the other hand, the cultivated forms of fruit and vegetables that we find in the supermarket today are richer in water and sugar and lower in nutrients than the original varieties or the fruits that parrots eat in the wild. This problem is also evident with seeds: wild seeds are significantly richer in nutrients than cultivated seeds (Klasing 1998). In addition, parrots in the wild almost never eat dry, fully ripe seeds. Half-ripe, green seeds are lower in fat, higher in fibre and easier to digest. However, a year-round, balanced supply of pet birds with semi-ripe seeds, berries, green fodder, etc., which would come closest to a diet like in the wild, is generally not feasible for private keepers in our latitudes. In addition, data on nutrient content is almost completely missing in this case.
On the other hand, however, it must be mentioned that studies with granivorous parakeets often show smaller effects than studies with fruit and nut eaters such as Amazons or African grey parrots (Foreman et. al 2015; Fischer et al. 2006). For biological reasons, seed-eating parrots seem to cope better with seed-based feeding. In addition, studies often make a comparison between feeding pellets and very poor seed mixtures containing corn, oats, sunflower seeds, safflower and the like. The seed mixes I fed were rich in grass and wild seeds, which have a better nutrient profile (Klasing 1998). However, there is still a great need for further research here.
Auf der positiven Seite sei erwähnt, dass die Versorgung mit Vitamin D3 sich gut durch UVB-Licht von Vogellampen oder Sonnenlicht abdecken lässt und die Calciumzufuhr durch Pick- und Gritsteine, Eierschalen, Sepiaschale o.ä. Anders als bei der restlichen Ernährung, haben Untersuchungen bezüglich Calcium tatsächlich auch gezeigt, dass Vögel dies bedarfsgerecht aufnehmen können (Wüst & Wolf, 2018). Hier reicht es also tatsächlich, geeignete Calciumquellen einfach anzubieten und die Vögel nehmen sich, was sie brauchen. Weiters ist es möglich den Vitamin-A-Bedarf mit Karotten zu decken. Natürlich greift auch hier das große Problem der Selektivität. Wenn Karotte aber gern gefressen wird, ist dies eine großartige Möglichkeit. Für mäkelige Vögel empfiehlt es sich auch, die Karotten vorher (ohne Salz!) zu blanchieren oder zu kochen. Untersuchungen von Dr. Petra Wolf zeigten, dass dies die Aufnahme eutlich erhöht (Wolf 2024). Andere reichhaltige natürliche Vitamin-A-Quellen sind rote Paprika und Vogelbeeren/Eberesche. Hiervon sollte man jedoch aufgrund anderer Inhaltsstoffe nicht zu viel füttern, weshalb Karotte zu bevorzugen ist. Viele Haltende verwenden auch rotes Palmfett zur Vitamin-A-Versorgung. Obwohl dies aus veterinärmedizinischer Sicht funktioniert, sollte man beachten, dass Ölpalmenplantagen eine der Hauptursachen für die Rodung von Regenwäldern sind und damit aus Artenschutz-, Klimaschutz- und allgemein Nachhaltigkeitsgründen keine gute Wahl darstellt.
Eine Zugabe von Vitaminpulvern kann dagegen als suboptimal angesehen werden, da diese bei Körnern nur auf der Schale anhaften, welche schließlich entfernt wird. Die Aufnahme des verwendeten Pulvers ist daher sehr gering und nicht bedarfsgerecht dosierbar. Außerdem sind einige Vitamine lichtempfindlich, gerade das so wichtige Vitamin A. Werden die Vitaminpulver also nicht sofort verzehrt, ist der Anteil an wirksamem Vitamin A sowieso nicht mehr gegeben. Jedoch sollte man dies nicht durch „viel hilft viel“ ausgleichen, denn auch Vitamin-Überdosierungen sind möglich und mit gesundheitlichen Gefahren verbunden (Péron & Grosset 2014).
The thing about vitamin A then also caused a personal moment of shock. Parrots with vitamin A deficiency tend to develop calluses on their feet (pododermatitis; Koutsos et al. 2001). So could this have been the reason for Sunny's foot problems? I may never know for sure, but when I read this I was very happy that I had already switched to pellets.
Further consequences of vitamin A deficiency can be excessive claw and beak growth, which is quite common among parrotlets, as well as inflammatory skin diseases, which can also be responsible for feather plucking, among other things. Nutrient deficiencies in general can also cause behavioral changes, including increased aggressiveness. So here too there is a possibility that my parrots' problems are due to their diet (Péron & Grosset 2014).
Pellets and extrudates - nutrition content of modern feeding
When I started to research parrotlets and how to keep them, I already came into contact with the topic of pellets for the first time. The scepticism of experienced keepers and breeders and corresponding recommendations led me to decide against pellets (e.g. Spitzer 1992; Aeckerlein & Steinmetz 2003; Ehlenbröker et al. 2010). Although pellets would in fact cover all the important nutrients, they were unnatural, artificial and had the aftertaste of intensive livestock farming (Ehlenbröker et al. 2010). Unfortunately, I didn't question this unanimous verdict from the specialist literature any further at the time.
The argument that pellets and extrudates are artificially produced is of course factually correct. However, many owners and breeders succumb to the naturalistic fallacy here. Just because something is natural does not automatically mean it is good - and vice versa. Just look at poisons of natural origin such as plant or snake toxins, some of which kill in small doses. On the other hand, there are artificially produced medications, from insulin to antibiotics, which save lives every day. And in this case, too, science clearly shows that a “natural” diet for parrots is not healthier than an “artificial” one.
Pellets and extrudates offer the opportunity to provide the feed with all the nutrients that meet requirements according to the current state of research. As mentioned above, this current state is not ideal, but feeding seeds (which do not correspond 1:1 to the natural diet in the wild) does not offer any apparent advantage. The gaps in the research regarding the ingredients of natural nutrition have the same effect here. We can match the ingredients of seeds with the contents of the natural diet just as well or poorly as those of pellets. When it comes to seeds, however, we know for sure which nutrients are missing. With pellets, these can simply be added.
The difference between pellets and extrudates lies in how they are manufactured. For pellets, shredded components are pressed into shape using relatively little heat. To produce extrudates, the components are further crushed and baked at high temperatures and pressed into shape by an extruder. Above all, the high heat of extrudates kills toxins and germs, which also makes this food safer.
Der Hauptvorteil gegenüber der traditionellen Fütterung besteht dabei in der Verhinderung von Selektivität, also dass sich nur das leckerste (und oft ungesündeste) herausgepickt wird, denn bei Pellets und Extrudaten ist das Nährstoffprofil in jedem Stück gleich, jedes einzelne Pellet enthält alles, was der Vogel braucht. Außerdem ist Untersuchungen zufolge die Nährstoffaufnahme besser als bei Saaten (Wolf 2024).
Ein weiteres Vorurteil gegenüber Pellets und Extrudaten besteht darin, dass Körner einen höheren Beschäftigungswert hätten, da sie erst entspelzt werden müssen. Das klingt zwar logisch, wie lang ein Papagei jedoch an einem Pellet frisst, hängt von dessen Konsistenz und Form ab, welche durch die Herstellung beeinflusst sind. Dies ist ein optimierbarer Faktor, welcher sich auch von Produkt zu Produkt unterscheiden dürfte. Zudem haben andere Untersuchungen auch keinen signifikanten Unterschied in der Futteraufnahmezeit zwischen Körnern und Extrudaten finden können (Wüst & Wolf, 2018).
Either way, the enrichment value of dehusking loose seeds is low, probably even negligible. A diet of seeds plus fruits and vegetables does not come close to the activity times parrots have in the wild. Foraging and preening take up around 90% of the day in wild birds (Engebretson 2006), and parrots spend on average at least half of the day just searching for food (Koutsos et al. 2001). If we assume a 12-hour day, that's at least 6 hours a day. In captivity, birds spend around half an hour to an hour gathering food, which would be around 4-8% of the day (Péron & Grosset 2014). The introduction of foraging into the food presentation has a much greater impact on this aspect of feeding - and this can be achieved equally, if not better, with pellets and extrudates.
Ein großer Nachteil von Pellets und besonders Extrudaten ist die geringe größe der enthaltenen Partikel. Untersuchungen haben gezeigt, dass Agaporniden, welche ausschließlich mit Extrudaten gefüttert wurden, konnten Vergrößerungen von Drüsen- und Muskelmagen festgestellt werden (Wolf 2024, Wüst & Wolf 2018). Die Autorin schloss daraus, dass der Muskelmagen von Papageien eine gewisse Partikelgröße der Nahrung benötige, um ausreichend gefordert zu werden. Dies biete im Nahrungsspektrum der Papageien nur das volle Korn. Auf Basis dieser Erkenntnisse sind Pellets und Extrudate auf jeden Fall nicht als Alleinfutter zu empfehlen.
Conclusion: The right diet for parrotlets
Basic feed
So seeds plus fruits and veggies are not a balanced diet. Pellets, on the other hand, aren't a natural diet. So there doesn't seem to be a real ideal unless you can imitate the entire menu from nature. The bottom line, however, is that researchers and veterinarians believe that the compromise offered by formulated diets (i.e. pellets or extrudates) is clearly better when it comes to the physical and mental health of birds. In order to improve the latter and increase the naturalness of the diet, one should not only look at the content of the food but also its presentation. This aspect should not be neglected and offers great potential for optimization (more on this here).
Auf Basis der aktuellen Studienlage scheint eine gesunde Ernährung jedoch nicht ganz alternativlos. Eine Fütterung von Körnern mit einem hohen Anteil von Wild- und Grassamen, welche vor allem so viel wie möglich halbreif oder gekeimt (besonders magenschonend) verfüttert werden sollten, könnte eine gleichwertige Alternative darstellen. Wie eine solche Fütterung jedoch tatsächlich im Vergleich zu Pellets abschneidet, kann man derzeit nicht sagen, hier fehlen schlichtweg Studien.
In addition, especially many owners of large parrots like to feed a mix of varying fruits, vegetables and green fodder as their basic feed. Cooked rice, potatoes and legumes are often added here. In principle, this would correspond to a fresh variant of pellets and extrudates. However, what exactly the composition should look like here is not that easy. A study by Brightsmith (2012) showed this using the example of Amazons, which were fed with fresh produce (apple, grapes, celery, carrot, corn) as main feed and they were not sufficiently supplied with nutrients. In general, however, there is a lack of conclusive studies here as well. Thus, formulated diets, i.e. pellets and extrudates, currently offer the safest way to feed parrots a healthy and balanced diet.
The current recommendation from science and veterinary medicine for the diet of parrots in human care includes 80% pellets/extrudates and 20% fresh food (i.e. fruits and vegetables; Reid & Perlberg 1998; Péron & Grosset 2014). This recommendation applies to adult parrots that do not breed or raise young.
Unter beachtung der Ergebnisse zur Magenvergrößerung durch Pelletfütterung (Wolf 2024) scheint diese Empfehlung jedoch bereits überholt. Die Autorin empfielt stattdessen eine Zusammensetzung von 60% Körnern, 35% Frischfutter (10% Obst, 20% Gemüse, 5% Kräuter) und 5% Mineralfutter (Calciumgehalt mind. 25%). Das Körnerfutter sollte dabei möglichst viele Gras-/Wildsamen enthalten und z.T. gekeimt gereicht werden.
Ich empfehle auf Basis der gesamten oben aufgeführten Studienlage einen Mix aus mind. 50% Extrudaten, ca. 20%, Frischfutter und ca. 30% Körnern.
Zur Mengenberechnung habe ich folgende Richtwerte gefunden. Für kleine Papageien wie die Sperlis sollte die Gesamtfuttermenge pro Tag und Vogel 10% des (idealen) Körpergewichts betragen (Wolf 2024). Dabei ist zu beachten, dass Obst und Gemüse im Schnitt einen Wassergehalt von 80% haben, Körner dagegen nur 10%. Daher kann man für den Frischfutteranteil das Gewicht mal fünf nehmen. Bei einer Fütterung von 50% Pellets, 20% Frischfutter und 30% Körner ergibt sich also folgende Rechnung:
Gesamtmenge = Frischfutter + Pellets + Körner = (Gesamtmenge x 0,2 x 5) + (Gesamtmenge x 0,5) + (Gesamtmenge x 0,3)
Bei einem Körpergewicht von 33g beträgt die tägliche Gesamtfuttermenge also 3,3g pro Vogel. Mit der obigen Rechnung ergeben sich 3,3g Frischfutter, ~1,6g Pellets und ~1g Körner.
Fresh food
Fruits and vegetables
Wie sollte der Obst- und Gemüseanteil der Fütterung aussehen? Wichtig ist ein Blick auf den Wasser- und Zuckergehalt, wovon v.a. zweiterer nicht zu hoch sein darf. Unsere gezüchteten Obstsorten (Gemüse weniger) enthalten meist viel mehr Zucker als die Ursprungsvarianten der Frucht. Daher sollte der Großteil des Frischfutters sowieso aus Gemüse bestehen, denn das ist zuckerarm und ballaststoffreich. Man sollte wissen, dass ein hoher Wassergehalt zu Polyurie führen kann, wobei der normalerweise weißliche Anteil des Kots wässrig und durchsichtig ist. Polyurie ist normalerweise völlig unbedenklich. Anders ist es bei zu hohem Zuckergehalt, welcher zu Durchfall führen kann, wobei der normalerweise feste Anteil des Kots breiig bis flüssig ist. Anhaltender Durchfall sollte immer tierärztlich abgeklärt werden. Zudem sollte man wissen, dass sich der Zuckergehalt stark auf die Haltbarkeit von Frischfutter auswirkt. Generell breiten sich Keime und Hefen rasch auf dem gereichten Frischfutter aus, weshalb man Reste stets nach einigen Stunden entfernen sollte, besonders bei hohen Temperaturen. Je höher aber der Zuckergehalt, desto schneller vermehren sich Hefen, welche zu Magen-Darmerkrankungen führen können.
Außerdem sollte man bei jeder Ernährung so viel wie möglich auf alte Sorten und ggf. selbst herangezogene Wildformen zurückgreifen (Vorsicht aber bei Kürbis und Zucchini, die können bei falscher Anzucht Giftstoffe entwickeln). Welche Obst- und Gemüsearten du füttern kannst und welche giftig sind, findest du z.B. auf der Nymphensittichseite oder im book by Andreas Wilbrand. Für den Anfang hier eine Liste geeigneter und gut verfügbarer Gemüse und Obstsorten:
- Apple (without seeds)
- Pear (without seeds)
- Cauliflower
- Broccoli
- Blackberries
- Strawberries
- Cucumber
- Blueberries
- Raspberries
- Currant
- Kiwi
- Kohlrabi/turnip cabbage
- Pumpkin
- Mango
- Melon
- Carrot
- Bell pepper/chili (remove green parts; with large bell peppers feed only core)
- Parsnip
- Peach (without pit)
- Plum (without pit)
- Physalis
- Radish
- Celery (both greens and root)
- Sweet potato
- Grapes
- Zucchini
Green food
However, fresh fruit and vegetables are far from reaching the limits of species-appropriate feeding! On the one hand, supermarkets offer a lot of healthy green food in the form of lettuces and herbs (e.g. chicory, lamb's lettuce, fresh spinach, leaf lettuce, cress, basil, oregano, thyme). But nature offers much more treats for our feathered goblins. There is a variety of suitable food plants that you can gather yourself. This offers the most natural form of feeding and what's more, the whole thing is free.
Many bird keepers the introduction of pathogens from wild birds in gathering plants outside. However, if what you collect is washed thoroughly beforehand, this risk is very low. In consultation with the bird clinic at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, it was also confirmed to me that such cases are extremely rare. Of course, every owner has to decide for themselves whether they want to take the risk. Personally, I have been feeding as much self-gathered food as possible since day 1 and I never want to have to deprive my birds of this enrichment again. So far, both of my birds are perfectly healthy, too.
Supplementary food
All extras and treats may only be given in moderation and should not disrupt the dietary balance of the basic feed. Seeds are suitable, especially on cobs/panicles/inflorescences. The classics are of course cob and panicle millet, but other sweet grasses such as sorghum, Sudan grass, pagima, delicha, canary grass or Schelli (a hybrid of sorghum and Sudan grass) are also suitable. High-fat seeds are also a great enrichment in their natural form, e.g. safflower or flax/linseed.
Mixes of dried herbs and blossoms are also a welcome variation and mostly also contain inflorescences of the respective plants, e.g. marigold, malva, dandelion or cornflower.
Many parrots (mine included) also go crazy for Lafeber Nutriberries. They are little balls made from various seeds and small pellets. These small treat bombs are especially useful for tricky foraging toys which need high levels of motivation. Visually similar seed balls and sticks are also available in many per stores but pay attention that many of them use honey as a binding agent. As a consequence these treats are very rich in sugar and should therefore only be fed very rarely, if at all.
Viele Sperlingspapageien mögen auch getrocknete Beeren sehr gern, z.B. Aronia, Eberesche, Wacholder, Berberitze und andere. Sind deine Vögel große Fans davon, solltest du jedoch aufpassen, denn getrocknetes Obst hat einen höheren Zuckergehalt als frisches.
All diese Leckereien gibt es im Fachhandel online oder im Geschäft.
Successfully switching to pellets
There are various methods by which parrots can be switched from seeds to pellets. There are some studies that have compared different methods and concluded that some are simply faster than others, but they are all successful in the end (e.g. Foreman et al. 2015; Cummings et al. 2022). The problem with switching to pellets seems to be less about the birds or the pellets and more about the patience of the owners.
Various methods can be found, for example, on the websites of the respective feed manufacturers. The Parrotlet Blog also offers an overview of different methods, as well as their own experiences with feeding pellets (only available in German).
I myself have been successful with the method in which you first offer pellets and seeds together and then begin to gradually reduce the amount of seeds as soon as the first pellets are tasted. I also made use of the recommendation to try to offer the pellets by hand and to initially only feed pellets in the morning and only add seeds around midday if the pellets have not been touched.
What do I feed at the moment?
In my first attempt at switching to a formulated diet, I initially chose a readily available and established brand: Nutribird B14 from Versele-Laga. Unfortunately, these pellets were 100% rejected by my birds, even with various switching methods. On the recommendation of the Parrotlet Blog, I wanted to try Roudybush pellets, but unfortunately they are difficult and very expensive to import.
Ich bin dann auf eine neue Marke gestoßen, welche mit hoher Akzeptanz, moderner Rezeptur und hohem Beschäftigungswert warb: die Vital Pellets von DeinPapagei, ebenfalls extrudierte Pellets. Hier war ich zögerlich, da es sich um ein junges Startup handelt und ich bei der Gesundheit meiner Vögel natürlich keine Experimente wagen will. Ich habe mich also gründlich informiert, die hohe Transparenz des Unternehmens machte dies für mich leicht, und kam im Abgleich mit der oben beschriebenen Studienlage zu dem Ergebnis, dass die Vital Pellets in Ordnung sind.
But the result was as advertised. Using the gentle transition method recommended by the manufacturer, the pellets were eaten within a week and a complete transition was achieved after 2 weeks.
I am currently feeding the herbal blend, which is tailored to seed eaters. My order also included a sample of the fruit and vegetable blend, which I add in a small proportion. Quantity recommendations for pellets are difficult to find. YourParrot gives a rough guideline of 5-8% of the bird's body weight. However, this amount (2-3g) was already finished for breakfast by my birds. I currently feed 4.5g pellets per bird per day. This is also a little more than they actually eat, as the grinding creates a lot of dust, which is left over and larger pieces often fly around as they are eaten. Except for the dust, the bowls are always completely empty in the evening. I assume that this waste will also disappear once the smaller variety becomes available. I weigh them both weekly and will adjust the amount accordingly if necessary.
Zu den Pellets füttere ich täglich geraspeltes, sowie im Stück angebotenes Obst oder Gemüse. Dabei biete ich stets mehr an, als gefressen wird, da es bei meinen beiden sehr unterschiedlich ist, wie viel sie Frischfutter annehmen. Ich schätze, dass ich selbst bei diesem Überangebot nicht auf die empfohlenen 20% komme.
Ich verwende Seeds weiter im Training, da wechsle ich zwischen Hirse, Hanf und Kardi. Wenn ich mal nicht trainiere, biete ich ein wenig Körnermischung, Futterrispen oder Nutriberries in Wühlkisten oder Futterverstecken an. Ich möchte auch mit den Pellets in Zukunft wieder vermehrt auf Foraging umsteigen, sofern dies mit Sunnys Aggressionen möglich ist.
As soon as the gathering season starts again, I will also offer fresh herbs and grasses as usual. I will then have to make sure that enough pellets are still eaten so that the diet does not become unbalanced.
My experiences with the new diet
The acceptance of the Vital Pellets is indeed excellent. In the morning the birds pounce on it just like they used to do on the seeds. The weight of both of them is currently moving in the right direction: Sunny is losing weight, Milo is gaining weight. Of course, what matters here is how things look in the long term. I will report.
I can't say anything about changes in behaviour, feet and feathers at the moment. I will also report here after the two have eaten the pellets for a few months.
What I can currently see is that the two of them no longer finish the bowl in one go, as was often the case with seeds. They now eat intermittently throughout the day. Another positive thing is that the optimized consistency of the pellets means that the birds spend at least as long feeding as with seeds. My impression is that it even offers more enrichment than seeds.
In addition, both of them accept fresh food much better than before. For example, my two have never eaten carrots, no matter how I offered it. Carrot is now all the rage. Switching to pellets also has a positive effect on our training. Seeds are now even more special and motivate even more as a treat. I also have the impression that they have become more active overall and are shredding more again.
All of these observations are of course subjective and could also have arisen by chance, without any real connection to the pellets. Additionally, some or all of the changes may be unique to the brand of pellet I feed and may not represent overall improvements from switiching to a formulated diet.
Update nach 9 Monaten
Sunny und Milo fressen weiterhin begeistert Pellets. Nach kurzer Zeit habe ich auch mehr und mehr die Nutribird-Pellets untergemischt, welche nun genauso angenommen werden. Aufgrund der öffentlich geteilten Ansichten der Firma DeinPapagei werde ich diese Marke in Zukunft nicht mehr unterstützen und empfehlen. Ich sehe aber nach aktuellem Kenntnisstand keine Gefahren für die Tiere, wenn man diese Pellets füttert. Auf lange Sicht vertraue ich dem Unternehmen jedoch nicht mehr. Daher werde ich in Zukunft auf andere Marken umsteigen. Da in Untersuchungen verschiedener Hersteller Nutribird die höchste Stabilität der Zusammensetzung zeigte (Wolf 2024), werde ich aktuell bei diesen Pellets bleiben.
Meine Beobachtungen an meinen Vögeln haben mir gezeigt, dass Pellets verschiedener Größen den Beschäftigungswert steigern, sobald die Tiere bereits an Pellets gewöhnt sind (zur Acclimatisation werden kleinere Pellets meist besser angenommen). Die größeren Sorten von Nutribird sind jedoch deutlich fettreicher als die von mir gefütterten B14. Hier werde ich evtl. noch andere Hersteller ausprobieren.
the Fresh food bereite ich mittlerweise in großen Mengen vor, zerkleinere es und friere es portionsweise ein. Diese Portionen werden (bis auf einige ungeliebte Sachen) komplett aufgefressen. Ich kann daher wirklich bedarfsgerecht und mit kaum Abfall füttern. (Mehr dazu auf meinen Social Media Kanälen Instagram Facebook Youtube)
Bezüglich der Gewichtsentwicklung meiner Vögel konnte ich lange keine weiteren Erfolge berichten, über die letzten Monate haben sich meine Vögel jedoch aneinander angeglichen und ihre Wunschgewichte erreicht und gehalten! Zudem bleibt stehen, dass die Pelletfütterung weniger Schwankungen mit sich bringt und Milo im Gewicht nicht mehr so absackt wie zuvor. Dabei habe ich die tägliche Gesamtmenge an Pellets nun auf 2g pro Vogel pro Tag reduziert, da die Pellets nicht ganz restlos aufgefressen werden. Dazu füttere ich pro Vogel täglich 1g mix of seeds für den Muskelmagen.
the Gefieder hat sich bei beiden bereits leicht verbessert, hier muss ich jedoch noch mindestens einige Monate warten bis das Großgefieder vollständig gewechselt ist, um ein endgültiges Urteil abgeben zu können. Sunnys Fußschwielen sind ab und zu noch sichtbar, was aber eindeutig mit ihrem Gewicht korreliert. Allgemein ist der deutlich friedlichere Zustand zwischen den beiden erhalten geblieben. Ich bin also weiterhin sehr zufrieden mit meiner Entscheidung und die Vögel scheinen es auch zu sein. 🙂
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