What Should I Feed My Parrot? | Kookaburra Bird Shop

Best bird diet for health & longevity.  Veterinarian approved!

These feeding instructions are what Kookaburra sends home with every bird we have sold since 1979. These are for most species of parrots. Keep in mind some species do eat slightly different ratios and different diets. If you are unsure, you are more than welcome to contact us and we can advise you on your bird’s diet needs. We have updated them rarely over the years, but usually there has been research or new information that makes us adjust how we feed.

The following pet bird information should be used as a guideline and it is what we have done with our own birds. We have birds that are happy and healthy and have been fed a variation of this diet for over 30 years.

These guidelines take into consideration that many pet bird owners have a very busy life and Kookaburra believes that making feeding easy helps people keep their birds for their entire lifetime. The ratios are a guideline and remember that birds are scavengers so variety is the spice of their life, but to much variety can lead to imbalances as well. You need to really pay attention to what your bird is actually eating.

Avian Veterinarians recommend feeding 50%-70% pellet or extruded diets, 20%-30% fruit & veggies, and 10%-20% nuts and seeds. The problem with birds is that if you stick that all in their cage they will pick out what they want and then become imbalanced. How do you get the ratio correct with little waste and so you have a happy bird? Here are some feeding methods that have worked for 1000s of clients over the years and you then end up with the correct ratios.

Every morning we feed our birds fresh fruit, vegetables, or cooked mashes* that we leave in the cage for up to 2 hours. Leaving them in the cage longer will lead to bacteria and mold growing on the food and can lead to a sick bird. Depending on the size bird we feed 1-3 tablespoons of these items. Store favorites include cooked sweet potatoes, apples, oranges, dark green leafy vegetables, berries and other seasonal fruits and veggies. We feed one item at a time so that your bird eats that item and doesn’t pick out his favorite item and leave the rest. Never feed onions, mushrooms, avocado or rutabagas. We avoid pits & seeds of most fruits as well.

Once we have removed the breakfast and cleaned the dish, we then put the appropriate amount of pellet mix in our birds cage. We usually mix 2-3 brands of pellets to assure that our birds are getting a variety. If they throw copious amounts of food out of their cage, we feed less. Most people over feed their birds which leads to waste and extra mess. We leave the pellet mix in the cage all day and then put their soft food, fruit, or vegetables on top of what pellet is left over from the day before. If you are not a morning person, you may feed the soft food, fruit , or vegetables in the evening.

Once a week, instead of pellet as the dry food we feed a high quality seed mix. We call this seed day and our birds love the foraging aspect of the seed mix. Feeding a seed mix once a day leads to birds eating the variety in the seed mix since they soon figure out that they only get this once a week. This method leads to your bird consuming most of what is in the seed mix and wasting less of it. Seed day will be messier than pellet days, but the joy your bird gets will make up for it.

Fresh filtered water is always provided for our birds. Keep in mind that parrots do not consume very much water, so you won't seem them drinking much.

*cookable mashes include but are not limited to: Crazy Corn and Wordly Cuisines. We usually cook up the entire bag and freeze the extra in snack bags or ice cube trays.