WHY FEED PELLETS TO YOUR BIRD?

Parrots in the wild feed themselves on fruits, seeds and nuts that they can find.

According to the season the source may vary and they therefore get a varied and balanced diet.

In captivity, people feed parrots with sunflower seeds, peanuts and sometimes some fruits and vegetables, which after several years leads to severe health problems and can result in early death for the pet. In the wild most larger species of parrot live for 40 to 70 years, in captivity the average age is 15 years !!!. The majority of these parrots die young because they have been fed a totally inappropriate diet for most of their life.

Seeds and peanuts are detrimental to parrot's health for several reasons:

This type of diet is totally deficient in Vitamin A.Vitamin A plays an important role: it contributes to the health and function of all tissues such as skin, respiratory tract & digestive tract. If vitamin A is deficient the bird's defenses against any bacteria or virus is lowered and many infections are actually primarily due to vitamin A deficiency.

Treating those with antibiotics alone will not cure your parrot, it will relapse and get chronically sick, unless you change its diet to a more balanced diet.

Excessive amounts of fat provided by seeds and peanuts leads to fatty degeneration of the liver and ultimately liver failure..

Also the Calcium content is low, which leads to other health problems.

2 options are available to improve the diet:
1.Home made diet

This contains various food items that are normally consumed by humans, such as vegetables, bread, corn, some protein source such as egg, cheese, and fruits. However, a lot of parrots are so fussy that they will select their favourite food item (which may not be the healthiest component!) and the resultant diet will still be unbalanced.Vitamin and mineral supplement can alter the taste of the water and may not be consumed, and deteriorate quickly.

2.Formulated diet (pellets)

We advise you to feed your bird on a commercially prepared pelleted diet. We sell Harrisons bird diet. It is a complete organic diet which contains no preservatives or other chemicals.

You can add variety by giving some fruits and vegetables in small quantities daily but the pellets should represent 80% of the diet (in weight).

All dark green vegetables such as pak choi, choi sam, spinach, as well as carrots, sweet potatoes, are good sources of vitamin A. Most fruits are acceptable to parrots in small quantities, but avoid avocado as it is toxic to birds.Remember to wash all fruits and vegetables thoroughly before feeding to your parrot as pesticide residues are very toxic to birds. For quantities to feed, please refer to the bag of pellets you purchase.Water should be available at all times but do not add water directly to the pellets

TIPS TO CONVERT YOUR BIRD TO PELLETS

Think of your bird as a spoiled child that has been fed ice cream for years!.You will have to be firm!
Introduce small amount of a single new food at a time.

Gradually reduce the volume of seeds and nuts and increase the amount of pellets over one week. (Sometimes adding guava juice to them will encourage a bird to eat the pellets). However do not leave pellets wet for more than a few hours as it will allow bacterial multiplication.)

If this fails , you may have to offer food (pellets , fruits and vegetables) 2 or 3 times 30 minutes each day, instead of leaving food available all day.

· In some cases you may have to suppress radically all seeds and nuts, but the parrot needs to be supervised closely as if the birds eats nothing for a few days, the situation may be dangerous.

It is sometimes good to hospitalize the bird for a few days to convert it to pellets.

If you have any problems converting your bird to the proper pelleted diet please contact your vet for further advise, do not give up, some birds take up to 1 month to convert. It is essential to your parrots good health and long life to feed the correct diet.