of diet; some much needed vitamins, lots of baths, fresh air and sunshine would make the world of difference. Still it is shocking to be told that through ignorance our birds are dying many years before they should. The million dollar question now is, what can we do about it? How can we prevent our birds becoming part of that shocking statistic? Well, the diet you choose to feed your birds will be an individual choice my ideas may not be the same as yours and the purpose of this article is not to tell you what you should be feeding your birds but to make you aware that you should be giving your birds’ diet careful consideration.
I think we all agree that parrots are
very much like small children in their behaviour and their intelligence and we all know that most small children would not willingly eat healthy foods. Give a child the choice of sweets, chocolate and crisps or carrot sticks,
broccoli and wholegrain bread and I think I know which foods would be rejected. Our parrots will behave in much the same way. Our job then, as conscientious parrot owners, is to decide on behalf of our birds what a healthy diet is and then ensure to the best of our ability that they are eating it.
It’s not possible for us to re create the kind of diet our parrot would eat in the wild as we don’t physically have the resources, so what options are open to us? Traditionally parrots have been fed on a dry seed diet, a food which most parrots will readily accept and enjoy, also found to a certain extent in their natural habitats. However in recent years research has shown that seed diets alone are lacking in the vitamins and minerals that our birds need and are often too high in fat and low in protein. Without getting too technical, seed is not enough on its own. Even if we offer a range of fruits and vegetables, on a daily basis, with the seed, this still doesn’t provide a healthy enough diet for our birds. An alternative is a pellet based diet, a specially formulated diet that, to the best of our
knowledge, provides
The million dollar question now is, what can we do about it? How can we prevent our birds becoming part of that
shocking statistic? 06 26 BIRD SCENE
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