Business owners, popular bloggers and parrot rescuer's respond
"I feed my guys a very eclectic selection of food items. The daily mix almost always includes:
* Pellets (various brands)
* Cooked bird food (Volkman Birdeez Buffet)
* 2-3 Nutriberries
* Greens
* Fresh fruit & veggies (varies depending on what is in season or on sale)
* Sprinkle of seeds
* Sprinkle of Goldenfeast Fruit & Nut mix
On
weekend mornings when I don't have to rush out of the house so fast I
make scrambled eggs to share with the flock. There are occasional
goodies like birdie muffins and some people food."
Deb White, Super Bird Creations and AvianEnrichment.com
"My birds get fresh food in the morning. which means soaked seeds or
steamed or fried vegetables, sometime with cooked millet or quinoa
or similar. I have some recipes in my blog (pipress.org/2009/11/intuitive-parrot-feeding) for food which I cook for me and
share it with the birds.
During the day there are pellets. sometimes treats. in the evening before I put them to bed, they get goodies, like some fruit or nuts or seeds."
Gudrun Maybaum, Totally Organics Parrot Food, Topschatter.com,
"My Green Wing macaw is on an all organic diet. Fresh food varies with what`s in season.
Morning meal always includes sprouts plus at least 3-4 items from this list, raw (not cooked):
kale, berries, papaya, apples, broccoli, mango, yams or squash, carrots, celery, snap peas, cucumber, radish, pumpkin, blackberries, cauliflower.
As a dry cage mix, I make it a little differently every month of so, to be sure she gets a big variety.
The cage mix consists of:
sunflower seed in the shell, almonds, pistachios, various dried fruits (always preservative free dried fruits!)
dried peas, coconut flake, hemp seed, pumpkin seed, bee pollen, kamut flake, kamut puffs.
Treats:
Various organic in-shell nuts during the day, as a snack. Some days she has a Veggie Bar (made by our company) or a Cupid Cookie (also made by us.)
Dinner time:
As varied as possible! Some nights she gets one of our organic mash mixes or a few squares of bird bread along with some fresh blueberries.
Other nights she gets fresh chopped veggies and fruits (see list above in morning meal)
Some nights I make steamed yams and apples, mush a little banana into it, add hemp hearts, dandelion leaf (fresh or dried) a little ginger, and roll into balls and that`s her dinner. Yam balls is one of her favorite foods!
Twice weekly she gets approximately an eighth of a teaspoon of organic raw coconut oil, fed from a spoon. She loves coconut oil. I also give her coconut water once per week."
Doris Lesieur, Avian Organics, avianorganics.com
"I feed my birds fresh, organic sprouts, fruits, and veggies in the mornings. They forage for bird bread or a dry mix by Avian Organics during the day, and at night they get a freshly cooked mash with healthy, organic grains, fruits, and veggies."
cocosflock.wordpress.com
"If I am doing their food, it usually is fruit chopped up with Quinoa or similar. Some of the volunteers make up exotic things.
They get their fruit, and or veggies in the morning, and in the evening, before bedtime, a serving of abba green. Their Harrisons, Pretty Bird, or Roudybush is always in their dishes, pending on what their preference is. We also use Chin Ridge Cockatiel no sun, on the smaller birds."
Jenny Tamas, Adoptions Director, Greyhaven Exotic Bird Sanctuary
"In addition to pellets Jenny mentioned, we also use a lot of Avicakes and Nutriberries at the sanctuary. Often volunteers make fresh foods or bring additional treats.
Personal favorites of my flock are Avian Organics, pumpkin seeds in shell and almonds as treats. I loosely follow Patricia Sund's "chop" concept with my birds. If I can help you with anything else, please let me know!
Thank you for asking us, love your toys! "
Catherine
Fundraising Facilitator & Facebook Moderator Greyhaven Exotic Bird Sanctuary
"Mine usually get a wee bit of scrambled egg in the morning (that has Abba green added to it), then a mix of mixed frozen veggies (corn, carrots, peas, beans) with either rice (usually a mix of various kinds), cous cous, quinoa, or organic pasta. In the evening they get fruit (including apple, grapes, mango, plum, orange, nectarine, pear, pomegranate)while we have dinner, and if we are having baked potato or mashed potato they'll have some of this, too. Every few days I put very wet lettuce, spinach, or parsley on the top of one of the cages; my budgie and the lovebirds enjoy nibbling on this and playing/washing in it. This is in addition to the pellets and seed mixes that they always have access to. They all love Nutriberries, of whatever variety, and get limited amounts of millet. Plain Cheerios are a fun treat, as is unsalted and unbuttered popcorn (NOT the microwave type). I seldom offer nuts. The little ones don't eat them, nor does my mitred conure (although my maroon-bellied conure, who has since passed on, would eat any kind of nut she could get her beak on)."
Jan Robson, Education Coordinator, Greyhaven Exotic Bird Sanctuary
"I make a pretty good bird bread using corn meal. But for those that don't want to give corn to their birds or are finding their birds may have alergies to corn, Harrisons Adult Lifetime Mash is the only product on the market that I could find that doesn't have corn. The Adult Lifetime Pellets have the corn, but not the mash. I made a bird bread for my parrots using the Harrison's Adult Lifetime Mash in place of the corn that they like just as much as the curry cornbread. I have that recipe on my website.
Kris Porter, Parrotenrichment.com