Choosing the Right Diet for Your Bird
Diet for Species and Life Stage
To provide the best diet for your bird you need to consider their species, size, and life stage. Not all birds have the same energy and dietary needs, so you shouldn’t house different species together.
Seed vs Pellet Diets
Seeded diets are readily available and look pleasing to the human eye, but they can’t provide the correct balance of nutrients alone. Seeded diets are higher in fat content, which is good for wild birds, especially approaching winter, due to their high energy requirements needed to escape predation and keep warm in frigid temperatures. Our pet birds don’t have the same energy requirements meaning feeding these diets exclusively often leads to health problems like obesity and liver disease. Seeded diets also allow for selective feeding where birds pick out their favourite items such as sunflower seeds (included in many seed diets), neglecting others, therefore not consuming a balanced diet at all.
As well as being prone to obesity and liver disease due to nutritional imbalances and the higher fat content of a seeded diet, seed eaters often have mineral and vitamin deficiencies leading to problems with bones, beaks, skin, and feathers.
Whilst a mix of seed and pellet diets is okay for smaller birds like parakeets and lovebirds, due to their faster metabolism and higher energy requirement, seed diets are inappropriate for larger birds and parrots. A well-formulated, commercial pellet diet is recommended for optimal nutrition in all bird species regardless of species, size, or life stage due to its nutritional advantages.
Ideal Diet Recommendations
- A commercially formulated pellet diet should make up 60-75% of their daily dietary intake.
- Fresh fruit and vegetables should account for 25% of your bird's daily dietary intake.
For reference, small birds such as parakeets and finches should be fed ½ -1 tsp of pellets a day, cockatiels fed 2-3 tsp of pellets daily, conures 3-5 tsp of pellets a day, parrots such as amazons and African greys fed 2-3 tbsp of pellets a day, and macaws and cockatoos 4-5 tbsp a day.
Pellet Diet
Pellet diets come in different forms for different species and life stages.
- High potency formulations for larger parrots with higher energy and fat requirements such as macaws and greys. It’s also useful for breeding birds that have higher energy requirements.
- Lifetime Formulation for the maintenance of a healthy body and are good for the majority of species.
Pellet diets come in a variety of sizes for different species and sizes of birds.
- Large pellets - appropriate for larger birds and parrots
- Fine pellets - appropriate for smaller birds
- Mash - appropriate for very small birds, convalescing birds, or hand-rearing chicks.
Formulated diets contain all the nutritional requirements in the correct volumes to keep your bird healthy and happy. There is no waste using this diet as there are no seed husks/peels remaining, and it prevents selective feeding, so your bird gets a balanced diet, guaranteed.
Safe Fruits and Vegetables
Small portions of a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables should account for 25% of your bird's diet. Ensure they are pesticide-free and thoroughly washed. They are a great source of vitamins and minerals for your bird.
✓ Safe fruits include apples, bananas, papayas, mangos, citrus fruits, passionfruit, peaches, pomegranates, dates, and blueberries.
✓ Safe vegetables include carrots, peas, spinach, asparagus, beets, broccoli, butternut squash, collard greens, cucumber, corn, courgette, leaks, kale, parsley, cooked beans, and pumpkins.
× Foods to avoid - Avocado is toxic to birds so do not feed this. Tomatoes and mushrooms are best avoided as they can cause illness. Eggplant, olives, celery, onions, garlic, dairy, and meat should also be avoided.
Too many fruits and vegetables can lead to nutritional imbalances and illnesses such as diarrhoea.
Treat Selection – What’s Healthy and What’s Not?
Nuts are a popular treat item for our birds and very useful when training your bird. Whilst these are tasty treats, they are also very high in fat so should be fed in moderation. 1-2 nuts a day is plenty for most species, although macaws can have slightly more due to higher dietary fat requirements.
✓ Safe nuts to feed include almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts, pecans, walnuts, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, unsalted peanuts, pistachios, and even unsalted peanut butter in moderation.
× Be careful with monkey nuts as they can carry Aspergillosis – a fungal infection. Human-grade nuts stored correctly and used by their use by dates should be safe. Millet sprays and seed sticks should be supplied in moderation as they can contribute to nutritional deficiencies and obesity if favoured over complete formulated diets.
Remember to remove any spoiled food daily, and any spoiled fruit or vegetables should be removed after a few hours due to the humidity in Singapore.
If you are worried your bird is not thriving, is unwell, has diarrhoea, or is under or overweight, seek advice from your vet as your bird’s diet may need to be altered.
Diet for Species and Life Stage
To provide the best diet for your bird you need to consider their species, size, and life stage. Not all birds have the same energy and dietary needs, so you shouldn’t house different species together.
Seed vs Pellet Diets
Seeded diets are readily available and look pleasing to the human eye, but they can’t provide the correct balance of nutrients alone. Seeded diets are higher in fat content, which is good for wild birds, especially approaching winter, due to their high energy requirements needed to escape predation and keep warm in frigid temperatures. Our pet birds don’t have the same energy requirements meaning feeding these diets exclusively often leads to health problems like obesity and liver disease. Seeded diets also allow for selective feeding where birds pick out their favourite items such as sunflower seeds (included in many seed diets), neglecting others, therefore not consuming a balanced diet at all.
As well as being prone to obesity and liver disease due to nutritional imbalances and the higher fat content of a seeded diet, seed eaters often have mineral and vitamin deficiencies leading to problems with bones, beaks, skin, and feathers.
Whilst a mix of seed and pellet diets is okay for smaller birds like parakeets and lovebirds, due to their faster metabolism and higher energy requirement, seed diets are inappropriate for larger birds and parrots. A well-formulated, commercial pellet diet is recommended for optimal nutrition in all bird species regardless of species, size, or life stage due to its nutritional advantages.
Ideal Diet Recommendations
- A commercially formulated pellet diet should make up 60-75% of their daily dietary intake.
- Fresh fruit and vegetables should account for 25% of your bird's daily dietary intake.
For reference, small birds such as parakeets and finches should be fed ½ -1 tsp of pellets a day, cockatiels fed 2-3 tsp of pellets daily, conures 3-5 tsp of pellets a day, parrots such as amazons and African greys fed 2-3 tbsp of pellets a day, and macaws and cockatoos 4-5 tbsp a day.
Pellet Diet
Pellet diets come in different forms for different species and life stages.
- High potency formulations for larger parrots with higher energy and fat requirements such as macaws and greys. It’s also useful for breeding birds that have higher energy requirements.
- Lifetime Formulation for the maintenance of a healthy body and are good for the majority of species.
Pellet diets come in a variety of sizes for different species and sizes of birds.
- Large pellets - appropriate for larger birds and parrots
- Fine pellets - appropriate for smaller birds
- Mash - appropriate for very small birds, convalescing birds, or hand-rearing chicks.
Formulated diets contain all the nutritional requirements in the correct volumes to keep your bird healthy and happy. There is no waste using this diet as there are no seed husks/peels remaining, and it prevents selective feeding, so your bird gets a balanced diet, guaranteed.
Safe Fruits and Vegetables
Small portions of a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables should account for 25% of your bird's diet. Ensure they are pesticide-free and thoroughly washed. They are a great source of vitamins and minerals for your bird.
✓ Safe fruits include apples, bananas, papayas, mangos, citrus fruits, passionfruit, peaches, pomegranates, dates, and blueberries.
✓ Safe vegetables include carrots, peas, spinach, asparagus, beets, broccoli, butternut squash, collard greens, cucumber, corn, courgette, leaks, kale, parsley, cooked beans, and pumpkins.
× Foods to avoid - Avocado is toxic to birds so do not feed this. Tomatoes and mushrooms are best avoided as they can cause illness. Eggplant, olives, celery, onions, garlic, dairy, and meat should also be avoided.
Too many fruits and vegetables can lead to nutritional imbalances and illnesses such as diarrhoea.
Treat Selection – What’s Healthy and What’s Not?
Nuts are a popular treat item for our birds and very useful when training your bird. Whilst these are tasty treats, they are also very high in fat so should be fed in moderation. 1-2 nuts a day is plenty for most species, although macaws can have slightly more due to higher dietary fat requirements.
✓ Safe nuts to feed include almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts, pecans, walnuts, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, unsalted peanuts, pistachios, and even unsalted peanut butter in moderation.
× Be careful with monkey nuts as they can carry Aspergillosis – a fungal infection. Human-grade nuts stored correctly and used by their use by dates should be safe. Millet sprays and seed sticks should be supplied in moderation as they can contribute to nutritional deficiencies and obesity if favoured over complete formulated diets.
Remember to remove any spoiled food daily, and any spoiled fruit or vegetables should be removed after a few hours due to the humidity in Singapore.
If you are worried your bird is not thriving, is unwell, has diarrhoea, or is under or overweight, seek advice from your vet as your bird’s diet may need to be altered.
Diet for Species and Life Stage
To provide the best diet for your bird you need to consider their species, size, and life stage. Not all birds have the same energy and dietary needs, so you shouldn’t house different species together.
Seed vs Pellet Diets
Seeded diets are readily available and look pleasing to the human eye, but they can’t provide the correct balance of nutrients alone. Seeded diets are higher in fat content, which is good for wild birds, especially approaching winter, due to their high energy requirements needed to escape predation and keep warm in frigid temperatures. Our pet birds don’t have the same energy requirements meaning feeding these diets exclusively often leads to health problems like obesity and liver disease. Seeded diets also allow for selective feeding where birds pick out their favourite items such as sunflower seeds (included in many seed diets), neglecting others, therefore not consuming a balanced diet at all.
As well as being prone to obesity and liver disease due to nutritional imbalances and the higher fat content of a seeded diet, seed eaters often have mineral and vitamin deficiencies leading to problems with bones, beaks, skin, and feathers.
Whilst a mix of seed and pellet diets is okay for smaller birds like parakeets and lovebirds, due to their faster metabolism and higher energy requirement, seed diets are inappropriate for larger birds and parrots. A well-formulated, commercial pellet diet is recommended for optimal nutrition in all bird species regardless of species, size, or life stage due to its nutritional advantages.
Ideal Diet Recommendations
- A commercially formulated pellet diet should make up 60-75% of their daily dietary intake.
- Fresh fruit and vegetables should account for 25% of your bird's daily dietary intake.
For reference, small birds such as parakeets and finches should be fed ½ -1 tsp of pellets a day, cockatiels fed 2-3 tsp of pellets daily, conures 3-5 tsp of pellets a day, parrots such as amazons and African greys fed 2-3 tbsp of pellets a day, and macaws and cockatoos 4-5 tbsp a day.
Pellet Diet
Pellet diets come in different forms for different species and life stages.
- High potency formulations for larger parrots with higher energy and fat requirements such as macaws and greys. It’s also useful for breeding birds that have higher energy requirements.
- Lifetime Formulation for the maintenance of a healthy body and are good for the majority of species.
Pellet diets come in a variety of sizes for different species and sizes of birds.
- Large pellets - appropriate for larger birds and parrots
- Fine pellets - appropriate for smaller birds
- Mash - appropriate for very small birds, convalescing birds, or hand-rearing chicks.
Formulated diets contain all the nutritional requirements in the correct volumes to keep your bird healthy and happy. There is no waste using this diet as there are no seed husks/peels remaining, and it prevents selective feeding, so your bird gets a balanced diet, guaranteed.
Safe Fruits and Vegetables
Small portions of a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables should account for 25% of your bird's diet. Ensure they are pesticide-free and thoroughly washed. They are a great source of vitamins and minerals for your bird.
✓ Safe fruits include apples, bananas, papayas, mangos, citrus fruits, passionfruit, peaches, pomegranates, dates, and blueberries.
✓ Safe vegetables include carrots, peas, spinach, asparagus, beets, broccoli, butternut squash, collard greens, cucumber, corn, courgette, leaks, kale, parsley, cooked beans, and pumpkins.
× Foods to avoid - Avocado is toxic to birds so do not feed this. Tomatoes and mushrooms are best avoided as they can cause illness. Eggplant, olives, celery, onions, garlic, dairy, and meat should also be avoided.
Too many fruits and vegetables can lead to nutritional imbalances and illnesses such as diarrhoea.
Treat Selection – What’s Healthy and What’s Not?
Nuts are a popular treat item for our birds and very useful when training your bird. Whilst these are tasty treats, they are also very high in fat so should be fed in moderation. 1-2 nuts a day is plenty for most species, although macaws can have slightly more due to higher dietary fat requirements.
✓ Safe nuts to feed include almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts, pecans, walnuts, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, unsalted peanuts, pistachios, and even unsalted peanut butter in moderation.
× Be careful with monkey nuts as they can carry Aspergillosis – a fungal infection. Human-grade nuts stored correctly and used by their use by dates should be safe. Millet sprays and seed sticks should be supplied in moderation as they can contribute to nutritional deficiencies and obesity if favoured over complete formulated diets.
Remember to remove any spoiled food daily, and any spoiled fruit or vegetables should be removed after a few hours due to the humidity in Singapore.
If you are worried your bird is not thriving, is unwell, has diarrhoea, or is under or overweight, seek advice from your vet as your bird’s diet may need to be altered.