Having a parrot as a pet requires setting up a very good, healthy parrot diet so that the parrot does not become sick and die in just a few years. Parrots actually have a very long lifespan and when you have a pet parrot it pays to take the time when you get the parrot to find out exactly what should be fed to it so that you are keeping the parrot in optimal health.
Size of your parrot.
Getting the diet sorted out is not difficult to do. It is just a matter of listing a diet that is suitable to the parrot. Parrots of similar size eat similar diets, so the main consideration you need to make initially is the actual size of the parrot you have or that you intend to purchase.
For example, you most certainly would not expect an African Gray Parrot to eat the same diet as a budgerigar. Their size difference is huge and this will obviously affect the size of the food they eat. The beak alone on a larger bird is so much stronger, allowing it to eat harder foods.
Parrot diet variety.
A parrot loves to have variety in their diet. In the natural environment a parrot eats flowers, seeds, vegetables, fruit and nuts, so the range of food that you can give your parrot is huge. Variety is essential not only for the health of the parrot but because if the parrot gets bored there is a good chance he will stop eating (just like we do if we are served the same food day in, day out), but also because it gives the bird a range of vitamins.
Vitamins in the parrot diet.
Once certain way to make sure that your parrot is getting a range of vitamins, is to feed it pellets. Nearly everyone who is involved in keeping parrots agrees that pellets are essential to the good health of a pet parrot, but where there is some discrepancy is the amount that it should be fed. Some say that pellets should be up to 90% of a parrot’s diet, but others say that it should only be 30%-40% of the diet. This is something you will have to work out yourself and obviously as long as you are giving it the lower amount and it is eating a lot of other food then at least it is not starving. It will be a matter of adjusting the percentage of pellets according to other food that you will be feeding it.
Other foods to feed the parrot.
If you are able to feed it organic food then all the better! Your parrot will be so much healthier for being able to eat organic food. Parrots are usually happy to try, corn, sweet potato, sweet peppers, green peas and beans, cauliflower, apples, mango, pineapple, melons and other tropical fruit.
Having water available for your pet parrot.
Parrots need to have water available but it is not a good idea to have a bowl of water because once it is a few hours old it will start growing bacteria as food and droppings land in it. A water bottle is a much healthier way to give your parrot its water requirements.
Once you have decided what to feed your pet parrot, make a list so that you can try all the items out in your parrot’s diet. You may find that some are not so popular, but keep trying them now and then anyway.
