Bird Food Guide

Eating Well: The Best Food for Your Pet Bird

Avian Nutrition Revisited: Clinical Perspectives

What do I feed my bird? That’s a question we hear every day. The ideal avian diet is about much more than birdseed and parrot pellets. Parrots, finches, and canaries require a varied, nutritious diet that does include seeds for birds, but also pellets and fruits and vegetables. In order to feed birds properly, giving them the building blocks for feather production, healthy skin, and a happy attitude, they should have a buffet of healthy options. But how can you become the best “bird feeder” possible in the fastest amount of time? Feeding birds becomes easy with Lafeber bird foods.

The Base Diet for Birds: Food That’s Balanced

In the wild, birds eat a vast variety of foods – seeds, nuts, grasses, flowers, fruits, insects – the list goes on. The change in seasons brings new types of foods, and birds nourish themselves on what’s available. At home, your bird also nourishes itself on what’s available, so it should ideally be the most balanced, natural, and whole food possible. A bird’s diet is critical to its health. A bird on a poor diet will not live out its full life span, and will most likely succumb to any number of viral, bacterial, and fungal infections. A good diet boosts the immune system and helps the bird to ward off illness. Not only that, a good diet keeps a bird in good spirits, keeps its feathers in great condition, and improves its life overall.

The “base” diet is the primary item that you feed your bird on a daily basis – everything else you feed is an addition to the diet, or may even be considered a “snack.” Ideally, the base diet should be as nutritionally sound as possible because it’s what your bird is eating the most. Lafeber products are the ideal base diet because they are formulated to be nutritionally balanced – every bite your bird takes offers building blocks for all of the systems of the body. They are also fun for your bird to eat, and are packed with a wide variety of ingredients, most of which your bird would search out in the wild.

The base diet – whether it’s Nutri-Berries, Nutri-Meal bars, Avi-Cakes, Pellet-Berries or Premium Daily Diet Pellets - or a combination of these – should be offered in the morning when the bird is hungriest. If the bowl is empty later in the evening, you can add more. Don’t allow your bird’s bowl to be empty for too long – small birds have a very fast metabolism and most choose to eat all day long.

Bird Seeds and Bird Pellets

Many new bird guardians become confused about what they should be feeding their birds. Bird seeds? Bird pellets? There are so many options and so many opinions. Both seeds and pellets are nutritious foods, and one is not necessarily superior to the other, depending on what else you’re feeding your bird in conjunction with it. Lafeber has solved the seed/pellet debate by including both in many of its products, making the decision easy for youand your bird. Not only that, Lafeber has also included nutritious fruits and vegetables in the same foods, making them even more delicious and healthy. Finally, Lafeber also adds essential Omega fatty acids and enriches its diets with vitamins and minerals. Each bite your bird takes is packed with healthful ingredients. Lafeber diets also encourage foraging behavior, which is so important to the mental health of parrots and other companion birds.

Fruits and Veggies: Great Snack for Parrots, Finches and Canaries

Fruits and veggies make great daily snacks, especially the more nutritious fruits and veggies, such as those that are dark green or orange in color. Try various fresh foods to see what your bird likes the best. If you have a picky bird, try offering fresh foods in a variety of ways – chopped, mashed, whole, grated, and so on. Don’t give up too soon on feeding a certain nutritious item – it may take a while for your bird to get curious enough to try it.

When you feed fresh foods, make sure that they only stay available to the bird for a few hours. After that, many fruits and veggies start to go sour, or may attract pests. Here’s a short list of some nutritious fruits and veggies you can try. Make sure to rinse everything very well before serving, and try to use organic produce whenever possible.

Fruit:
apple
banana
berries
melon
oranges
pineapple
Veggies:
Asparagus
Beans (cooked only)
Broccoli
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Leafy greens
Peas
Peppers
Soybeans
Sprouts
Squash
Yams

Supplements to Your Bird’s Diet

Avian veterinarians often recommend dietary supplementation for guardians of “seed junkies,” those birds that refuse to touch anything other than seeds. If your bird is eating Lafeber products, you have much less to worry about – these diets are nutritionally complete. Still, you may have a bird that’s molting, laying eggs, or is recuperating from an illness or injury, or perhaps your bird is stressed from a recent move, loss of a mate, or other stressful condition. In these cases, you should consider a dietary supplement to keep your bird in tip-top shape.

Also, just as you may sometimes take vitamins, it’s often good for a bird to have a vitamin and mineral supplement just to make sure that it’s getting the nutritional elements that it needs to remain healthy. You can speak with your avian veterinarian about dietary supplementation. You can harm your bird by over-supplementing, but it can’t hurt to offer a supplement a couple of days a week. If you add a powdered supplement to the water, make sure to change the water at least twice a day, and offer only fresh water (without the supplement) at night to ensure that bacteria doesn’t grow in the dish.

Cooking for Your Bird

Birds love a home cooked meal as much as the next guy! Cooking nutritious meals is so easy – if you can crack an egg, you can make a delicious bird recipe. These recipes, all of which include Lafeber bird foods, are also great for weaning chicks and molting birds. Here are three dishes to try:

Nutri-Berry Yummies

Bird recipes don’t get easier than this! First, buy a box of ready-made cornbread mix. Follow the directions on the package. Before you’re ready to pour it into the baking pan (or muffin pan) add two cups of Nutri-Berries - then bake. You may have to bake it for a little longer than the package allows. Your bird will have a blast picking the Nutri-Berries out of the muffins! Cool before serving, of course. Cut into squares and freeze, and then defrost when needed.

Pan (Avi) Cakes

This one is super easy too. Buy a packet of ready-mixed pancake batter. If you can get whole-wheat pancake mix, even better. Make mix as directed on the box. Just before pouring the mix onto a heated griddle, break up some Avi-Cakes into it and then make your pancakes. Serve warm – not hot.

Nutri-Meal Scramble

If you can break an egg, you can make this nutritious meal. Break three eggs into a bowl, shell and all. Crumble one Nutri-Meal bar into the egg mix and whip it together. Pour the mixture into a heated pan and scramble – make sure that the eggs are very well cooked, dry, and cooled down before serving. This recipe offers your bird the nutritious wallop of a Nutri-Meal bar and a protein punch that’s great for feather production.

Healthy Snacks for Your Pet Bird

Along with your bird’s base diet and other healthful foods, it’s great to offer nutritious snacks, but most importantly, snacks should be fun to eat, like Popcorn Nutri-Berries treats and Nutri-Nuts. Ideally, you’ll offer snacks formulated for birds rather than salty, fatty, or sugary treats that might be in your cupboard. Snacks should make up no more than 10% of your bird’s diet during the week. Healthy snacks can also include rice cakes, whole wheat bread, no-salt added whole wheat crackers, but in moderation.