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Avian Nutrition
By Sharon Hollars, DVM
October 12, 2012
Nutrition is considered by many to be the single most important part of avian husbandry. “Garbage in, garbage out”
as the saying goes. If you want your bird to stay healthy over it’s potentially very long lifespan, it’s important to
know how to maintain optimal health. As with any animal, it’s important to match the right food to the species.
Finches and canaries do not have the same nutritional requirements as budgerigars, lories or large macaws. To
simplify this topic we will only discuss the types of birds most commonly kept as pets. Of course, owners should
always strive to feed the highest quality food possible and always have fresh, clean water available.
Like children, birds will often choose favorite foods and will overeat on those foods and pass by potentially healthier
options. When choosing foods to give your bird, it is important that we recognize this and limit availability of
certain foods like seeds and nuts. It is natural for birds to select certain foods since the drive to find protein and fat
is important in a bird that has to work hard to survive. Birds in the wild expend huge amounts of calories flying and
searching for food. This is not necessary in captivity, so we need to control their intake of these high-fat foods. The
all seed/nut diet traditionally fed to birds in captivity will eventually cause health problems, most commonly from
vitamin A deficiency and calcium deficiency. There can also be vitamin B deficiencies and deficiencies of certain
amino acids that are low in seeds and nuts even though they are overall fairly high protein foods.
Owners can help overcome these deficiency problems by offering a wide variety of vegetables and fruits. As an
easy rule-of-thumb, the stronger the color in the vegetable, the more vitamin A precursors a vegetable or fruit tends
to contain. Bright yellow, bright orange and dark green vegetables (including leafy greens) are nutritionally a good
complement to a seed/nut diet. Vegetables also tend to be high in minerals like calcium – dark, leafy greens are
particularly high in calcium and so help fill in many gaps in the seed-based diet. More balanced protein sources
such as cooked eggs or bits of lean meat can help fill in the gaps in the amino acid profile of seeds/nuts. For birds
that are molting or breeding, cooked eggs are very high in the sulfur containing amino acids that are vital to feather
and egg production.
Finches and canaries (passerines) eat primarily seeds, but many will opportunistically eat insects, worms, or other
protein sources. Many enjoy either fresh or dried greens and will greatly benefit from the addition of these into their
diet. Some will eat small amounts of fruits but high sugar fruits can cause soft droppings, so give only limited
amounts per day. There are many manufactured diets available that have a fine texture appropriate for passerines.
These diets are intended to be adequate nutrition for the species indicated on the label of the product but birds can
benefit by just a little supplementation with dark leafy greens, other vegetables and small amounts of fruits.
Most parrots, also known as “hookbills” (psittacines) are primarily seed eating birds. They will also eat a significant
percentage of leafy foods, flowers, shoots, fruits, occasionally insects, eggs or even hatchlings of other species.
With the lower calorie expenditure inherent in captivity, we limit the high fat and protein foods (seeds) and
encourage vegetable and fruit consumption to maintain a more balanced diet. There are many manufactured
formulations for the different species of parrots. Some are very specialized – for instance diets made specifically for
the fruit eating lories and lorikeets. Some are more general, but are sized appropriately for the species. It is
important to pay attention to the recommendations of the diet manufacturer and your veterinarian, to help you decide
which food to use for a particular bird. Many birds will eat fruits more willingly than vegetables, but beware the
high sugar content causing soft droppings, so fruit should be somewhat limited and always in balance with
vegetables.
I recommend about twice as many vegetables as fruit for most species except for those few species that are primarily
fruit eaters. I generally recommend about 70% pelleted formula and 20-30% veggies and fruits, with most species
needing only 5-10% seed when they are eating a good quality pelleted formula. There are a few species (mostly
smaller hookbills and the passerines) that should get more seed proportionately. Cockatiels (particularly fancy
colors), budgerigars (parakeets) and a few other, less common species should get up to 50% seed mix. These
species can also be difficult to get them converted to a healthier diet.
There are many tricks that you can use to encourage vegetable consumption. Offering the food in different ways can
sometimes trigger a bird to eat a food it has otherwise refused. For instance, some parakeets will eat only the tiny
buds on the broccoli floret, some only like the tiny stem after the buds are shaved away. Some will eat broccoli only
when it is clipped to the side of the cage at the bird’s eye level, some prefer it in a dish. I have seen even very small
finches eat carrots when a carrot stick is clipped to the side of the cage like a perch – they will sit on it and eat the
edges. Some prefer only thin strips of shredded carrot. You can also offer juices – either vegetable or fruit. The
same caution should be used with fruit juice as with fruit. Monitor stools to make sure any transient soft stool does
not persist more than a few hours.
A common trick is to bake vegetables into corn bread. This cannot substitute for a fully balanced diet, but small
amounts can be offered to get a bird used to the taste of the vegetables. Readily available corn bread or corn muffin
mixes can be used and moderate amounts of vegetables can be mixed into individual muffins or into the entire batch.
There are many recipes available on-line. There are some pre-packaged “bird breads” available. Any of these
breads can easily be cut into serving sized portions and frozen.
It is important that these “soft” foods remain in the cage/dish only a limited time as they will spoil if left all day.
Soft foods should be removed after 2 hours. I recommend a dish for the “dry” foods (pellets and seeds) and a
separate dish for the soft foods (veggies, fruits, moistened foods, bird bread) so it is easier to remove and clean up.
Be sure to clean any clips after using them to attach soft foods to the side of the cage.
There are a few foods that should never be offered to birds – avocado can cause respiratory failure in certain species,
particularly cockatiels. Chocolate should not be offered. Be careful with very fibrous foods like celery- this should
always be cut into very short pieces so a bird can never ingest a long strand. Birds should NEVER get any alcohol
of any kind. Even a tiny amount can cause severe long-term consequences. I have seen birds with liver failure due
to owners that let the birds repeatedly drink wine or other alcohol containing drinks.
Your veterinarian should be able to discuss all this information, answer any questions you have, and help you make
the best choices for your bird. Taking a few extra steps to keep your bird healthy will let you enjoy their company
for as long as possible.