Guidelines for a Proper and Healthy Diet for your Parrot



Posted: Saturday, January 30, 2010

by Peter Dranitsin
Petes Original Art Inc.

Providing a healthy optimal diet for your parrot is vital. Often times "Polly's " nutrition can be ignored as you slice up a few vegetables and fruits and provide seeds, nuts, and parrot pellets, and think that you are providing a well-rounded diet. The fact is, you should know a bit about nutrition, which fruits and vegetables you should provide in the diet, and what vitamins and minerals they require- being able to provide them through the addition of the parrot group of foods and supplements. An optimal diet is important, as not providing one can lead to infectious and noninfectious disease. .

Your bird should not be allowed to "choose" what they eat. Offer mixed vegetables and soft foods, and pellets at mealtime. When you allow a bird to eat only what they like, the bird can acquire a nutritional deficiency. A good way to prevent this is to have the same fruit and vegetable mix for one week straight. Balance the diet with a variety of colors, textures, shapes and sizes of natural foods from the parrot food group. These include proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals, and other essential minerals. Important vitamins include A, D, E, C, K, and B vitamins, which include a variety of fresh vegetables and fruits.

The cage should have one for fresh fruits and vegetables, one for parrot pellets, and one for water. When you feed your parrot allow them the food in their cage for one to two hours before removing it.

Exercise is also important for the parrot. Exercise should be included each day. The best exercise for the parrot is to open its cage and allow it to fly freely for at least fifteen minutes throughout the day.

It is conflicting often times when you read the experts' advice on the feeding the parrot. You may read that parrot pellets and seed mixes are the best and should only be given to the parrot. This is due to the fact that many experts are concerned with owners not providing the essential vitamins and minerals through an optimal diet and the bird acquiring a nutritional deficiency.

Other experts claim it is fine to have parrot pellets in the cage throughout the day. The best advice is to learn the parrot food groups and get a cookbook that will teach you what vitamins and minerals come from what fruits and vegetables.

Be consistent and keep the parrot on a schedule. You should feed the parrot once in the early morning, once in the afternoon, and once in the early evening.

With a good optimal diet, plenty of exercise, the proper love and caring, you will have a very well-adjusted, happy pet. Be understanding to your parrot, as they are temperamental and do have needs, just as the human- and be prepared to have many enjoyable years with your pet.

Cedric James is a parrot diet expert. For more great information on the parrot diet,visit http://parrotguides.com.

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