What are pellets?

Pellets are a formulated diet for our parrots, much like the kibbles our dogs and cats are given, but specific to the needs of parrots.  They contain grains, seeds, vegetables, fruits and proteins with added vitamins and minerals.  The ingredients are mixed, and then baked.  Some are made into shapes, dyes and sugar added.  Some of them contain only organic ingredients and human grade grains. None of them are complete.  We can send a man to the moon, but we can’t duplicate a parrot’s natural diet.

Which pellets do I feed my parrot?

Different species have different requirements.  A macaw needs a diet higher in fat and lower in protein, a cockatoo requires the exact opposite, though many pelleted diets will feature both a macaw and a cockatoo on its packaging indicating that it is the right food for either.  There are no species specific formulated diets on the market today, but an organic pellet is always preferable.  If your parrot has any history of liver problems, stay away from the colored pellets.

Are pellets alone enough?

Pellets should be offered in conjunction with fresh fruit and vegetables, cooked grains and pasta, tubers and legumes.  Sprouts might be the healthiest thing we can offer to our birds.  A seed or grain expends its fat reserves in the process of sprouting and the end result is a living plant that offers more nutrients than just about anything else we can feed them.

I offer seed to my cockatiels as a large part of their diet, and my bigger birds are offered seeded treats, like Nutriberries.  Pellets should be used as an addition to an already great diet, in the case of some of my picky eaters, I rely on the pellets to balance out their diet when they flatly refuse to eat the good stuff I give them.

My parrot won’t eat pellets.

You aren’t alone.  Many people who have brought home parrots that were on seeded diets have found it very difficult to convert them to a fresh foods and pellet diet.  Upgrading them to a better quality pellet might present the same problem.  Hiding the pellets in foraging toys has been helpful in introducing the idea of them to skeptical parrots.  When a pellet is where a treat usually is, it might be sampled.

Another thing to consider is: does your parrot recognize it as food?  You might want to mix it in with the other foods that you offer to get that point across, or play games where you pretend to eat one in front of him and make a big deal about how yummy it is.  You can play the “you can’t have this, it’s mine” game.  A parrot wants anything that belongs to you.

Do I have to offer pellets?

There are a number of parrot owners I know that don’t use pellets at all.  The idea that nature doesn’t provide a pellet tree is a compelling argument.  If your parrots diet is so good and so complete that they don’t need the dietary backing of a pelleted food, then you are doing a wonderful job.  Not having a dish of pellets in all of my cages makes me nervous, personally. But, your house, your rules.

I did a survey with a bunch of parrot owners asking them what brands they use and why.  Here are some of the responses:

*Syd (greenwing macaw) will only eat the Kaytee exact rainbow pellets, Cassie (goffins cockatoo) also. Stella (umbrella cockatoo) eats the Zupreem fruit blend. I am working on switching them all to the Zupreem natural to get away from the colors. The amazons eat the Kaytee original. Little ones wont eat pellets. Each bird, depending on size is offered from a dozen to 2 dozen pellets daily along with their veggies, seeds, and things.

*I mix one 5 lb bag of Roudybush to 50 lbs of a natural seed with no dyes. I like Roudybush because of the ingredients and nutritional value, not to mention it also contains no dyes. It tastes good too apparently…I’ve never had an issue getting a bird to try it. I’ve been researching cockatiel diets for almost two years now…and 10% pellets to 90% seed mixture with daily fresh veggies, twice weekly sprouts, and once weekly egg with cheerios or rice krispies seems to be as close to a perfect diet as you can produce in captivity for them.
I understand most people here have big parrots…but this is what I feel is the best for my little guys.

*I buy Zupreme Fruit and Natural and mix them. Chicken (moluccan cockatoo) refuses to eat the purple ones, Daisy (greenwing macaw) will alternate between the fruit and natural. One time she’ll eat all fruit, the next time she’ll eat all natural. I never know. My guys aren’t fans of fresh food so they get pellets so I’m sure they eat.

*I keep some pelleted food around and feed some once in a while more as a prevent emergency starvation thing here in Hurricane Country. Hagens natral or Zupreem natural, I am not a proponent of pelleted foods. Feed a fresh seed and sprout mix with chopped veggies and fruit with either some Walnuts, Almonds Pistachios or Pine nuts every day here. Scrambled eggs once or twice a week and a warm mash mix at night just as a bonding thing and to make it easier to medicate if needed. I know spoiled-well maybe a little.

Finally, I want to add that I have actually eaten a pellet.  I was motivated to do this by the smell of the Zupreem fruit blend.  They smell like Fruity Pebbles and I had to know what they tasted like.  I chose an orange one.  For my life I don’t know what they do to make them smell like that because the taste of it doesn’t correspond.  It wasn’t horrible.  It seemed fresh, but tasted bland and not at all sweet.  I wish I had another brand on hand to compare it to at that time because I don’t know if whatever struck me to do that then will ever strike me again.

Here at BirdTricks.com we recommend an organic parrot pellet called Feed Your Flock.

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“Using this ‘Real Speech’ system for only 15 minutes a day, teaches your parrot how to speak more words, phrases and songs than you can ever imagine. Even species that can’t talk will whistle your favorite tunes.” Click for more »

The nice thing is that most non-stick cookwares we are used to have alternatives without those deadly chemicals. For instance, giving up the non-stick pan was a no brainer. I just replaced it with a stainless steel pan. While the non-stick pan could be cleaned just with one quick wipe, the stainless steel pan needed to soak in soap for a few minutes and then a light scrub. The cleaning wasn’t the problem but the food just didn’t cook the way I wanted on that. So I continued to search for the best alternative.

A few appliances that I had to give up included my electric waffle iron, and george forman electric grill. I have not since found a replacement for the waffle iron but it’s a loss I can go without. The grill on the other hand seemed a greater loss because I enjoyed steaks cooked on it. It took me a few months of searching till I found a solution. I did not come across a single electric grill without the non-stick coating. Someone recommended I try cast iron so I bought a cast iron pan with the lines in it like a grill. I learned to cook steaks, burgers, hot dogs, etc on it and taste as good (if not better) than going out for those. I used to have a non-stick pancake griddle which I replaced with a flat cast iron pan. On both pans, I lightly grease the bottom with cooking spray or oil before use and they are practically non-stick for a single session.

Cleaning cast iron is a slightly different story. If you cook things on it that aren’t messy, it’s actually very easy to clean. Just a wipe down with a moist paper towel and oiling the surface to season it. The oily surface of the seasoned pan becomes almost like a nonstick surface if you maintain it properly. If you do cook something messy, cleaning is a different story. You’re not supposed to soak cast iron so you need to do some hard scrubbing with some steal wool sponges. But not to worry, you can always scrape it clean, season, and reuse it. It’s not the easy one wipe cleaning like non stick, but it’s not as difficult of a sacrifice as it may seem. And honestly, I think the food comes out better prepared on cast iron anyway.

I gave away all my non-stick pots and cookware since I have no use for them anymore and it’s safer than having someone use one by mistake. A few days ago I forgot my cast iron pan on the burner for 3 hours which made me realize how lucky I was that it was not non-stick because then my birds would have been dead. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can get by with non-stick cookware. I’ve read so many sad stories about people who killed their birds that way so I wouldn’t want to take any of those chances.

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Watch a LIVE video demo of me taming our wild, biting Macaw, “Tiko.” (See how I handle “Tiko” as he lunges at me, screaming and biting — how I lovingly calm him down… and mesmerize him so much that he BEGS me to pet him with my BARE HANDS 5 minutes later!) Click for more »

I found this cute little parrot kit at PetSmart and had to buy it! It’s mainly for small parrots like budgies and the like but I decided to give it a try with my medium sized birds. I can see why it’s for the small ones, though, as my parrots could easily ruin the thing!

Above is a short clip of Bondi lifting the barbell weight it came with. I love the way it is set up because it sets your bird up for success in learning how to do it. The bird has no other choice in what behavior to really do with the barbell so it is a fast trick to teach. Here are the steps I took to get Bondi to learn this in ONE training session!

Photo from www.petsmart.com

I got her to touch the blue ball on the end of the barbell first. I would have preferred if she touched the skinny stick part of it, but she wasn’t interested. Because the toy was new, she was naturally curious and once she touched the barbell, I clicked and rewarded.

Once she understood touching the barbell got her a reward, she began doing it easily so I decided to change things up. I pushed the barbell as far to the right as possible, so some of the connecting stick piece was showing more. I let her explore the blue ball part of the barbell and when she accidentally touched the stick part, I clicked and gave her a jackpot reward. She was willing to touch other parts of the barbell to earn the treat since I was no longer rewarding for just touching the ball. From this point forward, I didn’t reward ever again for touching the ball part of the barbell.

Next, I encouraged her to touch the middle of the stick as I moved it back to the left more and more each time. She got confused a couple times, and went back to touching the ball but quickly remembered it wasn’t earning anything and tried again with the stick part. Once she touched the middle of it (which I had to help her do by lifting it as high as it would go) I began only rewarding for her grabbing the skinny part by the middle and not the sides.

Note: I lifted the barbell up because I realized it was uncomfortable for Bondi to put her head in between two things. It’s important to recognize these things when teaching your bird new things. If I wouldn’t have caught onto that, the training session would have gone a lot slower and wouldn’t have been as fun for Bondi.

Once Bondi was grabbing the middle of the barbell by herself as I held it up, I tried it once where I didn’t hold it up and she immediately went for it and picked it up. I clicked and rewarded and she began offering the behavior over and over again. I realized I could get her to do more than one lift of the barbell if I wanted, and we worked up to 3.

To learn more about prop trick training with your own parrot, check out http://www.birdtricks.com/trick-training!

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"Discover How New Training Techniques Can Finally Train Your Parrot To Entertain Himself Quietly… Even If Trying To Ignore The Screaming, Cramming It’s Cage Full Of Fun Toys, & Giving Him More Attention Has Failed Miserably!"  Click for more »