Home » Misc » How to make food for baby parrot

How to make food for baby parrot


How To Take Care of A Baby Parrot (from Hatchling To Juvenile)

(Last Updated On: November 11, 2022)

Caring for baby parrots (chicks) is a rewarding experience, but it requires knowledge and commitment. Baby parrots shouldn’t be purchased until they’ve been weaned to avoid health complications.

Once weaned, baby parrots should be fed soft seeds, fruits, and vegetables until they’re old enough to eat pellets and dried seeds.

They must be kept at a temperature of 65 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit.

When choosing a cage, ensure the bar spacing isn’t too wide. Provide perches of varying widths and position them throughout the cage.

Wild parrots care for their young for at least a year, which involves more than feeding as parrots teach their chicks how to become independent.

Parrot Growth Stages

There are five development stages of a baby parrot’s growth:

  • Neonate (hatchling)
  • Nestling
  • Fledgling
  • Weanling
  • Juvenile (pre-adolescent)

Neonate

During the first stage of life, newly-hatched parrots are born with closed eyes. They’re also naked, blind, and deaf, so they depend on their owners.

In the wild, hatchlings are fed food that their parents regurgitate. Without a mother and father, owners must give chicks a special hand-rearing formula through a syringe.

Nestling

When the parrot reaches the nestling stage, it opens its eyes but remains dependent on its owners.

Imprinting occurs during stage two. When the chick first opens its eyes, it bonds deeply with its parents. If another parrot isn’t present, the baby parrot will imprint on its human owner.

This stage is vital for development, as it needs visual, touch, and sound stimulation.

Fledgling

The fledgling stage is when a parrot begins to learn how to fly.

Some parrots start to lose weight as they’re more preoccupied with flying than eating. As a result, they’re dependent on their owners or parents for food.

Once the parrot has learned how to fly, it’s a good time to clip its wings. However, doing so too early will prevent a parrot from learning to fly.

Wing clipping partially stops a parrot from flying away and protects it from dangers around the house, such as windows, ovens, and ceiling fans.

Weanling

In the weanling stage, parrots consume solid foods independently. Weaning parrots begin to forage and develop skills that allow them to care for themselves.

Juvenile

Parrots become pre-adolescent birds and can fend for themselves. They’ll be on solid food without the need for formula. They’ll be independent of their parents but won’t have reached sexual maturity yet.

At this stage, juvenile parrots won’t have their full adult color. This develops after the molting season, so don’t be alarmed if your baby parrot doesn’t look how you’d expect it to.

The parrot should be at least 8 to 12 weeks old before it’s given a new home.

What Do You Feed Baby Parrots?

Hagen Avicultural Research Institute artificially incubated psittacine eggs, and babies without parents must be hand-fed for 3-5 months.

To do this, mix your chosen hand-rearing formula in boiled water that’s been allowed to cool. Stir all the lumps and bumps to form a smooth, thickened mixture.

When hand-feeding baby parrots, the temperature of the food must be below 45°C before feeding; if the food is under 40°C, there’s a risk of it fermenting and causing infection.

However, most chicks will be cared for by their parents during their initial life stages. Get parrots that have been weaned, as hand-feeding has complications that can compromise the parrot’s health.

Once the parrot has reached the weaning stage, it needs seeds and vegetables. Safe foods include:

  • Soaked and sprouted seeds
  • Cooked sweet corn kernels
  • Soft vegetables
  • Fresh fruits
  • A selection of greens, including chickweed and dandelion leaves

It takes a while for a baby parrot’s digestive system to become robust enough to cope with dried seeds and pellets. However, leaving a small dish of pellets that parrots can forage through is safe.

Also, ensure a shallow bowl of fresh water is left in its cage.

Baby parrots shouldn’t be fed water orally as they can drown. They receive hydration through regurgitated foods and hand-rear formula, so they only need water bowls once they move onto solid foods when they’re around 4 weeks old.

Baby Parrot Feeding Schedule

According to VCA Hospitals, how much and often you feed the baby parrot depends on its age and growth rate. Young birds need regular feeding and eat more often than older birds.

The following guidelines set out how much food the average baby parrot needs. All feeding should be carried out between 6 am and midnight:

  • 1-2 weeks: Feed 6-10 times daily, every 2-3 hours.
  • 2-3 weeks: Feed 5-6 times daily, every 3-4 hours.
  • 3-4 weeks: Feed 4-5 times daily, every 4 hours. The bird can be put into a cage with a low perch and a shallow water bowl at four weeks old.
  • 5-6 weeks: Feed twice daily. Soft seeds, fruits, veggies, and pellets can be put in the cage.
  • 7 weeks: Place the bird in a large cage with pellets in cups scattered across the floor.
  • 8 weeks: The weaning process should be started. Then, provide nutritionally complete pellets.

After feeding, examine the crop. While the bird has few feathers, you can see when it’s full. However, an examination using the thumb and index finger can also help you check the crop’s fullness.

Healthy parrots should respond well to every feed, and the crop should empty between feedings. They should also produce regular droppings.

How To Keep A Baby Parrot Warm

When a parrot is old enough to live in a cage, the ideal temperature is 65-85 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures below 40 degrees are dangerous for birds and can cause health problems.

Similarly, temperatures above 85 degrees cause heat stress, and parrots also need appropriate ventilation to remain cool and comfortable.

However, keeping young chicks warm is more complicated, as even the slightest temperature change can be fatal. However, in the absence of parents, you’ll need to provide the baby parrot warmth to ensure it survives. To do so, follow these steps:

Make A Brooder

You’ll need a container for the parrot to live in. Commercial brooders are expensive, but you can easily make one with a fish tank or plastic container. Opt for metals or plastics that are easy to sanitize.

Choose a brooder that allows the parrot to move about as it grows.

Fill It with Substrate

You’ll need to cover the floor of the container with a substrate. Small parrots do well with folded-up newspaper on the bottom of the brooder, but you can use paper towels.

Avoid wood shavings or cat litter, as curious chicks will try to eat it. 

Heat The Brooder

If you’re using a commercial brooder, it’ll already have a thermostatically controlled heating function.

If you’ve made your own, you’ll need to line it with a heat mat. Ensure your chosen heat source has a thermostat so you can amend the temperature.

You can also use a desk lamp set up over the brooder, which uses a red bulb that won’t disturb the chicks. The temperature inside the brooder should be:

  • 1-5 days: 96°F
  • Days 5-10: 95°F
  • From 10 days until they’ve developed some feathers: 91°F
  • When they’ve most of their down feathers: 84-89°F
  • When the wings and head are mostly covered by feathers: 78-82°F

Once the chick reaches 3 to 4 weeks of age, it can regulate its body temperature.

At this stage, you can remove the heat source. To keep a baby parrot warm, ensure the room the parrot lives in is maintained at the right temperature.

Do Baby Parrots Sleep A Lot?

The majority of parrots are either tropical or subtropical.

They live near the equator, which gets 12 hours of darkness each night. So, parrots are awake from sunrise to sunset and need between 12 to 14 hours of uninterrupted sleep each day.

Baby birds need more than this as they’re growing and developing. Although it’s hard to know how often they’ll sleep, chicks will rest as much as they need to.

It’s not uncommon for baby parrots to only wake up when they’re being fed, sleeping at all other times of the day until they’re older and stronger.

How To Set Up A Parrot Cage

Parrots live in cages from around the age of 7 weeks.

Because they’re still growing, selecting a cage that’ll provide enough room for your parrot to be comfortable when it’s fully grown is important.

Follow these cage setup tips to get started:

Determine the Space of the Bars

Parrots can get their heads stuck or escape from cages with bars set too wide apart. You shouldn’t risk it if you’re out of the house and can’t supervise it constantly.

  • Small parrots, like conures, need bars spaced ¾ inch apart.
  • Medium-sized birds, like parakeets and cockatiels, need bars spaced ½ inch apart.
  • Large parrots, like Amazons and Macaws, need 1 inch between the bars.

Find a cage that allows a parrot to roam freely without too much restriction.

Perches

Parrots are always on their feet, even while sleeping. Therefore, perches are an essential part of the cage’s setup. In the wild, trees and branches provide resting spots of all shapes, sizes, and widths.

Allowing your parrot to adjust its feet to the widths of the perches ensures that it stays supple and flexible, preventing health problems later.

Rope perches can be adapted to fit the cage. Also, add a Pedi perch to the cage so your parrot can keep its claws filed down and its beak under control.

When adding perches to the cage, space them out so the cage doesn’t become crowded. Parrots prefer high perches and tend to ignore all others in the cage.

To start with, place the perches around the mid-level of the cage to allow your parrot to get used to them. Then, move them higher once the parrot has settled and the perches feel familiar.

Food and Water Bowls

Most cages come with at least one food and water tray.

However, with trays that rest on the bottom of the cage, it’s easy for parrots to drop empty seed husks back into it, especially while learning how to forage.

This leads to a risk of starvation, so it’s a good idea to put a couple of upright feeders in the cage. That way, you’ll know that there’s always food available for your parrot.

Position them close to your parrot’s favorite perches so it can easily reach its food.

Substrate

To make your parrot’s cage easier to clean, line the bottom with a layer of substrate. Newspaper will make removing old seed husks and feces easier when it’s time to sanitize the cage.

How To Train A Baby Parrot

The breeder will have done most of the work when it comes to training. However, to get your parrot used to your presence and encourage it to behave appropriately, you’ll need to perform training.

It’ll take time and patience, and training is essential if you want a sociable, tame parrot.

To successfully train a baby parrot, follow these steps:

Start Handling Your Parrot

Your parrot will need to become comfortable with you touching and holding it. It’ll believe it is in charge if you don’t do this right.

Always stand above your parrot so that it knows you’re in control. Then, encourage it to move onto your finger by placing it against its lower breast. You can begin to add commands such as “step up.”

When your parrot does what you want, reward it with a treat to reinforce the message.

Once you become comfortable around each other, practice laddering with your hands, which involves moving your hand to a higher position while encouraging the parrot to step up onto it.

Don’t Overfeed Treats

If you feed your parrot treats too often, it won’t associate them with training. There’s also too much potential for over-feeding, and your bird may reject its regular food.

Discourage Biting

Parrots should never be allowed to bite or behave aggressively. Biting is different from a gentle nibble, in which your parrot will use its tongue to touch your skin.

Also, many parrots use their beaks to balance and may use human hands to coordinate themselves. If your parrot moves toward your hand, don’t assume it’ll bite you, or it may become nervous.

Don’t shout at your bird if you get nipped. Instead, remain calm and say “no” firmly, placing your hand (palm facing forwards) in front of your parrot’s face as a stop gesture.

If your parrot bites you and refuses to let you go, blow on it with a sharp puff of air to make it release. Then, place it back in its cage without a treat.

How To Entertain A Baby Parrot

As parrots spend a significant amount of time in their cage, you must provide entertainment and enrichment to keep your baby parrot mentally and physically healthy. Birds without stimulation can become irritable and destructive.

There’s plenty you can do to keep your parrot occupied, including:

Toys

The first stages of your parrot’s life are crucial to its environmental awareness and development. The bird could grow up with various behavioral problems if it isn’t nurtured.

One of the best ways to combat this is to provide toys such as:

  • Puzzles
  • Toilet paper for parrots to shred
  • Paper sticks
  • Chewable objects
  • Ladders
  • Preening rope
  • Bangles
  • Building blocks

Putting all toys into the cage at once is impossible, as it’ll cause confusion and take up too much space. Instead, regularly rotate the toys and games to keep your parrot alert and entertained.

Exercises

Let your parrot out of the cage daily for a change of scenery.

Parrots that spend too much time in their cage may become withdrawn and reclusive. Allow them to walk around the house to stretch their legs and wings.

Assign time each day to interact with your baby parrot. This will help you form a bond that the parrot will take through to adulthood.

When your parrot is in its cage, place ladders and other games inside it to encourage your parrot to keep moving, as this will stimulate its mind.

Parrot Playlist

Create a music playlist for your parrot to listen to when you need to leave the house.

Current Biology confirms that parrots can process the sound of music. They also spontaneously move to music, meaning they can dance. A study by Dr. Franck Péron found that Parrots seem to enjoy:

  • Pop music
  • Rock music
  • Folk music
  • Classical music

Avoid high-tempo electronic dance music because the same study discovered that parrots subjected to this type of music squawked in distress.

Signs A Baby Parrot Is Sick

Wild parrots avoid showing signs of sickness. Sick birds are the first to be attacked by predators if they sense the parrot is weak and easy to kill. As a result, it’s hard to tell when chicks are unwell.

That said, many symptoms indicate when a parrot is sick:

  • Poor feather quality
  • Unusually fluffed feathers
  • Changes in appetite or eating habits
  • Changes to drinking habits; drinking more or less often
  • Weakness and lethargy
  • Crop not emptying
  • Crop not getting full
  • Vomiting
  • Drooped wings
  • Refusal to move
  • Increased sleeping
  • Inactivity
  • Depression
  • Bleeding or signs of injury

If you notice one or more of these affecting your baby parrot, take them to an avian vet.

When Can Baby Parrots Leave Their Mother?

In captivity, baby parrots are normally ready to leave their mothers at around 7 to 8 weeks of age. Once a chick hatches, it matures quickly and, once weaned, is ready to leave the nest at around 8 weeks old.

Some breeders prefer to wait until 12 weeks before allowing a baby parrot to go to its new home.

Why Is My Baby Parrot Shaking?

Baby parrots shake and shiver when cold, scared, excited, or sick.

The most common reasons why a baby parrot would shake include the following:

Cold

Baby parrots must be housed in temperatures between 65 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. The baby parrot will shiver to generate heat if the room is too cold.

A parrot shakes after having a bath. A parrot’s muscles contract involuntarily to generate heat and keep it warm. As soon as the parrot is warm, it’ll stop shivering.

Hot

The parrot will lift and shake its feathers to move cold air around its body to cool itself down. It isn’t technically shivering, but it appears that way.

Scared or Stressed

After moving your baby parrot to its new home, it might shake out of nervousness or stress, especially when it’s away from its mother for the first time.

Birds are sensitive to their environments, and small changes can unsettle them.

When around your new pet, speak gently and move slowly to avoid frightening it further. Work on building your bond but move at your parrot’s pace.

Unwell

Baby parrots hide their sickness, so it’s difficult to determine whether they’re unwell. Parrots can’t tell us when they’re ill and rely on us to pick up on it through their behavior and body language.

My Baby Parrot Is Scared of Me

Understandably, baby parrots take a while to adjust, especially after moving to a new environment.

As prey animals, they’re hard-wired to fear their surroundings until they know you don’t pose a threat. Until that time, they’ll be wary and fearful of you.

Some parrots don’t enjoy being handled and never will. Attempting to win your parrot’s trust by touching it more often is unlikely to help and will only make it more scared when you’re nearby.

However, baby parrots are young enough to adjust to your presence if you follow these steps:

  • Don’t make any loud noises.
  • Let it live in a quiet, neutral room.
  • Don’t handle them too often.
  • Keep it away from other pets.
  • Don’t disturb them while sleeping.

Over time and with care and attention, your baby parrot should start to trust you, allowing you to begin building a bond with your new pet.

Homemade Hand Feeding Formula for Birds

Bird pellets are the most common type of food used to feed pet birds. They are convenient to use because you only need to pick up a packet at the store and feed them to the bird. It also gives you peace of mind knowing that they contain the correct amounts of all nutrients required by the bird.

What if you cannot afford bird pellets for your feathered friend? What if you happen to be in a place where pellets are just not available? Homemade formulas are the alternative.

It is important to have a few homemade hand feeding formulas for birds so that your bird doesn’t go hungry on the rare occasion when you cannot get your hands on pellets.

To come up with a good homemade hand feeding formula, you must have a basic understanding of your bird’s nutritional needs.

Understand Your Bird’s Nutritional Needs

Recommended diets for pet birds are more or less the same for most birds. They require fruits, vegetables and seeds or pellets. Differences come in depending on the specific bird breed because certain breeds require more of one component than others. Some birds are prone to obesity so it is important to keep this disease in mind especially if your bird is one of these.

Varying needs for specific breeds

African gray parrots do best on a diet of 70% basic nutrition such as pellets and 30% other foods such as fruits, nuts and vegetables.

Canaries thrive on breed-specific pellets or seed mixes, song mixes and vegetables. These birds need not be fed with vegetables on a daily basis. Two or three times a week is sufficient.

Conures are naturally active birds so obesity is not a concern with them. They thrive on a base diet of seed mixes with rotational additions of vegetables, dried fruits and nutritious treats.

Quaker parakeets do best with equal parts of pellets or basic nutrition and vegetables. Grain- based treats can be used during play or training time.

Breeds prone to obesity

Cockatiels, Amazon parrots and Macaws are highly prone to obesity.

Cockatiels do well with diets made up of 60% basic nutrition or pellets, 40% seed mixes specific to this breed and vegetables.

Dietary needs for Amazon parrots depend on their activity level and size. Recommended amounts are 30% pellets or other basic nutrition, 20% whole, dried foods like nuts, seeds and fruits and 50% fresh fruits and vegetables.

Homemade Handfeeding Formulas

Even if you don’t plan to feed your bird on homemade formulas all the time, it is always a good idea to have a few recipes handy. You never know when you will need to whip something up for your feathered friend.

Here are a few recipes your bird will like.

Recipe 1

  • 1 tablespoon of glucose powder
  • 1 packet of high protein baby cereal
  • 1 cup of ground sunflower seeds
  • 4 Granita biscuits ( finely ground)
  • 1 cup of almonds (ground)
  • 1 cup of corn meal ( maize meal)

Recipe 2

  • 1 cup of corn meal (maize meal)
  • 1 cup of millet meal
  • 1 cup of raw what germ
  • 1 cup of finely ground sunflower seeds
  • 2 cups of high protein baby cereal
  • 1 cup of finely ground, high protein dog biscuits

Either of the two recipes above could also include peanut butter or apple sauce baby foods. When using apple sauce baby foods, make sure to use the smooth type so that your bird doesn’t have to deal with lumps.

Recipe 3

Blend the following ingredients:

  • 1 teaspoon of baby creamed corn
  • 3 teaspoons of baby cereal
  • 3 teaspoons of applesauce
  • 3 teaspoons of canned baby mixed vegetables
  • 3 teaspoons of plain yoghurt
  • 1 banana
  • 3 teaspoons of peanut butter (smooth)

To this mixture add 12 ounces of pellets which have been soaked in bottled water for 20 minutes. Once all these ingredients are mixed, cook the in a microwave for several minutes.

How to Deal With Picky Eaters

It not just humans who sometimes develop picky eating habits. Some birds have the very same behavior. This makes feeding them a challenge because they may end up over nourished with some nutrients and lacking in others. These are some tricks bird owners have used to get picky eaters to consume a wide variety of foods.

Add a challenge to food. Make a hole through a rice cake and hang it in the bird’s cage.

Place one or two pinches each of nuts, dried pasta, dried fruit and pellets in a paper lunch sack. Use a piece of string or ribbon to tie the sack and then hang it in the bird’s cage. He will enjoy the challenge of foraging through a double-bagged sack.

Play around with shapes and temperature of foods. If your bird is a picky eater, trick him by changing the shape or temperature of his food. If he refuses to eat raw vegetables, try feeding him with cooked versions of the same foods. Chop up fruits into cubes to alter shapes. Give him oranges with the rind still on or peas in a pod.

Make use of individual preferences. Just like we humans have strong likes and dislikes for certain foods and textures, so do birds. Observe to find out what he likes most. Use these favorite foods to come up with healthy treats which your bird will enjoy.

Vet-Approved Recipes

With a clear understanding of your bird’s basic nutritional requirements and ideal food types, you can let your creativity take lead to come up with all sorts of recipes.

When you come up with one or a few formulas you would like to stick with, have a veterinarian approve them to make sure they cover all the required nutritional requirements. They could contain too much of one nutrient and too little of another and this would cause imbalances in the bird’s nutritional intake.

Conclusion

Homemade hand feeding formulas for birds are nothing short of a creative art. You can come up with all sorts of combinations. However, just like art, there are rules to be followed and there is need to understand the basics of the entire process.

Make sure you have a clear understanding of your bird’s nutritional needs when making homemade feeding formulas. When you are happy with one, run it by a professional veterinarian to make sure it is nutritionally balanced.

How to make a diet for budgerigars?

Contents of the article

  • General rules for compiling menus
    • Grain.
    • Sprouted grains and legumes.
    • Mineral additives.
    • Mineral stones, pieces of cuttlefish shell.
    • Vegetables, fruits.
    • Cereal porridge.
    • Green.
    • Branches from a berry bush, fruit tree.
    • Delicacy.
    • Vitamin complex.
    • Water.
  • Prohibitions and recommendations in feeding

Pet stores offer several types of food for feathered pets. But the owners of budgerigars want to supplement the diet of their pets with other food. You need to know which foods to include in your pets menu in order to please them with delicious food without risk to health. In the natural environment, parrots eat a variety of foods. Their food is shoots of young trees and their buds, berries and fruits, seeds and grains. When kept at home, it is also necessary to provide the birds with a varied diet that supplies all the necessary elements.

General rules for preparing menus

Regardless of whether you buy ready-made food for birds, you must follow the main rules for the diet for a pet budgerigar. The menu of an adult pet should include:

Grain.

This product is considered the main product in the poultry menu. It is recommended to give two teaspoons daily, but this amount is not enough for some pets. You can increase the dose.

Grain must always be in the trough.

Sprouted grains and legumes.

In this form, the product is absorbed better, provides a complete supply of minerals and vitamins. The amount of germinated feed is determined by the age of the bird. The maximum dose is 2 teaspoons every seven to ten days. It is intended for parrots before the passage of the first molt. Then these feeds should be given less often, as they activate the synthesis of the sex hormone. In germination, various types of cereals can be used.

Do not use linseed or hemp seeds for sprouting.

Mineral additives.

This food is necessary to maintain the normal state of the skeletal system, feathers. In addition, such additives activate the digestive processes. Mineral mixes are available at pet stores, but you can also make your own. The composition includes: charcoal and egg shells in equal amounts, chalk, divided into pieces about 3 mm in size, shell rock. In the finished products offered in pet stores, there are cedar nut shells, crushed oyster shells, sandstone, fractions of corals, sea shells. During molting, birds need to add a little sulfur to this composition. Mineral additives are poured into a special container. In the pet's cage, they must be constantly. Supplements should be replaced weekly.

Mineral stones, pieces of cuttlefish shell.

They are the suppliers of phosphorus, magnesium, the parrot needs to grind its beak.

Vegetables, fruits.

These products are rich in vitamins. You can give them every day several times.

Cereal porridge.

Boiled with water, served warm. For one serving, you need two teaspoons of cereal. Cooking time depends on the type of product. Barley is prepared for half an hour, corn, millet, rice, barley groats - 20 minutes, lentils, oatmeal, buckwheat - you need to cook for 10 minutes or steam with boiling water. Parrot porridge should be given three times a week. This food supplies many important trace elements, normalizes metabolic processes.

Green.

This is a natural storehouse of vitamins and minerals. You can give green mass to parrots: strawberries, peas, oats, canary grass, perennial chaff, fireweed, blackberry, timothy grass, hedgehogs, pharmacy chamomile, clover, chicken millet, willow, lettuce and leaf lettuce, bluegrass, wheatgrass, chicory, plantain, dreamweed, swamp bent grass. You can put young twigs with buds in the feeder. In winter, greens are grown from feed intended for parrots.

If you are not sure whether you can give your pet an unfamiliar herb that is not included in the list, it is better not to risk it

There are plants whose herbs should not be given to pets. This category includes: yarrow, cilantro, tansy, horsetail, St. John's wort, hyssop, buttercup, sorrel, basil, wormwood, dill, parsley, celery, celandine.

Branches from a berry bush, fruit tree.

All parrots love to chew on things. Branches will help satisfy this desire and benefit the body. It should be noted that it is necessary to take this natural material in environmentally friendly places, remote from highways, industrial zones. Before placing the branches in the pet's cage, they need to be kept in water for about four hours, washed, scalded with boiling water. The resin must be removed. The best options are: currant, chestnut, mountain ash, apple tree, mountain ash, birch, viburnum, sea buckthorn, beech, hazel, hawthorn, plum. There are also forbidden plants. You can not give the bird branches of oak, spruce, pine, fir, elderberry, acacia, juniper, bird cherry, lilac.

Delicacy.

Budgerigars also have treats. But their number should be strictly limited. Otherwise, the pet will refuse regular food. In the category of delicacies there should be only natural products. You can pamper the bird with chumiza, mogar, red or Senegalese millet. You can not feed the parrot seeds, nuts or cones. You do not need to include concentrated food in the form of sticks in the diet. Their composition is supplemented with synthetic dyes and preservatives, it includes low-quality grain, dry vitamins.

Vitamin complex.

In some cases, the body of a parrot is not enough vitamins from food. It is required to fill the deficiency, eliminate violations of the functions of organs and systems. For the course, funds can only be purchased at a veterinary pharmacy, a specialized store. During the period of taking vitamins, you can not give pieces of vegetables, fruits. The supply of these elements should be carried out only with preparations added to water. It is necessary to replace the water twice a day, as the quality of vitamins is lost quickly, the liquid deteriorates.

Vitamins should not be given to pets until the first molt has passed.

Water.

It is a fundamental component. Without water in the pet's body, they will not be able to qualitatively undergo the processes of metabolism, synthesis, and cell regeneration. It should always be kept in the drinker. The water is changed regularly.

Following these rules for budgerigar nutrition will help keep your pet in excellent condition. Using them, you can develop a varied and healthy diet that is sure to please your beloved pet.

Prohibitions and recommendations in feeding

It is important for the owners of budgerigars to know not only the rules of a healthy and healthy diet, but also prohibitions on certain foods. This list includes: coffee and spirits, milk, cottage cheese, cheeses, sour cream, yoghurts, sausages, chocolate, canned food, chips, meat and fish products. Sugar and salt are not added to the bird's food, you can not feed the pet with confectionery, pickles, give food from your mouth.

There are special rules for feeding a feathered pet before the first molt. His diet includes cottage cheese and boiled eggs, the pet needs more germinated grains than an adult bird.

When creating a menu, you need to take into account the peculiarities of the digestive tract of the budgerigar. If he always has grains, greens, berries, vegetables, fruits, bark of young trees in his diet, then you don’t have to worry about the pet’s health, it will be excellent.

Authors of the articles: staff of the Belanta 9 clinic0120

How to feed a budgerigar at home?

Contents

one Corn 2 Vegetables 3 Greens 4 Fruit

4 minutes

estimated reading time

Budgerigars are amazingly beautiful birds that are unpretentious and do not require complex care. The most important thing is to organize the right diet, because their health will depend on it!

What to feed budgerigars? The choice of "dishes" for the pet is varied. They love vegetables, fruits and herbs, but grains are the basis of the diet.

  • Grain

Almost any pet store sells special grain mixes for parrots. It is better to choose food in transparent packaging, so you can evaluate the quality. And from opaque packages, you need to choose those in which the grains are stored in a vacuum (without air and other gases). Otherwise, be prepared for the fact that the products may not be of the best quality or even moldy.

If you want to combine food yourself, use only high-quality millet and oats. Grains are the basic food for birds, they determine the proper functioning of the digestive system, so the pet should always have access to them. The following ratio is recommended:

  • yellow millet 50%;
  • red - 25%;
  • white - 15%;
  • oats (cleaned) - 10%.

In the process of determining what to feed a budgerigar at home, one must remember that sprouted grain must be included in the diet: it contains useful vitamins E and B2. You can easily cook it yourself. To do this, put the grains on the bottom of the container (in one layer) and pour warm water so that it covers the grains a little. It will be great if you can renew the liquid in the container and rinse the grain every four hours. After a couple of days, sprouts will be visible, they will be tiny - only 2 mm in length, but it is at this stage that the grains are most useful for parrots. Rinse and dry before feeding.

Make sure that they do not become moldy and do not overgrow, as such sprouts lose their valuable properties.

What else can you feed a budgerigar? First of all, these are vegetables, fruits and herbs. Often young birds are wary of such food, but if you cut vegetables and fruits into small pieces or pass them through a grater, your pet will definitely appreciate them!

Before feeding, be sure to rinse the fruits and greens with running water!

  • Vegetables

Parrots love them very much, and still: it is tasty and healthy! They contain many vitamins and minerals, as well as fiber, so you should include such foods in your diet throughout the year.

Vegetables such as carrots, fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, beets, zucchini, etc. will be useful for your pet. You can also feed parrots with turnips and various types of cabbage, but first you need to pour boiling water over them.

  • Greenery

Do not feed dill, green onions, eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes, etc. to birds - these greens are harmful to them!

When you are planning the best food for your budgerigar, be careful with the parsley. It only works in small quantities. But horse sorrel, arugula, celery (not roots), tops of carrots and radishes can and should be included in the diet! In the summer, pamper the birds with strawberries (both berries and leaves will go with a bang), plantain, clover leaves and flowers, etc. Plants for feeding a parrot should be collected away from roads and factories, in areas with clean healthy soil.

Spinach can also be added to the diet, but not much, and if the bird does not have kidney pathology.

If your house has indoor plants or flowers in bouquets, do not let the parrot eat them: they are dangerous!

So that the pet does not lack greenery during the winter months, you can grow cereals and vegetables at home right on the windowsill. It's easy and the benefits are huge!

  • Fruit

Among other things, feed budgerigars at home should be fruits and berries. It is recommended to include in the diet bananas, apples and pears (the seeds and the core must first be removed), peaches, pineapples, kiwi, peeled oranges, tangerines and lemons, as well as some grapes. Of the berries, pitted cherries, raspberries, strawberries, strawberries will be useful. You can also feed melon and watermelon to your pets, but it is better in the summer season.

In the winter months, include dried fruits in the parrot's diet: raisins, dried apricots (steamed), dates, etc., as well as frozen berries, for example, lingonberries and blueberries are useful.

You can not feed the birds persimmons, mangoes, papaya, avocados, as well as any nuts!

You can already see how varied the diet is, but that's not all! They will be happy to taste porridge, boiled or steamed in boiling water. It should be cooked only on water, you can not add oil, salt and sugar. Use only high-quality cereals, and never feed your parrot instant porridge, which contains additives that are harmful to birds.

The last key point on the question of what you can feed budgerigars is mineral supplements, which should always be freely available in the pet's cage. So what is it like and what is its use? For example, chalk saturates the body with calcium, mineral stones containing iodine and seaweed provide useful trace elements, sepia is used by parrots to sharpen their beaks, organic sand allows you to control the state of the digestive system (it should be given no more than once a week), etc.

Choose only special quality top dressings and in no case use inorganic sand, this will harm the bird!

Ready-made quality balanced food for budgerigars is another way to organize the ideal diet.

Learn more