Common Diets for Different Categories of Pet Birds
Pet birds have diverse dietary requirements based on their species, size, and natural habitat. Among this largest and most popular cage and aviary birds are seed eaters.
Seed Eaters
Largest and most popular cage and aviary birds are seed eaters. These birds live mainly on seeds, but also eat fruit, insects, egg food and green food.
Fruit and green food contain a lot of important nutrient, but too much of these will give rise to problem such as diarrhea.
Green feed is good during breeding season. During breeding season, seed eaters should be introduced with insects and worms so that they will recognize the feed and feed their young with insects and worms.
Egg food, is an important dietary supplement for most seed eaters.
This food has proven to be very valuable especially in the period leading up the breeding time as well as during and after the breeding time too.
The bird‘s main diet should consist of its seed mix supplemented with some green food, insects, and egg food to avoid deficiency.
Fruit, Vegetable, Berries and Weeds Eater
Most birds eat some form of green food. For some them it is an essential ingredient of their diet and for others it is a supplement.
The main problem with this is contamination with dust, fumes and pesticides.
Example of suitable fruits and vegetables are apple, pears, bananas, grapes, orange segments, mandarins, papays, dates, apricots, pineapples, carrots, tomatoes, corncobs.
Never feed the birds avocados as these are poisonous for a lot of birds. Black berries, raspberries, rose hips and fire thorn berries and also suitable to feed them.
Insects and Worms Eater
Not all live food is suitable for all the insect eating species of birds. The weaker species of insects are more suitable for small and younger birds.
Example of suitable insects and other animal proteins for aviary birds are: crickets, grasshoppers, bugs, spiders, meal worms, buffalo worms, maggots, fruit flies, aphids, Nealy bugs, earthworms, mosquito larvae, water fleas.
Diet for Finches and Canaries
A good mineralized grit should always be available and cuttlebone is desirable. May finches required animal protein in their diets, especially when feeding young.
Finches enjoy green seeding grasses, such as winter grass, chickweed and most other types found in the garden.
Diet for Parrots and Cockatoos
Most are basically seed eaters, but one group, the lories and lorikeets feed predominately on nectar, pollen and fruit.
It is essential that these species have a wide variety of fruit, vegetables, bread and green branches of non-poinsous tree.
Feather problem are common in larger parrots, as they are prone to boredom; this situation can be partially alleviated by something to chew on.
Diet for lories and lorikeets
Lories and lorikeets feed on nectar and pollen Nectar foods are usually powders that need to be mixed with water and provided to the birds in special feeders.
Lories and lorikeets also eat fruit. The food should be changed twice daily.
In a separate pan offer mixed fruit, apple, pear, grapes, papaya, soaked raisins, tomato etc. Seed should be available (medium parrot mix).
These species also like to chew on bark, leaves and blossoms of most of the trees.
Diet for baby cockatoos and baby parrots
- ½ cup baby food cereal
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon fine cuttle fish bone meal
- 1 teaspoon corn syrup or honey
- 2 fresh egg yolks
- Milk or water
- 4 drops vitamins supplement
Mix the dry ingredients; add the syrup and eg yolk and then the milk or water to make a soup like mixture.
Boil over low heat 3-5 minutes, stirring gently. Cool until finger warm. Stir in the vitamin supplement. Feed the mixture with a spoon.
The baby birds should be fed three to six times daily. The crop is usually visible as semitransparent bag at the base of the neck so it is possible to determine the amount of food left format he last feeding.
Diet for Pigeons and Doves
Some species of rain forest pigeons feed on fruit and must be given an appropriate diet.
The Major of the species are seed eaters. They require variety of seeds of appropriate size and a good mineralised grit.
Grit is especially important, because pigeons swallow their food whole and grind it in the gizzard.
Diet for Mynah
Mynah birds will not eat seeds and do not need grit or cuttlefish in their diet. Mynah birds are fed special softbill pellets
Mynah birds also need fruit in their diet, apple slices, grapes, orange slices, and banana slices are the most common.
Dried fruits can also be used, provided they are soaked and rinsed off before feeding. Mynah birds also like live food such as meal worms.
Mynahs, particularly when they are breeding, like live food, like flies, spiders, moths, snails, butter flies, crickets Beatles, etc., added to their diet.
Instead of live food we can use a combination in which 3 of the ration should be minced raw lean meat, the balance being composed of equal parts of soft food, poultry crumbs, and fine puppy meal which have been soaked with hot water until soft.
We can also provide hard boiled egg made into mash. Also add sweet ripe fruits in the diet.
