How much food do parrots need to eat?

[akijoy]

This is a silly question, I know, but I really haven't a clue!

All I know is that a ton of food gets wasted at my house. I guess I'm giving too much.

How much do you feed your birds?!?!!?

 

[Stevo]

Enough to keep their weight....

I still have some waste, but it's not too bad - try cutting back a little each day (you'll probably find that they'll end up eating MORE if you give them LESS too... Parrot psychology 101...).

The only real way to tell how much YOUR birds need is to monitor weight and intake/waste - each bird is different. You'll also get waste from the bits of food that they dont want on any given day - unless you're only feeding them one kind/one colour of pellet.

 

[Kermit]

i have a little 1oz plastic condiment cup and Nugget and Littlefoot get one little cup full a day of Harrioson's and both eat most of it with not very much waste.

Amigo gets the same cup full but of ZuPreem Naturals..he wastes alot less now that i've lessend the amount he gets a day.

Lucy and Soto get 1/4 cup(the type of cup you use to measure things to cook) of fruity/natural zupreem mix(switching them over to natural). Soto doesn't wats much after i started giving a bit less but Lucy wastes alot no matter how much i give.

the finches get 2 tablespoons a day split into two different food dishes so no bickering happens


mash wise every one gets a tablespoons worth except the finches who get only a 1/2 tablespoon. and they all usualy eat all of their mash.


they all keep good weights and Nugget who was a seed junkie but now eats healthy stuff is no longer over weight

 

[Monica]

I find that most birds will eat 15-20% of their body weigh in dry food per day. Add in as much fresh food as they are willing to eat, and the amount of dry food they eat will be less. However, it does vary depending on how active your bird may be, so they may eat more or less. It may also depend on the time of year how much they eat, so experiment to see about how much they eat on average per day.

What will feed my birds one day might be too much the next day. Parrot psychology, feed less and they'll eat more. I haven't found this to be true as of yet. Feed less and they eat less. Feed more and the budgies will pig out.

 

[Gen120]

My conures get a 1/4 cup of zupreem pellets each day, and they eat them all. The cockatiels get a couple of tablespoons and my amazon gets 1/4 a cup of zupreem too. The dust that they leave behind in their bowls, I use that in the birdy bread/birdy mash. They get a tablespoon of seed and treat mix.

 

[Archiesmom]

I give them about 4 tablespoons (split between the conures and the parakeet) of fresh mash in the morning as their breakfast, and when Paul goes in at about 10 AM, this is cleaned up! He then opens up their cage (except for Calypso, who has a standing dish of her pellet/feed mix in her cage) and they have approximately 1/4 cup of pellet mix and nutriberries, and they eat that on top of their cage.

 

[Bokkapooh]

My Umbrella's probably eat no more than 1-1.5 cups of food per day.

Beeba, my mom's M2, eats about 2 cups of food per day

Gra, my scarlet, used to eat atleast 2 cups of food per day. She was a big girl.

Pua my RLA eats about 1 cup of food per day..she thinks she is a big girl.. lol

Squid, parrotlet, eats atleast 6 tablespoons full of food per day

My cockatiels, each.. probably eat 1/2 cup of food per day

Petrie, lovebird, probably eats 1/3 cup of food per day.

For my big birds, I give them 1/2-1 full cups (each) of veggies/fruits, "fresh" foods, in the morning, a couple tablespoons of pellets, a couple table spoons of seed in their foraging toys, and they "handfed" a mash veggie mix at night, and are given some birdie bread in the afternoon. So it adds up to about 1-1 1.5 cups of food. And they usually dont eat every little bit I give them.

My smaller birds, I just make a full 2 cups of "chopped" veggies, and give them that on a plate, and they eat all of it during the day. They get (together) 1/2 cup of pellets in their pellet dish and 1/4-1/2 cup of seed at night (for 5 birds). And Squid is handfed some birdiemash/formula, at night too.

 

[Jeddy]

Bodie is a parroltlet so he eats alot of food. Always holds his weight even now that he flys.

 

[Kristy]

Mercedez, it sounds like your feeding dogs.

I give 2 cups of food a day to my Labs.

Really though when I think about it I do give my small white Toos about 1 cup a day so I can see how the bigger ones would eat that much...just sounds amazing to me. lol

 

[atvchick95]

pellet and seeds is 2 tablespoons per bird - so in my cages with 2 birds its 4 tablespoons of each, 1 bird is 2 tablespoons of each and so on

plus they get veggies I'd say a Tablespoon(the kind you would use to serve with some people eat with them - the big spoons not the cereal type spoons)

Fruits when its grapes the ones who eat them get 1-2 depending on the size of the grape, if 2 birds in the same cage eat them then its 2 grapes one for each

They get birdie bread, we make ours like muffins we use mini muffin pans for the smaller guys - budgies,lovebirds bourkes , and bigger pans for the others, if we just use a big muffin pan (sometimes we do) then one big muffin is broken up for the community budgie cage which has 16 budgies in it and feeds them all

they also get leafy greens as well. and other types of veggies, and fruits it depends on what we have at the time.

when we feed them at night, we empty their bowls out into a ice cream container we saved/washed and use for this purpose its a normal sized ice cream container which is 1 gallon)

Like this one

it takes me 2 days to fill it up, that is with just the birds room birds which is around 47 of my 52 birds so they don't waste a whole lot

then I take it outside find a bare spot in my yard - right now i'm using shebas dog pen and I toss it out, it rains, it grows grass and i no longer have bare spots in my yard

I've been doing it with Sheba's pen for the last 2 months and there is a LOT of grass growing now it was a big huge mud pit every time it rained

plus the wild birds, squirrels and rabbits eat some of it as well, I used to pour it into my bird feeders and squirrel feeders, but we got some food for the parrots that ended up not liking (way too much sunflower seeds and cracked corn) so I'm using those bags in my feeders (down to 1 full one left out of 3) my wild animals also LOVE zupreem fruit pellets

 

[Bokkapooh]

Mercedez, it sounds like your feeding dogs.

I give 2 cups of food a day to my Labs.

I really like to know how much my birds are eating. I always pay attention to how much they eat. Some of my birds, like my tiels and p'let eat a LOT for their size! lol