Meyers diet

[SteinhebelAviary]

I'm just carious if a Meyers parrot could live off of other foods besides bird seed. I do give seed and other foods as well. but I have been thinking about taking seed away. When we do feed seed it is the large parrot seed. He loves the stuff the brand is Ecotrition. His added diet contains apples, bananas, been rice oatmeal mix, sweet potato and what ever we have for dinner when it is a bird safe dinner. He also gets millet.

 

[Love My Zons]

I do not believe in seed diets- yes alittle bit mixed in with other foods such as a dry mix of pellets like tops or harrisons. No mixes with sunflower or peanuts! I like the goldenfeast mixes that contain some seed like safflower but no sunflower those are bad junk food seeds they should only be treats. Too fatty for their liver, try almonds as a better more wholesome treat.

 

[Bokkapooh]

A diet of seeds is not good at all. Millet is all seed as well. It's good you ask this. I suggest reading up on proper parrot nutrition and health. I wouldn't feed more than 5-10% in dry seed. He needs pellets and a varied diet of fresh foods and produce and sprouts.

 

[SteinhebelAviary]

thank you for the grat advice. We will be doing more grocery shopping for him then. I'm so use to feeding just a seeded diet and I want to get my birds the best they can have. I figure since the dogs are on a high quality diet why can't the birds be on one as well.

 

[sthiele]

Check out Kathie's MySafeBirdStore. She has a great selection of pellets and her prices are much cheaper than pet stores. You can also save 10% when you shop with her by using promo code Avian Avenue.

 

[Theresa]

I'm so use to feeding just a seeded diet and I want to get my birds the best they can have.

An all seed diet for a parrot would be like a junk food only diet for your kids, not a good idea, no matter how much they might like it
What do you wean the babies on to?

 

[SteinhebelAviary]

we wean the babies on a bean,oatmeal,sweet potato soft mix, millit and seed. they are also offered baby apple sause and apples, plus some of our dinner or breakfast (bird fendly of course). to day they had some scrambled egg with there soft mix. Not that I think about it I should continue givign them egg with there diet right?

 

[ParrotsforKeeps]

try a wider variety of fresh food, and if they resist, chop it finely and mix in your bean/oatmeal mix. I might also add some other grains to your mix, they all have their own benefits. Millet is a grain, not a seed, and high quality millet is quite healthy. However, if you ate a diet of only kale and blueberries, you would not be very healthy!! Even kale and blueberries with whole wheat bread would leave you quite short. Birds are just like that. Because an all seed diet is bad does not mean seed is bad, it means an all seed diet is bad. Feeding only sunflower seeds would be just as bad as feeding only almonds. GOOD sunflower seeds have quiet a bit of nutrition, and their fat level, per the same weight, is the same as almonds. I would not make a seed mix a very big part of the diet itself, since nuts and grains served other ways are, in my mind, also seed- they can all grow a plant, after all!

I think eggs are ok occasionally, and probably good for breeder birds, but I personally only feed egg as a treat unless a bird is sick, then I use it as a power food. That is a personal choice, though, you have to do what you feel comfortable with.

To keep it short and simple- A wider variety of grains in the mash (quinoa, barley, kamut, teff, even millet), and many more and a wider variety of vegetables. Keep the seed to a small amount of the diet, just an appetizer, so to speak. Keep the millet as a treat if you are also giving a seed mix.

And that is just my opinion .

 

[SteinhebelAviary]

try a wider variety of fresh food, and if they resist, chop it finely and mix in your bean/oatmeal mix. I might also add some other grains to your mix, they all have their own benefits. Millet is a grain, not a seed, and high quality millet is quite healthy. However, if you ate a diet of only kale and blueberries, you would not be very healthy!! Even kale and blueberries with whole wheat bread would leave you quite short. Birds are just like that. Because an all seed diet is bad does not mean seed is bad, it means an all seed diet is bad. Feeding only sunflower seeds would be just as bad as feeding only almonds. GOOD sunflower seeds have quiet a bit of nutrition, and their fat level, per the same weight, is the same as almonds. I would not make a seed mix a very big part of the diet itself, since nuts and grains served other ways are, in my mind, also seed- they can all grow a plant, after all!

I think eggs are ok occasionally, and probably good for breeder birds, but I personally only feed egg as a treat unless a bird is sick, then I use it as a power food. That is a personal choice, though, you have to do what you feel comfortable with.

To keep it short and simple- A wider variety of grains in the mash (quinoa, barley, kamut, teff, even millet), and many more and a wider variety of vegetables. Keep the seed to a small amount of the diet, just an appetizer, so to speak. Keep the millet as a treat if you are also giving a seed mix.

And that is just my opinion .

That is good advice. It helps me alot making my mind up on what to feed my boy and the babies. I was thinking to my self earlier before I made the orignal post wondering why I'm feeding a just seed diet to my Meyers and not giving him a veriaty of foods but the other bird are. I was raised with the thinking that just seed is good and everyting else is more like a treat. so I'm expanding my meals for the birds to a larger veriaty of foods