@Gigibirds * @fashionfobie she has dry pellets but she tends to dip them in water before she eats them. And she does love to chew the bark off her perches! (bird-safe perches, of course) But pellets are a very large part of her diet, as I was specifically told by her breeder to not let her have a seed diet. Her breeder makes their own special blend of pellets, and that's still what Pistache eats.
You are lucky your bird dips them, that is not a common for parrotlets.
Since I am not familiar with the makeup or texture of what you are using, I would personally be a little cautious of a homemade pellet. Not only a worry from what is in them, I would be worried about preserving pellets. Any missed moisture and you could get a dangerous mix of bacteria and fungus. For all I know your breeder has a 100% perfect system, but my first impulse is to be cautious. There have been homemade parrot meals/products that passed by this forum, that turned out to be horrible things, mostly sugar, and birds got seriously ill. If it were me, I might take a sample of the food in for analysis, just to cross my t's and dot my i's.
* @fashionfobie But what would you suggest for her/a parrotlet's diet?
I feed a combination of sprouted grains, fresh veggies, and a budgie seed mix (that doesn't have any sunflower at all!). I feed at least 7 veg/fruit options daily usually a few more. I feed mostly veggies with tiny bits of fruit. They exact menu changes based on what is in season or what we have but there are always at least 7 choices. Veggies are the main focus: carrot, snow beans, silverbeet, zucchini, pumpkin, broccoli, bok choy, chilies the list continue. Dark leafy greens like silverbeets are very healthy for birds. For fruits, I cut a tiny fleck off of what I give to my other birds.. so A tiny sliver of pear, grape, a few seeds of passion fruit a small bit of mango.. They only get one fruit option a day. They rarely eat the fruit, with exception to passion fruit and dragon fruit. They love dragon fruit and it is a fruit they would eat until they pop.. but I always give a small slice. Parrotlet small is tiny, like a slice/fleck the size of a pea at most. They can get sick if they have too much sugar. Some berries are also fine for parrotlets, with strawberry being the only one they seem to get excited about.. and they only eat the seeds off the outside, because they are who they are
I serve the sprouts along with their fresh veggies and they can look through it and sort what they want that day. I serve the seed separately so it doesn't get wet, fresh dish daily of course. One some days I sprinkle bonus nom noms on their meals, like chia seeds, quinoa or sesame seeds. These are not offered every week even, probably every fortnight.
As I said, you should work with your vet, with your area and with what you have access to. My system works for my birds, but I can't tell you what to do. You are the only one who has the power to provide for your bird. I wake up every morning 365 days a year and chop fresh meals for my birds. This is an exciting and fun part of my day, but it is a lot of work. When/if you move to a fresh diet it will be work. You also need to always ask yourself when out, oh did I need to pick up more xyz or did I give them too much fruit today, did I feed too little carrot, etc.. It is a daily commitment. Some people prep larger batches of fresh food and than offer it in portions, but personally I don't do this, but it may give you something to think on. If you want to implement? If it works for you?
anyway I will stop mumbling, this post is getting long
There are lists of safe/dangerous foods here:
I seem to be posting this more often, or referring people to it, and since I haven't added it here (got lost, tried to come back, got confused, couldn't figure it out... okay, I'm here!) thought I'd add this in, too! The list for the grains, legumes, veggies, and fruits are mostly from the...
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