How much does a parrotlet eat?

[finchly]

Hi, my birbs all continue to be overfed by everyone who helps me out so i'm trying to write out instructions. I have down 2 tsp each for finches and 3 tsp each for the cockatiels.

How much does your parrotlet eat in a day? I'm totalling fresh, pellet, dry, and seed together. Thanks!

 

[NorthernGannet]

Hm, I give mine 2 tbls (yes, tablespoons) of seed each day, plus 1 avi-cake square and a pinch of hemp seeds. Some days I crumble 1 nutri-berry on top. She does not like pellets or anything fresh as of yet. Maybe she's a pig, but at the end of the day there are mostly hulls left.

 

[finchly]

Hm, I give mine 2 tbls (yes, tablespoons) of seed each day, plus 1 avi-cake square and a pinch of hemp seeds. Some days I crumble 1 nutri-berry on top. She does not like pellets or anything fresh as of yet. Maybe she's a pig, but at the end of the day there are mostly hulls left.

So I have never seen an Avi-cake. Does all that add to maybe 4 Tbsp?

 

[NorthernGannet]

I give her the smaller ones, so I'd say it all comes to 3 Tbsp, maybe barely over that.

 

[Gribouille]

Pichu gets 1 spoon sprouted seeds + 1 spoon chop, and 1 bit fresh veggie/fruit. He also gets under half a spoon of seeds for foraging, some sunflower seeds for treats and tastes our food during dinner, so total during the day is about 3 spoons of food.

 

[Bryan Black]

I give my Pip 2 teaspoons of Roudybush pellets with 1/2 tsp of Dr Harvey's parakeet seed mixed in. I also give him a little bit of millet as a treat twice a day but that is not measured out. (I break the balls/tuffs off of the millet spray and he gets 2-3 of those a day)

I think you would be safe with 2-3 teaspoons if we are talking pellets anyway and with the Dr Harvey's it has 13 types of seed & millet, 9 types of nuts, and 12 types of fruits and vegetables so that is what I do to give Pip a variety of foods.

 

[finchly]

I think you would be safe with 2-3 teaspoons if we are talking pellets anyway and with the Dr Harvey's it has 13 types of seed & millet, 9 types of nuts, and 12 types of fruits and vegetables so that is what I do to give Pip a variety of foods.

Got it! Thanks (and @Gribouille and @NorthernGannet ). I’ll write it down as 3 spoons for them.

Today I was gone for 10 hours, and left a container of food with instructions for feeding (in spoons per bird, and I listed every species). It seemed to work out great.

But then I came home and hubby said I couldn’t feed them their dinner, I have. No idea what to give them or how much.

 

[Bryan Black]

Harrison's has a listing on their website that I had found and it seems to be right on what I was feeding Pip already. They do not list parrotlets but do have a cockatiel and lovebird section. They recommended 1.5 -3 tsp of pellets and 1/2-1 tsp of supplemented items with their pellets. Even though I was feeding Roudybush that's what I had been feeding Pip already by just testing the amounts of each till he was eating his pellets and seeds both. I used to have a seed mix with higher fat seeds like sunflower and safflower and I was only giving him 1/4 tsp of that brand with his pellets. The Dr Harvey's is a better mix with all the extra nuts, fruits and vegetables so I bumped it up to 1/2 tsp. He also has access to Herb Salad by Twin Beaks all the time too and does eat from it more than I expected.

Link to charts..

Product/Species Feeding Chart | Harrison's Bird Foods

www.harrisonsbirdfoods.com

 

[Lady Jane]

Congrats on your book about feeding finches. It looks really good. Members will find it on Amazon.

 

[finchly]

Harrison's has a listing on their website that I had found and it seems to be right on what I was feeding Pip already. They do not list parrotlets but do have a cockatiel and lovebird section. They recommended 1.5 -3 tsp of pellets and 1/2-1 tsp of supplemented items with their pellets. Even though I was feeding Roudybush that's what I had been feeding Pip already by just testing the amounts of each till he was eating his pellets and seeds both. I used to have a seed mix with higher fat seeds like sunflower and safflower and I was only giving him 1/4 tsp of that brand with his pellets. The Dr Harvey's is a better mix with all the extra nuts, fruits and vegetables so I bumped it up to 1/2 tsp. He also has access to Herb Salad by Twin Beaks all the time too and does eat from it more than I expected.

Link to charts..

Product/Species Feeding Chart | Harrison's Bird Foods

www.harrisonsbirdfoods.com

Thanks!

You're really into that DR Harvey's, aren't you? I haven't tried that one yet, I'll take a look. I use Goldenfeast Australian blend, which also has lots of different things in it. When I first got a parrotlet, our local pet store owners had one. They fed him Aus blend and Roudybush pellets. So that's how I started feeding mine. Since pellets aren't that great for them I have cut back on those, nearly eliminated them, in favor of fresh foods.

Congrats on your book about feeding finches. It looks really good. Members will find it on Amazon.

Thank you! It's a short book and I kept the discussion of nutrition brief in favor of more recipes. Hopefully someone will find it useful.

 

[Bryan Black]

Thanks!

You're really into that DR Harvey's, aren't you? I haven't tried that one yet, I'll take a look. I use Goldenfeast Australian blend, which also has lots of different things in it. When I first got a parrotlet, our local pet store owners had one. They fed him Aus blend and Roudybush pellets. So that's how I started feeding mine. Since pellets aren't that great for them I have cut back on those, nearly eliminated them, in favor of fresh foods.

Well the Dr Harvey's is new to me but it is one of the only brands I could find that did not add in vitamins and minerals and for me already feeding pellets I did not want the seeds having them too. I did look at the Goldenfeast Australian too but I think Amazon was out of them at the time and only third party vendors had them.

I am not convinced that pellets are bad for them is there some study you get this information from or just hear say? All I go by is what the avian vets say and they all recommend pellets and my Pip does not like vegetables anyway. That's why I wanted to find a bird seed mix with a variety of foods so he is at least offered the other foods. I know diets are a big controversy and I have looked around the internet and I chose pellets as Pip's main food. I might regret it later but he seems to be doing fine on his diet so far he is just a little over a year old though so..idk

 

[finchly]

It is very hard to walk through, or weed through all the information about diets. And when you really dig in — most of the information we do have is based on studies with chickens!!!

There are studies, though that show pellets are hard on parrotlets’ kidneys. That is the issue with them. One thing some people on this forum do is always serve them wet. However I haven’t seen proof that resolves the issue though I am sure it helps.

I know someone who has always fed theirs Roudy bush pellets plus the Goldenfeast Aus. Blend. Their parrotlet is older than mine and has always been in great health. They didn’t worry about the pellet/kidney issue. Neither does Skittles’ breeder - they feed only Rbush.

Here is a little something I wrote up about pellet foods. That will explain my personal feelings on the subject. I lean more toward raw,Whole Foods for my flock (autocorrect keeps capitalizing Whole Foods lol) ... just like I do for my family. To me, the lest processing the better. And the nutrients are more available in their unadulterated form.

There’s a FB group Avian Raw Whole Food Nutrition if you want to learn more. But if you want to feed pellets, that’s fine too. They are convenient and easy, and most of these companies have veterinarians and do testing and so on. It’s not like they’re poison.

 

[Bryan Black]

I will definitely have a look at it your article later.

I can not find it now but the only thing I read about kidney issues with pellets was something on the HARI/Hagen website I think it was. They talked about their flock of parrotlets having elevated kidney levels but they adjusted the protein levels and it went back to normal again. I spent a lot of time on their website when I was looking at all the different pellets brands. I really liked lots of things about their brand like how they feed their own flock their pellets and they run tests on everything before it is put up for sale. My Pip just did not like it. I still am feeding Tropican Lifetime pellets to this day mixed in with his regular pellets on his playstand hoping he will take to it but it just goes uneaten and thrown out. I think the bag expires this year sometime so lets hope he takes to it, lol

I also remember seeing something linked about a breeder on facebook or something that had mutations with kidney issues or something but that was back when they first started feeding pellets to parrots.., iirc I think they have changed a lot since then.. idk

I have read a few studies about pellets and I think it was on parrots too but I cannot remember where at now. They also concluded that pellets were better but you could also achieve the same results with a varied diet. I know that Roudybush and Hagen both feed flocks of bird with their pellets but you would expect that I guess with a bird food company.

 

[finchly]

Yep I think the varied diet is the key. As with humans, dogs, or anything else, variety will be the best choice always (within the nutritional parameters of course).

There are a few research items cited at the bottom of my article.

Sounds to me like you’ve really done your homework.

 

[fashionfobie]

Please consider that I don't breed and this is a maintenance diet. Breeding birds will have unique needs.
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Mornings start with Salad -veggies and some fruit (7+ options) and 1tsp of sprouts. Go easy on the fruit, they do best with more veggies.

I change the seed/pellets at around 2pm. I give 1/2 tbs of seed /pellet a day and there are always some left over. It is mostly a quality budgie seed mix, no safflower or sunflowers. A small pinch of pellet is added to the seed. Pellets with high protein content should be reconsidered to prevent kidney damage, especially if they make up a large % of the diet.