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Lovebird Foods

Moshimaru

Sprinting down the street
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What does everyone feed their Lovebirds?

I'm seeing that most bags of seeds also have other birds on them, can Lovebirds have a range of foods? Just for future reference I don't want to give them a food that's not okay for them if there isn't a lovebird pictured/labeled.

I will eventually want them to switch onto a pellet. I can get Zupreem locally (Petsmart) but we order Harrison's for the Quaker at work so that is also open to me as well.
 

Ankou

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They are actually like any other parrot, mostly the picture on the bag is meant as an advertisement and is often misleading! :)
My pet store has this awful "parakeet food" with a picture of a cockatiel on the bag that is just sunflower and safflower seeds, it would be a horrible thing to feed a bird as anything but a treat. But they also have lots of good treats too, many of which just have a random parrot or parrot based on the size of the treat on the bag.

Most parrots have similar dietary requirements and if you can understand what they are you will know what is safe to feed your bird. I recommend doing a lot of research on what they can and can't have. There is a lot of good information in the Feathered Food Court here. There is also lots of advice on changing a seed-eating bird's diet to healthier pellets (or, if not, how to make or choose a healthy seed mix) and introducing fresh foods to a picky eater, both are issues a lot of lovie owners have to deal with.


My lovebird gets Harrison's fine pellets along with sprouted seed any safe fresh foods I can persuade or trick her into eating. She only gets unsprouted seed (usually a nutriberry) as a treat. Her favorite fresh foods are most fruits (which I'm told is unusual for a lovebird in that they tend to favor veggies) carrots, peas, corn, bell peppers, and yams. Anything else healthy, like broccoli, I have to sneak into a recipe before she will eat any.
Birds are also very choosy about presentation, if a bird won't eat a food one way, try serving it differently until either they eat it or you've run out of ideas. :lol:
 

alicat

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New Jersey
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I fed my lovies seed mix, then Tropimix Egg Food. I didn't do much research on it though, and just got what my friend fed her lovebird and would have switched to a better seed mix and pellets had I known better..

I found that a lot of times the bird on the food is based on what size the food is, not really what's in it. Like Nutriberries for Macaw/Cockatoo I'm pretty sure I heard is the same as the one for Cockatiels, they're just sized differently for the respective bird..

My lovies LOVED whole green beans and snap peas, I think they liked taking chunks out of it with their little beaks! But they wouldn't touch them if they were cut up into little pieces.
Trial and error helped a lot with fresh foods.. sometimes they would trick me and I thought they ate their pasta but later would find it thrown all over the floor. :)
 

Applebutter

Jogging around the block
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2/19/15
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937
Fruits and veggies chopped up in my chopper in the morning ( no seeds) afternoon it's Pretty Bird Mini pellets mixed with Goldenfeast petite legume for pocket parrots.
 
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