This is an article <debate> about nutrition which contains views and thoughts about pellets, seed, fresh veggies and fruits, supplements and so on. It's a rather long read, but I felt it was excellent to read the differing views and thoughts. If you're so inclined, I would love to hear your views on the subject after you read the article.

Holistic Bird Nutrition

I must admit I didn't read the entire thing but I have always believed fresh is the best, supplemented by pellets. I do 95% fresh and the rest is pellets. But it takes a lot of research to come up with a "balanced" diet. And it will differ with each type of bird. I had a painted conure that had a congenital over grown beak problem, not in association with a liver issue. But by using an ALL fresh diet with no seed or pellets I was able to curb the beak growth dramatically! I went from a seed/pellet/fresh diet and having to have her beak trimmed and shaped by the vet once every 2 weeks, to an all fresh diet and only having to have her beak trimmed once every 2-3 months! My avian vet also a researcher for avian nutrition wanted to see the diet I had created she was shocked at the results.

This is what I have concluded also. I only have one species of bird, 2 Greenwings. I am seeing that even though they are the same species they each have their own unique nutritional needs.

Edited to add: I have been unable to get mine to eat/swallow what would be considered to be a balanced fresh diet. So I try to cover all bases best I can.

I read some but not all. The diet I feed is leaning towards breeding sun conures. I have only recently (maybe a year ago?) started adding any pellets to the food and only because the previous year I had a problem with babies I sold that thought pellets were poison. The pellets are for entertainment and recognition. The fresh/cooked/ seed does not stay the same all year round. Seed in nature will only be available for harvest for a few short months. The big changes are an increase in sunflower and peanuts for winter, and many more sprouts for spring.

Variety throughout the year is important. I think we tend to forget that birds are seasonal eaters, their wild diet changes based on what is available at different times of the year. Unlike most mammals. So a strict pellet diet would not provide that. it also shows us why birds will only eat carrots for a certain period of time and than seem to not like them anymore. It's not that they suddenly do not like them its that their bodies are craving different nutrients. This change in diet can not be offered on a pellet diet, but it can with fresh.

Well, I read the whole thing (took me a while) and found all the points of view very convincing. Everyone gives a good argument for what they believe. So what do I do? For right now I make seed, pellets and fresh food available. They eat little of the fresh, some of the pellets and most of the seed.

Thanks for the article. It is quite interesting and informative. One argument I hear a lot in this debate is that birds given the chance to select their own food will just eat junk like children that would opt only for candy.

This a false and misleading analogy--and actually is not even true of children. Children in our society grow up on highly processed foods full of sugar and get used to it/addicted. Children not raised this way in fact would opt for foods their body needs. The same is true of most animals.

His main point is we don't offer (and can't really) a wide enough choice of foods for the parrot to choose properly from. So, common sense says any diet offering a variety of healthy foods--including seeds is going to be OK--if the bird eats more than just the seeds.

And, most birds will readily take a variety of foods--except those, who like children, have been over exposed to an imbalanced seed diet.

My birds eat a tremendous variety of foods--including seeds. They actually greatly enjoy eating--and that is part of the point. Any one food, over served, is boring.

I also think that variety needs to be defined, it's not apple, orange, banana, occasional some egg. Because I feed 95% fresh, I go out of my way to get bee pollen, edible flowers, prickly pear, spirualina, rose hips, and other things not commonly found but highly nutritious

My birds get as much organic as necessary (some crops are pretty clean and they don't need to be organic) and always natural with no preservatives unless it's a tocopherol. They are not free-fed seeds or pellets but have access to gloop (basic recipe consists of cooked grains, rices, legumes, whole grain pasta and veggies) and fresh produce throughout the day.

Their diet consists of gloop for breakfast (alternating fruity with spicy but a different flavor every day of the week if not every ten days), one piece of veggie, one piece of fruit, one green; and a small measure of seeds, nuts and pellets for dinner (a quarter cup for a bird the size of a Gray, let's say, which includes one peanut and one almond or half a walnut or two pistachios). The days they get a spicy gloop they get fruit juice for drink and the days they get fruity gloop they get distilled/spring and/or filtered water from my well.

The veggies, fruits and greens are always different except for apples which are usually repeated during the week. They get corn, peas, carrots (both cooked and raw), beets, wax and green beans, sweet potatoes and/or some kind of hard rind pumpkin or squash in the basic gloop recipe, then the flavor of the day is added which could be Brussels sprouts, broccoli-rabe, spinach, broccoli, peppers, pimentos, black olives, etc for the spicy flavors (I also use vegetarian stuff like veggie burgers and veggie pepperoni and spices and herbs like oregano, garlic, chili powder, jalapenos, habaneros, curry, etc) and dried apples, raisins, cranberries, currants, dates, figs, pineapple, coconut, etc for the fruity flavors (with honey, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, etc and all fruit preserves for flavoring). The veggies could be zucchini (green or yellow), celery, red radishes, anise root, raw beets, grape or cherry tomatoes, potatoes/sweet potatoes/yams, plantains (both ripe and green cooked), spaghetti/winter/acorn/butternut/mother hubbard/etc squash, green/yellow/orange/red peppers, cucumbers, etc. The fruits could be apples, bananas, grapes, oranges, papaya, mango, pears, peaches, nectarines, straw/black/rasp/blueberries, fresh coconut, fresh pineapple, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple, prickly pear, kiwis, etc. They also get extra stuff like sugar cane, water chesnuts, baby corn, mote, beans, etc. For greens: broccoli, broccoli-rabe, broccoliflower, regular and red Swiss chard, collard/mustard/turnip/beet/carrot greens, all lettuces except iceberg, chicory, escarole, dandelions, shepperd's purse, spinach, bok choy, nappa, etc.

They also get birdy bread and muffins I bake for them myself with whole grain flours (wheat, corn, oats), nuts, fruits, honey, etc. as a treat but not more often than once a week and usually once every two (too high in carbs).

Calciboost and a vitamin/mineral supplement one day a week and some herb supplements (mainly supporting liver and kidney functions and immune system booster) another round up their diet.

Thanks Beatriz for posting. I want to credit you with being my mentor so to speak for the past couple of years and thank you for being so generous with your information and your time in repeating yourself over and over to new people

GLOOP rules for anybody trying to encourage fresh foods unless your bird doesnt like wet stuff, then you just make it drier. That's what I do.

If we're nice maybe Bea will favor us with her process for gloop.

We've been trying to get her to market it but there are just so many hours in the day! But freezing the basics sure helps.