My Birds Only Like Seed, What Can I Do?

Last Updated on October 1, 2023 by Mitch Rezman

I have two birds: a peach-faced loved bird (Maisie) and a parrotlet (Nell). We’ve gone along with bird food purchased from the local Pet Supplies Plus (the cockatiel mixture) and Krazy Korn Rainforest Pudding.

I’ve tried to vary the offerings with things from the grocery market’s salad bar and chopped fruits and vegetables that are in season.

I’ll cut to the chase: Neither one wants anything to do with anything other than the birdseed. For at least 3+ years they were flexible but now I am very worried that they are not getting the right nutrition and buying different kinds of food winds up to be a serious financial waste.

How can I get them (back) on a nutritionally balanced diet?

Best,

Susanne

Hi Suzanne

There’s a couple of ways to approach this. Generally birds on an all seed diet will not get all of the vitamins and minerals they need.

Items that you need to look at to be included in your birds diet would be Silver beets, Red and green bell peppers, Broccoli, Dandelion flowers, Corn on the cob or corn, kernels, Chick weed, Banana, Apple Celery, mung beans, snow peas.

We are also advising people not to introduce any citrus to the birds. Things like oranges and tomatoes. Vegetables with a high pH, which means there are acidic. Fruits that are highly acidic will lower a birds pH in their digestive system posing issues with the assimilation of food through the intestines.

https://windycityparrot.com/product/higgins-safflower-gold-conure-cockatiel-no-sunflower-25-lb-11-34-kg/

That said you have couple of choices. Continue with the seed blend that you have been buying although I would ask for a complete ingredient panel and a written guarantee from the store that the bins they are dispensing from are sanitized. When these bulk food dispensers are not washed and sanitized a regular basis, there’s a strong likelihood that mold can grow at the bottom or along the edges of the interior of the dispenser.

You can simply introduce an all-purpose supplement to your birds diet like Hagen Prime. By adding Prime you’re ensuring that your birds get all the essential nutrients and minerals necessary for healthy life.

Prime is best added to food by placing the wet leafy green vegetable or a piece of fruit not in the water as it will get tossed out regular basis.

Your other option is to put you birds on a more robust blend of bird food like Hagen Tropimix Cockatiel and Lovebird food. Tropimix is unique in that it is a robust blend yummy things like cooked cracked green split peas, brown rice, cooked soybean grits, dehydrated papaya in addition to the seed. The seed is also unique in this blend in that all the hulls have been removed from the seeds making it a much cleaner food to serve your bird and the analysis of the food that you read on the bag is much more accurate because the hulls of the seeds are not taken into consideration when calculating these measurements.

Hope this helps let me know if I can answer any other questions

Mitch Rezman

Windy City Parrot