Last Updated on July 6, 2023 by Mitch Rezman

Lisa S related,

Hi, I read the recent article about chop and I’m a little concerned. 

I want to make sure I’m feeding my birds the best diet possible. 

I have an IRN and a conure.

I feed them various seed mixtures, often purchased from your store, I like mixes with pellets and lots of interesting things. I also feed them soft foods, the same brands from your store, mixed with more pellets, cooked and fresh veggies,  and some fresh fruit.

I recently bought the Avi-Era water-soluble vitamins I also read about from your blog and am starting to use them as well. I worry after reading some of your articles that they’re not getting enough protein.  What would you recommend? Thank you.  

Catherine wrote:

Dear Lisa

Thank you so much for writing with your concerns.

Sorry if Mitch sounds a bit scary when he writes. He just wants to show how important he feels the topic is.

All of our birds are rescues and they came to us with 8-10 years of poor eating habits so we are happy they eat as much as they do that is not just seed. It is not easy to reprogram birds to eat more foods if they started out with a plain seed and water diet. It helps if you have more than one bird and if one does show interest in better foods, they are good at showing the other bird(s) that the foods are worth trying.

We use Safflower Gold seed mixes for our bird’s main meals, plus avi-cakes and spray millet as bedtime snacks. Their seed mixes contain Intune Pellets, but the only one who actually actively eats the pellets is the quaker. But we try to make sure they are there. They get either Hagen Prime or Lafebers Avi-Era vitamin powder mixed into their drinking water daily.

Every day they all get a dish of chopped kale, mixed veggies, and apple for breakfast and during the day they may also get a bit of cheese (only the quaker here wants it) or a bit of egg.

If your birds are willing you can offer them a bit of cooked chicken, they sometimes like a bit of chicken on a bone (wing). 

Do you weigh your birds? We do have a scale on our website, but you can use any kitchen scale.

Find the Perfect Pet Bird Scale @ Windy City Parrot Here

To entice your bird to sit on and stay on a scale you can put a favorite treat or a bit of millet on it. if the bird still flies off you can put the bird in a small box and weigh the bird on the scale then, (then weigh the box alone and subtract).

How to easily weigh any size bird ~ video

Watching weights (once a week is good for the first couple of months to determine a base, then once a month is fine unless you suspect illness) can help you determine if your bird is gaining or losing weight.

A bird losing weight may be ill. However, one that is gaining weight may also be ill if they are retaining fluids due to the illness. Watching their dropping also helps to determine if their poop is normal or not. Another window to their health.

If you are offering a varied diet and your birds appear healthy and active, there is no need to fix what works.

Written by Catherine Tobsing
Approved by MitchRezman