Last Updated on February 16, 2023 by Catherine Tobsing

Christy S. relates

Hi. I love your newsletter.

I have a question, please.

My LSC cockatoo needs to be put on a low-fat diet per my avian vet.

Her present diet consists of pellets and a small amount of safflower seed. 

Apparently, safflower seeds are high in fat. I was reading that canary grass seed is very low in fat.  Is it ok for me to feed canary grass seed to my little cockatoo.

Any other suggestions for a low-fat diet would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Christy

 

Dear Christy

Your avian vet came to this conclusion how? Blood Test? Weighed your bird?

• How old is your LSC (Lesser Sulfer Crested Cockatoo)?
• Are you her first owner?
• How long has she been on her current diet of pellets and safflower seed?
• What brand and kind of pellets are you using?
• Did your vet give you a diet plan to help guide you?
• Does your bird get out of her cage daily for exercise? If so, how long?
• What is the size of her birdcage?
• Is she clipped or flighted? Does she fly?
• Do you carry her around or does she walk around?
• Is she eating just pellets and the safflower seed?
• How about vegetables and fruit?

 

As you can see there are many variables that can affect what her diet needs to be.

There are many varieties of pellets.

Some have ground-up sunflower seeds as their base, some have corn, others rice and so on.

The lowest fat pellets would be Roudybush Low Fat pellets.

A varied diet is better than 100% any one thing.

Safflower seeds and sunflower seeds have almost the same amount of fat, but sunflower seeds are preferred due to their being a little sweeter and easier to eat.

We avoid mixes with sunflower seeds as they also can cause a bird to work to pick them out first and in doing so, toss the rest of their seed mix around searching for that one elusive sunflower seed.

Pellets are good, but boring alone. Perhaps a bird may live longer on a 100% pellet diet, but what a boring existence.

Every day should start out with a dish of cut-up vegetables and little fruit.

To make it easier, thaw out a little container of frozen mixed vegetables daily in the fridge and put a tablespoon in a dish along with a bit of diced apple. This dish should be hung up where the bird likes to sit and left there for a few hours daily.

To entice the bird you may need to crumble a bit of something tasty on top until the bird realizes that fresh stuff is good.

How Do I Get My Budgies to Eat Veggies?

So daily there should be 4 dishes. One water, one pellet, one seed and one fresh food.

The fresh food dish needs to come out after a few hours to avoid spoiling. the seed dish can come out before dark leaving just the pellet and water dishes overnight.

Canary seed is too small to be useful for your larger bird. Please don’t cut your bird off seeds all at once. They do have value and in moderation can be included.

Have you tried Nutri-berries? They are often considered treats but they are bird food. One can be crumbled over the fresh food to entice.

Nutri-berries also have a Senior version that is a good option when trying to get away from fat.

Please try and answer some of my questions and perhaps we can help further.

Catherine.