Parrotlets Forum : TalkParrotlets banner

Parrotlet Diet

52K views 86 replies 45 participants last post by  Raylove2000 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I am an advocate for Shauna's Mash Diet from Feeding Feathers Yahoo forum, which is the natural whole foods diet I have fed for years. To summarize it as simply as possible, remembering that any changes in the right direction are positive:

Grains, 30% of the diet, soaked overnight and preferably sprouted, at least 4 different grains. The grains also can be cooked, combined with cooked legumes and frozen as a mash base in ice cube trays or small zip locks, depending on how many birds you are feeding. Millet, quinoa, oats (whole, not rolled or cut), hulless barley (not pearl), wheat berries, kamut, spelt, wild rice, brown rice, raw buckwheat.

Legumes, 15% of the diet (two parts grains to one part legumes complement each other for complete protein). Choose from the most easily digestible legumes, mung, lentil, whole pea, adzuki and garbanzo - these are the ONLY legumes recommended for sprouting because of anti-nutritional properties in other legumes. They must be soaked overnight, then sprouted fully until they have 1/2" tails, or soaked overnight and cooked (boil 10 minutes, simmer 20 minutes).

Vegetables, about 45% of the diet. Preferably at least 5 different vegetables per day, run through a food processor or finely chopped to avoid picking through for favorites. Choose at least one orange vegetable (pumpkin, carrot, winter squash, sweet potato), and at least one dark leafy green (kale, collard, mustard greens, dandelion greens - if you want to feed spinach, chard or beet greens only occasionally because of the high oxalate content). Other vegetables to reach at least five per day: broccoli, celery, romaine or other dark leaf lettuce, peas, zucchini, chayote, green beans, bell pepper, chili pepper, cabbage, bok choy, carrot tops, cactus leaf (nopal).

Fruit, choose two different fruits per day for about 5 to 10% of the diet, preferably from the more nutritious fruits. Papaya, mango, all berries, cantaloupe, pomegranate, kiwi, citrus, nectarine, peach, cherry, apricot, banana, pear, figs, apple. Try to vary the fruits, not offering the same one or two fruits day after day.

Optional ingredients: broken up whole grain pasta, minced wheatgrass, sprouted seeds. You also can offer a dry mix of mostly grains mid-day.

Supplements: Tiny pinch of organic powdered alfalfa daily (or can alternate with powdered wheat or barley grass). Powdered Kelp for Iodine (very important if not receiving fortified food, pellets, etc.) a few grains only per day, very little - you do not want to give too much. For Omega 3 EFAs (Essential Fatty Acids, about 10 whole flax seeds daily, or a drop of flax or hemp seed oil every other day.

I make up my fresh vegetables in the food processor, enough for 3 days, and add several pieces of whole wheat pasta (whole) which absorbs the moisture and helps the mix stay fresh. You can add a finely minced (or food processed with the other vegetables) garlic clove to the vegetable mix.
Reta
 
See less See more
#28 ·
Totally Organics has some seed mixes that can be fed dry, soaked or sprouted.

http://totallyorganics.com/products.php?cat=6

It will give you an idea what types of seeds can be soaked. I usually buy my grains/seeds at our local natural organic food store. They come in bulk bins and I just buy a couple of ounces or so of about six different ones.

The Totally Organics is a good product and not too expensive. Even just soaking a bit of the mix overnight and rinsing the next morning is good. In fact I give my birds their first feed from the rinsed overnight-soaked mix then continue to sprout the remainder. I too use a strainer over a bowl and cover it with a baggy laid over the top. The trick is to rinse them very well. Check the bottom of your strainer that it does not feel slimy. My mix rarely makes it to the fridge because I soak and sprout about enough to last three days only.

The legumes I sprout separately. Mung beans sprout very fast and once they get a half inch or so root on them I refrigerate them. I then use them in their veggie mix which I chop up in a small food processor. If you buy lentils at the grocery store just make sure they are the whole lentil not split.

Soaking is easy. You just have to make a routine of it and remember to rinse very well.
 
#29 ·
I have a question:

Grains, 30% of the diet, soaked overnight and preferably sprouted, at least 4 different grains. The grains also can be cooked, combined with cooked legumes and frozen as a mash base in ice cube trays or small zip locks, depending on how many birds you are feeding. Millet, quinoa, oats (whole, not rolled or cut), hulless barley (not pearl), wheat berries, kamut, spelt, wild rice, brown rice, raw buckwheat.

Could the grains also be fed dry in a pinch? Like I forgot to soak them the night before, so every now and then he just gets them dry? Do any of those grains HAVE to be cooked? I bought everything you listed above from Whole Foods. Thanks!
 
#30 ·
Yes, grains can be fed dry as well. They do contain more fat in the dry form, just like seeds do, but fortunately far less fat than seeds have. If you want to feed a dry mix, I would lean towards the grains and away from seeds. The only grain you cannot give dry is amaranth because it contains a toxin in the dry state. It must be either cooked or soaked and sprouted.
 
#32 ·
If you jump in and start by sprouting a grain mix, then add finely minced or food-processed vegetables, you are more than half-way there. It does sound complicated at first, but once you get into a routine, it's pretty easy and doesn't take all that much time.
 
#34 ·
We're giving the mash diet a try today. Right now I've got sweet potato and fruit (mango, blueberries, and raspberries) all blended up with a bit of cinnamon sitting on the counter. Just waiting for the grains (brown rice, barley, and quinoa) and split peas/lentils to get done. My birds aren't picky, so here's hoping this will go over well as part of their base diet.

And I just realize now I have no freezer bags -- time to run to the store! :p
 
#36 ·
Hi,
Boy there is so much info on diets. I'm trying to come up with the best one, do I use the mash, or make my own mixes? Do I use frozen, fresh, sulate free dehydrated foods? How does one know exactly what is the best diet to use? Also I can't find any talk about egg food? How it is made and what is in it beside the egg? Is it only the yolk part. Can anyone give me all the info on this? Should this be packaged egg food, or do you make it on your own? And when do you feed this to your birds? Only during breeding or daily? Please help?
 
#37 ·
Julie,
For sure, it can be a really tough thing to navigate. With the Egg Food, you can make your own. It can be scrambled, poached, or even hard boiled. I actually give my parrotlets Volkman's Gourmet Eggfood. They love it and it's crunchiness. LOL I give it on a pretty regular basis.
The rest of my parrotlets' diet consists of Totally Organics Crumpets (pellets), Volkman's Avian Science Parrotlet Seed Mix, Totally Organics Napoleon's Seed Mix, and some Zupreem pellets, and Goldenfeast's Treat Petite.
As for fresh foods, I make a "Chop" mix in my food processor ahead of time and bag and freeze it. I put lots of hot peppers in it, and they LOVE this. You can read more about "Chop" on Patricia Sund's blog http://www.parrotnation.com . :)
 
#38 ·
Through reading posts in other threads I got a question, but my question didn't really fit the thread I was reading, so I'm posting here.

Maybe I'm miss understanding, but it sounds like many of you only have food in your birds cages at certain times during the day. Is this true, that you're feeding them on a meal-time schedule, and food is not available at all times? I was just wondering because I have food in my cage at all times and was wondering if that was a bad idea.
Just checking!
 
#39 ·
I have food available for my birds all day long. Nor do I remove food/water dishes at night. In the wild, birds graze all day long and I try to follow what they would be doing in their natural habitat as much as I possibly can.
 
#42 ·
Thanks for the great information. This is perfect for a new parrotlet mom like me. Any advice on getting my little girl to try her fruits and veggies? I have offered different things and she just doesn't seem interested. I don't know what she was eating before I got her other than her seeds.
 
#50 ·
We had the same problem with Chip, our adopted parrotlet. We solved the problem by chopping all his veggie and fruit choices into a mash, mixing it with a cornmeal binder and baking it in a birdie bread/muffin that we feed him every morning, along with his regular seed/pellet/goldenfeast diet.

My boys love it!
 
#47 ·
There's a company here on Vancouver Island, where I live, that sells organic bird products. I hope it's okay if I "advertise" for them. They are an on-line store only but I've bought quite a few products of theirs and have been happy with most of them - some things I bought were just better suited to larger parrots. It's called Avian Organics Parrot Food at www.avianorganics.com and they have some lovely apple orchard spice bread that you bake up yourself (just add one organic egg) and Kermit thinks it's to die for. She also eats their hemp seeds, pacific shores premium seed mix, and veggie bars.
 
#51 ·
I am an advocate for Shauna's Mash Diet from Feeding Feathers Yahoo forum, which is the natural whole foods diet I have fed for years. To summarize it as simply as possible, remembering that any changes in the right direction are positive:

Grains, 30% of the diet, soaked overnight and preferably sprouted, at least 4 different grains. The grains also can be cooked, combined with cooked legumes and frozen as a mash base in ice cube trays or small zip locks, depending on how many birds you are feeding. Millet, quinoa, oats (whole, not rolled or cut), hulless barley (not pearl), wheat berries, kamut, spelt, wild rice, brown rice, raw buckwheat.

Legumes, 15% of the diet (two parts grains to one part legumes complement each other for complete protein). Choose from the most easily digestible legumes, mung, lentil, whole pea, adzuki and garbanzo - these are the ONLY legumes recommended for sprouting because of anti-nutritional properties in other legumes. They must be soaked overnight, then sprouted fully until they have 1/2" tails, or soaked overnight and cooked (boil 10 minutes, simmer 20 minutes).

Vegetables, about 45% of the diet. Preferably at least 5 different vegetables per day, run through a food processor or finely chopped to avoid picking through for favorites. Choose at least one orange vegetable (pumpkin, carrot, winter squash, sweet potato), and at least one dark leafy green (kale, collard, mustard greens, dandelion greens - if you want to feed spinach, chard or beet greens only occasionally because of the high oxalate content). Other vegetables to reach at least five per day: broccoli, celery, romaine or other dark leaf lettuce, peas, zucchini, chayote, green beans, bell pepper, chili pepper, cabbage, bok choy, carrot tops, cactus leaf (nopal).

Fruit, choose two different fruits per day for about 5 to 10% of the diet, preferably from the more nutritious fruits. Papaya, mango, all berries, cantaloupe, pomegranate, kiwi, citrus, nectarine, peach, cherry, apricot, banana, pear, figs, apple. Try to vary the fruits, not offering the same one or two fruits day after day.

Optional ingredients: broken up whole grain pasta, minced wheatgrass, sprouted seeds. You also can offer a dry mix of mostly grains mid-day.

Supplements: Tiny pinch of organic powdered alfalfa daily (or can alternate with powdered wheat or barley grass). Powdered Kelp for Iodine (very important if not receiving fortified food, pellets, etc.) a few grains only per day, very little - you do not want to give too much. For Omega 3 EFAs (Essentail Fatty Acids, about 10 whole flax seeds daily, or a drop of flax or hemp seed oil every other day.

I make up my fresh vegetables in the food processor, enough for 3 days, and add several pieces of whole wheat pasta (whole) which absorbs the moisture and helps the mix stay fresh. You can add a finely minced (or food processed with the other vegetables) garlic clove to the vegetable mix.
Reta
At what age will they start to eat stuff like this , i have tried all these types of food and all my bird wants is seeds and millet , he will pick out the veg, everytime and for some reason orange slices scare him into the corner
 
#53 ·
Jeffery here is something you can do that worked for me..


After 4 months of putting veggies in front of him he would pick around it until one day i tricked him.. About a month ago i was gonna put millet on his treat clip hanging in his cage like i always do and decided to replace the millet with a piece of broccoli and it worked. Since then he will eat any veggies i put in front of him..

Give this a try and you never know til you do.. :D
 
#57 ·
Yes but sometimes we can't do exactly that. There is a bird seed called Volkman for p'lets that is designed especially for p'lets to be like what they would get in their natural habitat. After that it's a matter of feeding them veggies anything you would eat raw or cooked, grains such as cooked brown rice or quinoa, fruits, protien in the form of eggs or chicken. Birds are like us they don't eat the same thing everyday. They need variety.
 
#58 ·
Volkman is the seed i buy , i have tried cooking stuff , tried it raw , cut the fruits up and the veggies , i am just wondering if maybe all the prep work to make sure the fruits and veggies is what is making him turn his nose to it , i was reading about all this sprouting stuff and they are going to great extremes to keep the seeds sanitary when in the wild they don't have all the sanitation , what would be wrong with soaking the beans over night then placing them in a damp towel for a few days and they will sprout i think , i remember sprouting seeds as a kid and that's all we did
 
#59 ·
Just remember some beans raw are poisonous to p'lets and truthfully I don't remember which. I do buy broccoli sprouts. My girl is very finicky and does not eat great so I supplement the volksman with Goldenfest small hookbill legume mix. It has veggies and fruit and nuts, dates, etc. You have to make sure it is the small hookbill not hookbill size. My girl loves that so she gets Volkman's, Goldenfest and she will eat eggs and blackberries and corn sometimes sweet potato but not enough to be healthy. I don't really worry because I think she's covered with that oh and also totally organic crumplets which she likes. I just keep trying with the healthy stuff because I feel that it is better for her but I don't get upset anymore. If I'm eating it I let her try or turn up her nose.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top