'Tiel care Chapter 4 - Time to eat!

Cockatiel diet

What to feed

Contrary to what was once held as popular opinion, seed alone is not a healthy diet. Seed does contain some nutrients but is very low in calcium and vitamin D and very high in fat. This is still true with supplemented seeds since all of the vitamins stay on the husk, which doesn't get eaten. A bird eating nothing but seed is like a kid eating nothing but Cheerios- it's just not healthy, but that doesn't mean that a bird should get no seed. In fact, some research shows that small parrots such as cockatiels are healthier when they have a small amount of seeds in their diet.
Just like any other creature, the best thing in a cockatiel's diet is a variety of foods that are high in nutrients and low in junk, such as vegetables. In fact, a good cockatiel diet should be based on high quality vegetables, organic if possible.

Good vegetables for your cockatiel are bright orange or dark green and contain high amounts of calcium or vitamin A, such as carrots, sweet potato, broccoli, and leafy greens. Parrots also lack the taste receptor that can sense capsicum, the enzyme in peppers that make them spicy, but still tend to love the sharp flavor found in garlic and peppers, other items which are very healthy for your bird. Almost all vegetables can be given to your cockatiel, but celery, jicama, corn, and iceberg lettuce contain little but water and should be avoided or given sparingly.

But your cockatiel should get even more variety in their diet then found in just vegetables and seeds! Fruits, grains, and beans are loaded with bird-healthy nutrients and tend to be enjoyed. For some reason cockatiels are not big fans of fruit, but many still love apples, pears, pomegranates, mango, and papaya. However, even though fruit contains lots of nutrients it also contains lots of sugar and only a little should be given, and most of it should be those fruits that are bright orange or dark red as they contain more nutrients. Grains are always enjoyed and can be offered in any form: raw, soaked, sprouted, or cooked. Don't just stick with rice and wheat though, there are plenty of interesting grains out there such as quinoa and amaranth that birds tend to love. Don't worry, they tend to be pretty cheap too. Beans are a healthy part of a bird's diet but should be fed with a source of calcium (beans and leafy greens make a good cooked meal) because they are high in phosphorus, which can lower the bodies absorption of calcium unless the calcium is raised as well.

Cheese can be given in very small quantities, it is high in protein and calcium and I have yet to meet a bird who does not go crazy for it, but since bird's are lactose intolerant more then a tiny square once every two weeks or less will cause terrible digestive upset. Eggs are another good source of protein, and calcium as well since birds can digest the shell. Once again, I've yet to meet a bird who doesn't go crazy for eggs, and you can even used scrambled eggs as a way to hide supplements or medicine. Don't worry, it's not cannibalism. Parrots are as closely related to chickens as humans are to cows. You could try offering a tiny bite of cooked lean chicken or beef as well and watch your bird go crazy for it! Or try tofu, the options are endless.

Feel free to give your bird lots of variety in their diet. Rhubarb, avocado, chocolate, and alcohol are poisonous, and it is debatable whether or not onions are safe. Spinach should be given in low amounts because it binds to calcium but has so many other health benefits that it should not be avoided altogether. Whenever possible, get organic foods or grow your own, especially when buying strawberries, bell pepper, grapes, or celery as they tend to contain higher levels of pesticides. But there are so many healthy foods available that there is no reason to stick with the same vegetables every day, you can even try treats such as nuts and breads.

Even with the best vegetables and the most careful control over a bird's diet, many birds are still lacking nutrients in their diet. That is where pellets come in. Pellets are made to be an easy, healthy diet for your bird that contains everything they need for health. However, pellets are not perfect yet and birds still need vegetables, seeds, and other healthy items in their diets along with their pellets, but a high-quality pellet with good fresh vegetables will ensure that your cockatiel is getting the best nutrition possible. But finding the right pellet can be confusing, there are so many brands! Pretty Birds, Avison, Zupreem, Kaytee, Harrisons, Roudybush, Lafebers, it's just so confusing! So what to avoid and what to look for?
Here is a list that compares many types of cockatiel pellets. Avoid any pellets that contain meat, artificial colors or flavors, BHT, BHA, and especailly Ethoxyquin. Also avoid any pellets that smell rancid, look like Fruit Loops, or do not list their ingredients. Hartz, Pretty Bird, ABBA, and Kaytee are brands to avoid.
A really good pellet smells like vegetables, nuts, or grains, is organic, and has been preserved through compression, which destroys the lowest amount of nutrients. The best pellets I have found are Harrisons, Foundation Formula, Totally Organic Pellets - TOP, and Roudybush. If none of these brands are available to you, Zupreem Natural is a good brand that tends to be readily available.

A good, healthy combination of these items is 30% veggies, 30% pellets, 20% seed, 10% other items and treats, but try to keep the amount of treats low.

Curious about what my birds eat? An example of a healthy cockatiel diet

But cockatiels eat seed in the wild!

Actually, that's not quite true. Wild cockatiels also east fruits, vegetables, greens, and occassionally a small bug. Also, wild cockatiels eat seeds while they are still green and living, not the dried blends we have available. And even if wild cockatiels did eat only seed, wild cockatiels also fly up to ten miles a day and eat up to six times the amount that pet cockatiels do, so they burn the extra fat found in seeds and eat enough seed to get vitamin A from them. Our pet cockatiels have a comparatively lazy life and are not able to eat a diet of seed alone.

Fresh foods and convenience can go together

Some ideas:

• Make cooked foods or chop veggies in advanced, only leave enough for a few days in the fridge and freeze the rest. Cooked blends do well for this
• Buy some of the pre-prepared meals or chopped veggies, I reccomend Beak Appetit
• Have a bag of frozen vegetables on hand if you run low on good fresh veggies, just please try to avoid the kind that is mostly corn and peas
• Buy wheat berries and plant them in a little dish with some of your bird's usual seed. In a few days you will have a self-refilling source of very healthy nutrients that your cockatiel will enjoy (it's cheap, too!)
• Rather then chop veggies every day, once in a while hang leafy green from the side of the cage or roof (metal-free, undyed wooden clothespins are great for this and fun toys for your bird), string them through the bars of the cage, or skewer whole vegetables and fruits and let your cockatiel destroy them. It's easy and fun for your bird too. Read the section about foraging for more information
• Invest in a food processor. This is the most expensive way to find convenience but if you have the money for it it might mean an end to your days of chopping food for your cockatiel.

Introducing new foods

Parrots are notoriously stubborn about accepting new foods and some parrots will starve if their diet is changed suddenly. And with the size of cockatiels, even a day without food can be quite harmful. That doesn't mean it is impossible to get your parrot to eat healthy foods, quite the contrary, once parrots start to eat their pellets and veggies many learn that they love them. But the most important thing to remember is that you must be patient. The diet conversion process usually takes about a month, but in some birds (like Andrew) it can take up to a year or more. Don't get discouraged, you will succeed if you keep at it.
Some ideas:

• Offer pellets all day long in one food dish but seed in a separate food dish only in the morning for a half hour and at night for a half hour. Your bird will eat enough seed during these half hours to keep them healthy and will often end up snacking on the pellets during the day when nothing else is available
• Offer veggies (or pellets) first thing in the morning when your bird is the most hungry. Leave the veggies in the cage with no seed for a half hour to an hour before offering seed. There will be some screaming for a few days, but after a week or so your bird will probably try the veggies
• Slowly add more and more pellets to the seed dish. Only add a little at first and over the course of two weeks (more or less, depending on how fast your bird starts eating the pellets) and then slowly add more pellets every few days until the dish is full of just pellets

A few additional tips:

• Do not fill your bird's dish up all of the way! This allows your bird to pick and chose what they want and not eat the good parts.
• Try different ways to serve the food. Birds who won't touch pellets might go crazy for pellets mixed with a little apple juice. Birds who turn their noses up at chopped carrots might inhale grated carrots. Birds who scoff at raw veggies might adore cooked veggies. You get the picture.
• Eat it in front of your bird. Birds are flock creatures who want to eat with their flock and eat the same thing their flock is eating. Also, have you ever heard of the term "parroting"? If you make a big deal about how delicious the vegetables and pellets are (don't worry, Harrisons tastes like almonds) right in front of your bird, he or she is going to fight to be able to eat some too. This works even better if you refuse to let your bird have any and then just so happen to give in
• Be sneaky. You can hide lots of things in a box of cornbread mix and the resulting "Birdie Breads" can be given as treats. Try putting a cup of pellets, a jar of veggie baby food, and a half cup of diced veggies in the mix and making the recipe as the box calls for.
• Be persistent. Even if you do nothing but offer your birds pellets and veggies every day along with their previous diet, eventually your bird will be unable to contain their curiosity and will try some of the new foods
• Sprout! Since sprouts are still somewhere between a seed and vegetable, they are the perfect conversion food (not to mention a great addition to any bird's diet). I have yet to meet a bird who refuses sprouts, and often after eating the "green stuff" on their sprouts they will be more interested in vegetables. On a similar note, chopped nuts can spark interest in pellets.
• If your bird is tame, offer the new foods from your hand. Many tame birds consider anything offered from your hand to be a treat, so if veggies are offered from your hand they must be something yummy!

Free samples:
Roudybush or call 1-800-326-1726
Lafebers or call 1-800-842-6445
Harrisons call 1-800-346-0269

Sprouting

Why sprout? Why not? Fresh sprouts are organic, easy to digest, cheap, and easy to grow. They are loaded with enzymes, protein, vitamins, minerals, and chlorophyll, all broken down into the most basic, easily absorbed form to ensure that even a bird with a poor digestive system gets all of the benefits. And parrots love the way they taste. What's not to love?
To sprout seeds you only need a few simple items:

• A plate
• A small bowl
• Paper towels
• Apple cider vinegar
• Seed, grains, or legumes

The apple cider vinegar is optional, but when added to the soaking water it inhibits the growth of fungus or harmful bacteria without inhibiting the sprouts. You could also use a commercial sprouter in place of the plate, bowl, and paper towels but that is a personal choice. You can use almost any seed or grain, even your cockatiel's usual seed mix. Alfalfa, wheat berries, quinoa, mung beans, millet, whole oats, spelt, whole peas, flax seeds, mustard seeds, amaranth, brocolli seeds, and radish seeds all sprout well. There are also many, many sprouting mixes available online.

1. Sort your seeds. This is not necessary with a blend that is only for sprouting, but seed mixes will often also contain dried fruits and vegetables and other items that are good for your bird but only turn into a sticky mess if they are in your sprouting mix.
2. Rinse your seeds until the water runs clear. You can use a bowl and your hands, some cheesecloth, or a strainer with very small holes for this.
3. Soak your seeds. Just put them in the bowl, add a splash of apple cider vinegar, and cover with water. Leave for 12 hours, rinse, fill with fresh water and vinegar, and soak for 12 more hours
4. Sprout! Cover your plate with paper towels, moisten towels, and lay a thin layer of your soaked, drained seeds on the paper towels. Cover with more paper towels, moisten them, and leave for 48 hours, checking on them every so often to make sure they are still moist.
5. Optional: Uncover sprouts and leave in full sun for 1-3 hours. This can triple the amount of chlorophyll found in them but is not neccessary.
6. Enjoy!

Recipes

Sally Blanchard's "glop"
Ingredients:

• 1 small jar baby food (carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, or brocolli baby food is best. You could also used cooked mashed squash, yams, or carrots instead)
• 3 slices of whole grain toast
• 2-4 tablespoons nonfat plain yogurt
• Optional: small sprinkle of a supplement
• Optional: whatever else is available to add texture (chopped veggies, dried fruit, pasta, beans, grains, sprouts, pellets, etc)

Place all ingredients in a large bowl, mash until well mixed. Serve.

Basic cooked blend
Ingredients:

• I bag mixed beans (without seasoning packet)
• 2-3 cups whole grains (brown rice, wheat berries, spelt, quinoa, amarath, barley, oats)
• 1 whole egg, washed, optional
• 1-3 cups chopped veggies
• 1 cup vegetable pasta, optional
• 1 additional protein source, optional (2 slices soy cheese, 1/2 cup chopped tofu, 2 tsp chopped hard cheese, 1 can salmon with bones, 1/2 cup chopped boiled chicken breast)
• 1 tbsp bird-friendly spices, optional (parsley, cayenne pepper, oregano, garlic, anise, cloves, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, pepper flakes)
• 1 cup pellets, optional
• 2 tsp supplements, optional (grated cuttlebone, wheatgrass powder, Avian Missing Link)

Rinse beans, place in large saucepan and fill saucepan with water until 2 inches from top edge.
Bring to a rapid boil and boil for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to a simmer, cook for 15 minutes.
Add grains, cook for an additional 30 minutes.
Place egg, whole, in blender and blend until shell is powder. Add egg mixture, veggies, protein source, and spices, cook for an additional 15 minutes.
Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature before adding the pellets and supplements. This makes enough to feed my six cockatiels breakfast for four months when most is frozen.

Ideas:
Wheat, barley, and oats as the grains, carrots, celery, kale, brocolli, zucchini, and potatoes and the vegetables with chicken, parsley, and cinnamin.
Rice and quinoa as the grains, bell peppers, hot peppers, spinach, tomatoes, and carrots as the vegetables with soy cheese, cayenne, and pepper flakes
Spelt, amarath, and oats as the grain, apples, butternut squash, pumpkin, carrots, brocolli, zuchini, and dried cranberries as the vegetables (and fruits), with chopped cooked turkey, anise, cloves, cinnamin, and ginger
Barley, quinoa, and rice as the grains, bell pepper, zucchini, celery, tomatoes, and greens as the vegetables, with salmon, pasta, parsley, garlic, oregano, and cayenne
Different kinds of rice as the grains, bell pepper, celery, carrots, cucumber, water chestnuts, yellow squash, peas, and greens as the vegetables, with tofu, ginger, pineapple juice, and garlic

Vitamin A desert
Ingredients:

• 2 cups carrots, cut into chunks
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp cod liver, 2 tbsp palm oil, or 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1/4 cup walnuts or almonds, diced
• 1 medium mango, peeled

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Boil carrots until soft. Drain water from carrots, put into casserole dish with potatoes, honey, cinnamon, and oil.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Mash with a potato masher or meat tenderizer (or the bottom of a cup)
Mix in nuts and mango, stir vigorously until smooth

Basic birdie bread
Ingredients:

• 1 8.5oz box corn bread mix
• 2 whole eggs, washed
• 1 tbsp (approximately) nut butter
• 2 jars vegetable-based baby food (organic if possible)
• 1 cup chopped veggies, fruits, and nuts

Place all ingredients in a blender, puree. Or just puree the eggs until the shells are powder and mix everything else with the eggs in a large bowl.
Bake at 375° for 35-40 minutes

Easy pellet powder cookies
Ingredients:

• Pellet powder (either what is left in the bowl or use a blender)
• Something to wet it with (egg, coconut milk, baby food, juice)
• Optional: Something for texture (dried fruit, chopped veggies, seeds, whole pellets) or taste (parsley, oregano, garlic, pepper flakes, cinnamon, ginger, cumin, honey)

Mix all ingredients until they are about the consistancy of cookie dough.
Microwave until dry, break into chunks
Taken from a recipe posted on Livejournal parrot lovers community

Treats, supplements, and other notes

There are many treats available in pet stores for birds, and to be honest mine won't even touch some of them. The best treats I have found are chopped nuts, millet spray, hulled sunflower seeds, and Lafeber's nutriberries. Some birds also like bits of low-sugar cereal, crackers, muffins, or wasabi peas. Treats can be great for training and breaking the ice with a shy bird, but please remember that they are treats and tend to by high in fat, sugar, and/or sodium. Cockatiels are very prone to obesity and treats should make up no more then 5% of the total diet.

This may seem like something small but has scared more then one new bird owner, myself included: when there is something new in your bird's diet, their poop will change as well. Remember that if you feed pomegranates you might end up with a few dark red stains and don't worry, they are not bleeding internally.

The use of supplements is a highly debated topic with no right or wrong answer, and birds who are on pelleted diets and given artificial supplements might overdose on certain vitamins and minerals. The best person to ask is your veterinarian. That said, the natural supplements that I personally use with my own birds and have seen good results with are Avian Missing Link, wheat grass powder, and Benebac. With birds that are not yet on a good diet or birds that are sick and need an additional boost I also give Prime vitamin and mineral powder. I also add apple cider vinegar to the water for a week every three months because it aids digestion and kills any yeast or fungus that may be growing. If your bird is ill, has any chronic condition, or if you are not sure what to do, please ask your veterinarian. If money is tight it is more important to buy good food then it is to buy supplements. More information about supplements in bird care.

Diana enjoying collards

Jesse and Apollo enjoying wheatgrass

Autumn using her foot to eat a kernal of corn

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