The Harm of All Seed Diets

The harm of seed diets

Seed only diets have been linked to causing a wide range of deficiencies within parrots. The most commonly seen ones are calcium, phosphorus, lysine, sodium, zinc, iron, and vitamin A. Some parrots, like amazons, are naturally deficient in vitamins, especially vitamin A.

What has been recommended is 60% fresh diet and 40% pellet mix diet to make it nutritionally balanced. Generally, it’s recommended for seeds and nuts to be in the diet in the bowls as little as possible. This is because the bird will choose the highest fat content within its food. Why? Because these are wild animals, and in the wild, they need to consume high amounts of fat. They need the fat because they’re incredibly active. Birds have been know to fly 20 plus miles A DAY in the wild! Most captive parrots never even learned to fledge. Giving them the high amount of fats is completely unnecessary in captive care and will lead to further concerns like fatty liver, vitamin deficiencies, fatty tumors and lipid buildup in eyes causing blindness, and other severe medical alignments.

But does that mean we don’t give any fats to our birds? Absolutely not. We still should. But give a moderate amount. I recommend for nuts and seeds to not be in the bowl and instead used in training and in foraging only. This allows the value of those items stay high for training and increases the birds desire to forage. It means they still get the fats but they’re not just consuming the fats because it’s easy to access and leaving back their healthy pellets.

References:
Brightsmith, Donald J. (2012). Nutritional levels of diets fed to captive amazon parrots: does mixing seed, produce, and pellets provide a healthy diet? Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery, 26(33),149-160