Parrot's Favorite Food Size and Shape

I always researching to improve the quality of care for my birds. They didn’t ask to be in captivity, so it’s my job to enrich their lives as much as possible.

I found a lecture from Dr. Susan Orosz, DMV, DABVP (avian practice), DECZM from 2019. It was about parrot diets. I learned so much from this lecture.. like 15 pages of notes and ideas.

One thing that has really resigned with me was she shared findings from a study done on wild birds in Puerto Rico was the preferred shape for parrots was round and something that can be held in their feet.

This was extremely interesting because I have yet to see a pellet like that. Nutriberries, avicakes, Celtic oven fresh bites are the only ones I can think of that are “pellets” that can come in that size, unless you have a smaller bird and you buy macaw sized pellets.

So, if I can’t control pellet size, I can control chop size. So, I’m starting to implement and iron out hiccups of feeding larger chunks of fresh foods instead of a chopped fresh food mix. Of course, some of my birds will need to have some things still chopped, especially beak disabled birds, and I will have to chop things down and slowly increase the size… so I’m figuring out this formula to be able to share!

I also want to increase foraging for fresh foods. I know Alfie, Merlin, jo/Ringo, and Noel forage in baffle cages for whole food. Crazy bird does if it’s in his bowl. So, I start with what they know. The others I have started with not chopping the chop as finely and putting it in their bowls.

I’ll let you know how it goes! I have so many great ideas from this lecture that I can’t wait to implement and showcase. It’s always valuable to continue your education to improve your birds quality of life!