food

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metodst
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue May 14, 2013 11:39 pm

food

Post by metodst »

Is it possible to feed Indian Ringnecks, Cockatiels, and Green Cheek Conures the same bird food?
what brand is recommended for all three, if any? (Seed and Pellet brands)
Jayjess2013
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2013 6:35 pm

Re: food

Post by Jayjess2013 »

I feed TRILL TM small parrot seeds, an Australian brand and this mix can be fed to all small parrots, the picture on the box has a princess, a peach face and a conure but my ringnecks like it, ingredients are:

SEEDS:

Sorghum, wheat, French white millet, dehulled oats, panorama, panicum, sunflower, oats, red millet, canary seed, linseed, canola seed and safflower.
Shellgrit
NUTRIVIT: a vitamin pellet
finley ground cerals, estential vitamens and minerals including calcium, vitamin e, vitamin c, panthoentic acid, niacin, vitamin a, iodine, vitamin b6 and b2, vitamin b12, vitamin D3, vitamin b1 and floic acid
currants, peants and vegetable oil.
Jay, jess and 4 mischevious Budgerigars

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clawnz
Posts: 148
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2012 9:59 pm
Location: Auckland NZ

Re: food

Post by clawnz »

I would say the basic diet yes.
But there will be variations that need to be considered.
But I am not talking adulterated commercial foods including pellets.
I would research and see how much you can find that is as natural as possible.
This would include Sprouting myself. Even soak seed changes the things available for them.
Like nuts, these would be good for the Ringnecks, but the Cockatiels may not eat them. The same as with fruit. Again the Cockatiels are not very often into fruit. But pretty sure the others will be.
Fresh foods are far better than artificial supplements. They work in different ways.
If feeding seed try to sprout some, it will give you a clue how fresh they are.
And from what I understand a huge amount of seeds available in the states is adulterated with other stuff.
Jayjess2013
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed Jul 03, 2013 6:35 pm

Re: food

Post by Jayjess2013 »

and it is also important, to offer sprouted seeds as clawnz mentioned. I give my guys the seed as sub diet, they have their daily vegetables and fruits, though I like to mix it up. Today mine are having

granny smith appples
honey dew melon
peanuts
mandarins and carrot

Tomorrow they will have something different, yesterday they had a cob of corn and Brussels sprouts. Some days we don't give them fruit and vegetables, so they have a chance to recover from all that runny food. Instead we offer marrow bones for them to chew- apparently it is a good source of calcium an it offers them something to gnaw. You have to remove it when it starts to shred though- you don't want them getting splinters.

They absolutely love cuttle bones, and I'm pretty sure this is essential to there health, while some people tell me they only need it while breeding, I trust my gut instinct and offer it full time.

Also, since Ringnecks don't have heat receptors, we also give them a sliver of chilly every now and then, while it won't burn there mouth, I heard that it can burn their guts and we have not offered it for a very long time now. Another thing we had t consider, while changing seed brands was the fact that they would pick their favourite seeds and not eat the rest. In our case, it was sunflower seeds, but it was soon cured by removing all the sunflower seeds from the batch before adding it to the feeding cups. They soon learnt to try and like the other ingredients and ate them, while still eating sunflower seed, they ate all included.
Jay, jess and 4 mischevious Budgerigars

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Skyes_crew
Posts: 1946
Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2013 12:49 pm
Location: Hawaii

Re: food

Post by Skyes_crew »

Like clawnz was saying...if you feed seed make sure it's not the supermarket brand stuffed with fillers. Your best option is to have a custom mix made if you have a feed store that does that. We have a bird farm that offers this option for $1 per lb. if you don't have that as an option, you can feed a small hookbill mix to all three. Pick out the sunflower seeds completely. As a base food this is fine, but you will have to individually customize their diet. Ringneck's in the wild do not consume very much seed at all. So they will benefit from a diet of dark green veggies such as kale and broccoli, and orange veggies such as peppers and squash. Their diet should be no more than 20% fruit. I feed seed once per week. I fill the bowl halfway and cover it with wood beads to encourage foraging. For the GCC, fruits high in vitamin c such as citrus, and sprouted seed. Green veggies such as snap pea pods are a favorite. For the cockatiel, seed mix is a daily maintenance. Once a week you can add brown rice and crumbled hard boiled egg. They are slightly pickier eaters so you may have to play around with different foods to see what they like. For all of the birds, sugar and fat, in the way of fruits and nuts should be limited. Especially the nuts. Peanuts are very high in fat and should only be given as a treat very rarely. Birds are very susceptible to high cholesterol. I hope that answers your question :)
I am owned by my birds...and I wouldn't have it any other way :D

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