For over 20 years Psittacus have developed and refined their range at their dedicated research laboratory and extensive breeding facility, along with collaboration with other respected breeding centres. The result is a range of pelleted complete diets featuring over 50 distinct products with proven benefits.

Considered by many specialists as the best parrot food in the world, the history and achievements of the Psittacus brand makes for fascinating and encouraging reading.

For over 20 years Psittacus have developed and refined their range at their dedicated research laboratory and extensive breeding facility, along with collaboration with other respected breeding centres. The result is a range of pelleted complete diets featuring over 50 distinct products with proven benefits including:

• speed of growth of the young, its weight and overall development
• improved appetite and increased daily consumption
• improved digestive processes
• prevention of the bacterial and fungal proliferations in the craw
• improved plumage quality, general appearance and behaviour
• improved reproductive success

The major benefits:
• complete formula, providing all the nutritional requirements specific to the species you are providing for
• no wasted food compared to seeds, nuts or artificially coloured complete foods, where the parrot will pick and choose what it likes best
• less mess – without a bird picking out all the bits they don’t want to eat, there’s less mess to clean up

Parrot feeding, care and welfare

One size fits all?
Every animal on the planet has co-evolved with their habitat, adapting and developing in tune with the specific conditions of their environment. With this in mind, parrot keepers have a duty to ensure the food we provide our birds matches their diet in the wild as closely as possible.

Given their wild distribution, Psittacine diets in the wild are unsurprisingly diverse. We know parrots primarily feed on fruits and seeds, but the huge geographical range in which these animals can be found means they will also require other foods and nutrients too. Even the specific fruits and seeds they encounter will differ in different habitats. Lories, for example, will feed on nectar and flower pollen, as well as fruits and some seeds. They have developed a long tongue with a brush-like tip which enables them to easily extract nectar and pollen from flowers. African Greys have specialised to consume palm nuts, a fruit which is extremely rich in saturated fats (palm-acid) and unsaturated fats (oleic-acid). Clearly, for those who value optimum nutrition and welfare, there is not a one-size-fits all parrot food.

Optimum husbandry
Just as it is true with reptiles, the successful husbandry and breeding of parrots is dependent on a diet which satisfies the animal’s nutritional requirements. In other words, the food we provide needs to be as close as possible to that which they would eat in the wild. It is important to note that this does not mean we have to use exactly the same foods, but we do need to ensure the nutritional composition closely resembles that which the animal has evolved to eat.

Traditionally this has been done using a generic diet based around seeds, fruits and vegetables. But research and experience has shown that this approach is insufficient and requires supplementation with vitamins and minerals. These supplements are difficult to include in the diet, and it is even more difficult to guarantee the correct dosage – not to mention the likelihood that the bird will be picky and selective when feeding and therefore their consumption supplements cannot be guaranteed. Parrots are notoriously picky feeders, discarding vast amounts of the food they are offered. That’s why seeds mixture diets can often cause metabolic problems which are a consequence of nutritional deficiencies. Hit and miss nutrition and supplementation should not be a feature of parrot husbandry. If we aspire to high welfare and good nutrition we need a more reliable solution.

A more sophisticated diet
A pelleted complete parrot food must satisfy a range of vital nutritional and practical requirements in order to fulfil the complex physiological and psychological needs of these intelligent birds. Thankfully, the research and development work conducted by Psittacus has helped to formulate specific diets for many different psittacine birds, using wild nutrition as a measure.

Psittacus complete foods are nutritionally sound with formulations suitable for a wide range of species, life stages, dietary considerations and needs:

• different pellet sizes and textures for different species and ages
• correct balance of Omega3 and Omega6 fatty acids
• correct balance of protein and amino acid profiles to benefit plumage
• optimal level of vitamins and antioxidants that stimulate and protect the immune system
• prebiotics to encourage beneficial intestinal flora
• yucca extract to moderate the smell of faeces
• high-quality proteins and fats in the appropriate proportion for each specific psittacine species
• measured use of fructose sugars control of weight and body condition
• advanced formulations for different life stages
• easy to ingest, digest and metabolise
• consistent formulation with low tolerance of nutritional variance, thereby removing the risk of nutritional deficiency and sickness caused by selective feeding and traditional diets
• formulated to address the nutritional requirements of breeding and other seasonal needs

Picky parrots
There are two generally accepted ways to feed captive parrots – complete food pellets or traditional nuts, seeds and fruits mix. While nuts, seeds and fruits might appear more ‘natural’, the concept has several drawbacks. In addition to the nutritional locality specific issues we have discussed previously, we must also consider how efficient and practical these foods are in real-life. It is well known that for each 1kg bag of mixed nuts and seeds, up to 800 grams of this will end up on the floor. Parrots will pick out their favourite bits and reject the rest.

Additionally, husks make up a significant proportion of the weight of each bag too, and these will be similarly discarded. All together this makes the cost and value of pellet diets favourable in comparison and, when the nutritional integrity is also considered, the benefits of pellet food become obvious. In short, pelleted foods mean less mess, less waste and better nutrition.

Many complete parrot foods are made with pellets in different colours, but the Psittacus range is prepared using no artificial colours. This makes the food look comparatively boring – and purposely so. Parrots are notoriously picky feeders, rejecting any items which do not take their fancy. This is even true with complete foods which have exactly the same constitution in each pellet, despite the pretty range of colours.

Birds will often reject one colour pellet and favour another, despite their  being no nutritional difference. Psittacus foods negate this arbitrary acceptance and rejection process by making the pellets the same, nondescript colour. This also makes any additional treats particularly attractive and rewarding.

Natural behaviour and enrichment
Nutrition is not the only requirement when considering food for parrots. It is also important to consider behaviours and enrichment. Parrots have unique beaks and feet which enable them to manipulate food and other objects in a very precise manner and natural behaviours such as search, exploration, manipulation and food consumption occupy 60% of its time in the wild. Offering a formulated pellet food will limit the potential for birds to engage in this type of behaviour and so alternative strategies need to be implemented to satisfy these needs.

Thankfully, this is easily achieved. Offering fruits, vegetables and seeds as occasional supplements provides sensorial stimulation and the opportunity to try different tastes and textures, and this process will still provide optimum nutrition as long as Psittacus does not fall below 70 – 80% of the total food consumed.

Rewarding parrots with food
One of the joys of parrot keeping is to encourage behaviour through training, and to do that we need to reward the bird with food. The type of reward food is important. It needs to be:

• appealing – not part of their routine daily diet
• small enough to be quick and easy to consume
• easy to handle and administer

Many keepers use dried food to reward their parrots, but these are usually too large to be effective for this purpose. Other common rewards include peanuts which can sometimes, unfortunately, cause alimentary intolerances, and common sunflower seeds, which are excessively rich in linoleic-acid, a fatty acid and cause problems when too much is consumed. None of these are ideal reward foods for psittacine birds.

Dark ‘black oil’ sunflower seeds are a much preferable alternative. These contain oleic-acid instead of linoleic acid, which is much better for these birds. They are also small enough to be eaten quickly and can be offered in the quantities necessary during a training session.

Part of the family
Parrots are entirely dependent on multi-faceted care from their keepers and simply providing your bird with food is not sufficient in itself. Care and interaction should ideally be combined with your family’s routines in order to integrate husbandry with your daily life and the time you have available. Every family will have its own routines, but here are a few ideas which can help to integrate your bird and create a fulfilling family relationship.

Morning:
As with most animals, the first job of the day should be cleaning and maintenance. Cleaning the cage and providing clean water and replenished food are obvious, but this is also a good opportunity to change their toys and introduce new objects. These new objects will be more appreciated and remarkable to the animal if they are provided while they are not in the cage.

Daytime:
This is a great time to devote at least 15 minutes to interaction outside the cage. At the end of the interaction period, reward the bird with fruits and vegetables, ideally presented in a variety of ways to encourage enrichment. Big pieces, small pieces, frozen, hidden, spread around, piled up – the options are endless and are always preferable to a routine bowl of the same old stuff which never varies in type or presentation.

Evening:
For most family routines, this is the best time for your bird to be out of its cage – under supervision of course. It’s an opportunity to teach the bird to speak or work to perform any other tasks, tricks or behaviours you wish to instil. During this time it is vital to reward your parrot with affection or food treats when it displays the required behaviours. Rewards should never be given for free or left for general consumption.

Last thing at night:
It’s advisable to remove all food and feeders so that the bird cannot consume old or dirty food.

Conclusion
It is the responsibility of every parrot owner not only to provide to their animal with a diet that fully caters for all of their nutritional requirements, but also to encourage natural behaviours. Both of these can be achieved by selecting and feeding the best foods and through thoughtful interactions designed to develop the bird’s cognitive abilities. It is vital to prioritise our animal’s welfare, and to do this properly we must provide the best available food.