Food and Feeding

It's said that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach . . . well, I believe the way to a parrot's heart may also be through his stomach. Eating with your parrot is a very important social activity for him. Pepper wants to eat, at least try, everything that I eat. It would be very easy to over feed a parrot, so size and portion control are needed. Your parrot will be very happy and probably content if you share several small pieces of food while you are eating, instead of one larger piece. One of my favorite experiences is when Pepper is eating his dinner and I say to him "Pepper, is your dinner good?" He then pulls his head out of his food bowl, with his beak covered with pieces of broccoli, tilts his head, looks me in the eye with sparkling eyes and I know he's saying "Yeah, thanks dad."

There are many different theories on how to feed a parrot. There are two agreed upon facts. First is that a seed only diet is no good. Second is that fresh foods are a benefit (really a necessity) to parrots.

There are a few foods that no parrot should be fed. These include chocolate, avocado, alcohol, pits or seeds from fruits, and highly processed foods with lots of fats, salt or sugar.

I follow the philosophy that variety, some personal choice, and a need to forage is best for Pepper. This is how I feed Pepper:

At all times there are two foods in his cage. One container is filled with a Conure Blend containing dried fruits, grains, nuts and seeds. On the other side of the cage is a container filled three-fourths with Roudybush Pellets (Roudybush Daily Maintenance -- small size) and one-fourth with Zupreem Pellets (Zupreem AvianMaintenance FruitBlend Premium Bird Diet For Cockatiels). This same pellet mix of Roudybush and Zupreem is kept in his one food container on his play gym at all times. He consistently eats both types of pellets, though at times favoring one over the other.

In the morning, Pepper receives a mix of warmed foods. Every day he receives some canned sweet potato and a moistened piece of monkey chow. This is blended together into a mash with small chunks. Next to this in the same bowl, is one of three or four different blends of Beak Appetit. The different flavors are alternated each day for variety.

The flavors of Beak Appetit that I have fed to Pepper are Cheese Teaser, Caribbean Crunch, Calypso Spice and Cinnamon Sunrise. He enjoys them all and I believe he'd like the other blends if I fed them to him.

I prepare a full bag of Beak Appetit at a time. I find that each prepared bag will fill the cube spaces in two ice cube trays with enough left over for three days worth of feedings. I fill and freeze the ice cube trays for 24 hours. Then I place each tray's worth of frozen Beak Appetit cubes into a Ziploc Freezer Bag. I usually prepare one bag of Beak Appetit a day for three days in a row. After three days of cooking and freezing I have enough cubes prepared for two and one-half months worth of daily feedings.

Each day when I make my breakfast, I place one block of monkey chow in a cup of water. While this is re-hydrating, Pepper shares some of my breakfast with me. He loves Post Grape Nuts and Kashi Go-Lean Crunch cereals, both are moistened with milk. When I am ready to feed Pepper, I take one frozen cube of Beak Appetit out of a bag. I place this in his ceramic food bowl. I microwave it for one minute and twenty-two seconds under 30% power. I take it out, spread it apart with a fork and add a piece of the canned sweet potato to the bowl. I break and mash the sweet potato. I then add some water to the Beak Appetit to increase its moisture level. I place the food bowl back in the microwave and reheat it for 28 seconds under 20% power. After removing this from the microwave I mash the moistened monkey chow into the sweet potato. I check the temperature of both the Beak Appetit and the sweet potato/monkey chow blend to make sure it is not too hot. If it's too hot I move it around with a fork while I blow on it. Once the temperature is OK, Zoo Med Avian Plus Bird Vitamins are lightly sprinkled on and mixed in the food. The total weekly quantity of vitamins used is less than the suggested dose of 3/4 teaspoon each week. I place this in his cage and leave it there till around 4:00 in the afternoon.

Pepper eats a good portion in the morning. He will re-visit the bowl and eat during the day. About 75% to 85% of what I place in the bowl each morning is thrown out in the afternoon. I feel I would have just as much waste if I froze smaller portions due to dehydration from freezer burn or the canned sweet potatoes going bad in the refrigerator.

Dinner is usually a parrot-size serving of what I am having. (Click here to see how I prepare/cook his food.) This will usually consist of three different vegetables, a carbohydrate, and a few times a week a piece of meat or seafood. I started making a chart of Pepper's favorite foods, but it was far too long to include here. So, here is a brief listing of his favorite foods. You'll notice I have a bird with gourmet tastes, as we all know nothing comes cheap with a parrot.

Vegetables -- Broccoli, Sugar Snap Peas, Sweet Potatoes (fresh) and Turnip

Fruit -- Cherries, Oranges and Tomatoes

Meat -- Chicken and Filet Mingon

Seafood -- Salmon and Scallops

Other -- Cereal (Grape Nuts, Kashi Go Lean Crunch), Eggs, Pasta and Pizza (with cheese removed)

Though it may not sound it, even Pepper has certain foods he doesn't like. Here is a list of some foods he dislikes.

Disliked Foods

Vegetables -- Asparagus, Green Beans, and Peppers (Bell and Hot)

Fruit -- Blueberries and Strawberries

Meat -- Pork

Seafood -- Tuna (in water, from a can)

Other -- Rice (white)

Treats are given to Pepper nearly every day. Sometimes this is simply handed to him. At other times it's placed so that some foraging is needed to find it. It might be placed in a food bowl, in his treat dispenser, or hidden in his Happy Hut. Most of the "bird treats" I give Pepper are products by Lafeber. Most commonly given are Nutri-Berries. His favorite flavor is Tropical Fruit, followed by Original, Sunny Orchard and El Paso. He may also receive as a treat a piece of Avi-Cakes or a Nutri-Nuts. I don't know if he gets more enjoyment from the flavor or simply tearing the treats apart. At least half of what he receives ends up on the floor. When I pick up the larger dropped pieces and hand them to Pepper he usually eats them.

Foraging is the natural behavior a bird does to search for food. It is far from the typical companion parrot situation of having a bowl full of food found in the same location all the time. It is a process where a bird needs to work, explore and discover their next meal. The more I research and learn about foraging, the more I value this natural behavior's importance for our companion parrots.

I've been trying to add more foraging activities to Pepper's daily experiences. Sometimes it's as simple as hiding some food treats around his cage or play gym. At other times I use toys designed to promote foraging activities. Below, in the first image are three such toys. Normally, the first two toys are filled with Nutri-Berries and peanuts in the shell and these toys would be found on opposite sides of Pepper's cage. The third toy is filled with wooden toy pieces, Nutri-Berries and peanuts in the shell and is found on Pepper's play gym.

In my research, I've read that foods and other treats found during foraging are of more interest to our birds. Having watched Pepper's actions with the treats and toys he forages to find, I agree he seems to enjoy them more. If I hand him a small piece of wood to destroy, normally he'll shred it instantly. If he has to forage to discover, then obtain a similar piece of wood, he will often spend minutes examining it with his beak and tongue before turning it into a pile of wood shavings.

For foraging to work properly, Pepper can't always have success. I have him find food or treats just enough (once every two or three days), that he's willing to repeatedly work to find it without always being rewarded. Every time I go into Pepper's cage I close his "Barrel of Fun" toy. The next time I look it's always open, which means he's climbed over to inspect it. Today (February 2007) for the first time, he learned to close the drawer and twist the handle shut. I saw him repeat this action a few times by closing then opening the drawer. I think he hoped a treat would suddenly be found when he opened it again.

Pepper doing some foraging
1) Pepper decides which toy to investigate.	2) He reaches for the "Barrel of Fun".

3) Pepper grabs the handle, twists and slides the hidden drawer out.	4) Success this time, a peanut.

Photographs of the Roudybush and Zupreem Pellets Pepper eats.

Photographs of Pepper's breakfast.
This photo is of thawed and moistened food.	This photo is mashed and mixed as served.

Photographs of some Lafeber products.

Food And Feeding