We often get asked for advice on how to convert seed junkies (Birds who have been fed an all-seed diet all their lives) onto a healthier diet of chop (a mixture of chopped-up fruits and vegetables) and pellets. In this blog post, we will be sharing the importance of a proper diet as well as our team members’ methods of converting seed junkies. In the wild, your parrot would have had a wide variety of seeds, nuts, fruits, and vegetation to eat. In captivity, it is our responsibility to ensure that they are fed a well-balanced diet since they are unable to go to the grocery store to get some extra veg if they feel like they have been eating too many seeds. Small parrots (Budgies, Cockatiels, Lovebirds, Celestial parakeets, etc.) have a diet made up out of a larger of % seeds than larger birds. The general breakdown of their diet is: 10% fruits and sprouts, 15% seeds, 30% pellets and grains, and 45% vegetables. Common parrots (Ringnecks, Pionus, Amazons, African Greys, Cockatoos, Conures, Macaws, etc.) have a diet that is made up out of 10% fruits and sprouts, 10% seeds, 30% vegetables, and 50% pellets and grains. Other parrots such as Lorikeets and Eclectus have highly specialized diets which we will not be going into in this article.

Pellets have been specifically formulated to meet your bird’s nutritional needs. You can find different formulations for different species and different stages of life. You can even find specific pellets formulated to assist with certain illnesses and diseases such as birds who are experiencing liver or kidney failure. When feeding vegetables, it is recommended to stay away from pale vegetables that are high in water composition such as iceberg lettuce and celery as they have little to no nutritional value for your bird. When feeding you should always feed more vegetables than fruit because fruit is high in sugar which can, in turn, lead to obesity or diabetes if fed in high quantities. It is always recommended to wash fresh produce thoroughly to remove chemicals since you do not know what was done to them by the grower or store.

READ MORE ABOUT DIET HERE: www.cheekybeaks.org.za/2020/05/04/balanced-diet

Now, on to some methods that our team members employ in their own flocks or fosters that they take in to convert seed junkies onto a healthier diet

Examples of seed junkie chop mixes:

Klaas:

“What I have found works for the seed junkies that have come into my care is if I start them off on the seeds that they came with, be that sunflower, millet, etc. and add finely chopped chop into it. I put it into the food processor to ensure it is in small pieces. This way as they go to pick up the seeds that they are used to, they also get in some of the vegetable mix. I usually start out with 75% bad seed (rinsed in apple cider vinegar to kill spores) and 25% vegetables and then slowly adjust the percentages until there is 75% vegetables and 25% seeds. During this process, I will also start replacing some of the bad seeds with a better seed mix such as the one from The Parrot Hotel or Parrotainment”

Pictured below:

Basil is a Budgy Boy who suffers from aspergillosis due to a diet of bad seed in his previous home. He is now on a more well-balanced diet.

Muffin (cockatiel) enjoys sitting in the kitchen while his human prepares him and his brother’s chop base for the week.

Abi’s Seed Junkie Chop Mix:

Ingredients: • Bad seed, washed in ACV to remove spores. • Healthy seed, normal and small bird. • Natures nest soft grain or ground up pellets. • Chop, mashed, or pureed.

Method: Mix 1 teaspoon of bad seed with a double serving of healthy seed and small birdseed. Mix a serving of pellet powder into that. Mix a serving of chop into that. Mix it all together, making sure all the seeds are buried in the chop/pellet mix.

Continue that for the first 3 days, reducing the number of bad seeds daily. Depending on how the bird responds, reduce the number of bad seeds until you stop adding them at all. Continue that while reducing the number of seeds to a healthy level, over the course of a few weeks.

Depending on how the bird responds, slowly start introducing whole pellets in addition to the powder, start with a teaspoon, so they explore the size and texture. Then increase the amount weekly. It is important to maintain healthy ratios of chop/pellets while doing the introduction to healthy eating so that they learn to eat everything in order to be satisfied.

Pictured below:

Cotton (cockatiel) is a recent addition to the #ChopGang.

Pauli (Patagonian conure) is a very hungry boi who now ADORES his chop.

Kathleen:

Peanut ate 100% sunflower seed with no vegetables or fruit when I got her. 1.) I gave her three days to decompress where I kept her on the 100% sunflower seed – this was just to ensure she was eating. 2.) On day 4 I started introducing canary seed mix by mixing it into her seed. I made toys out of vegetables and hung them in her cage – she mostly ignored them, but the idea was just to get her used to them. 3.) By week 2 I started adding very small quantities (half a teaspoon) of cooked rice and barley to her seed mix. I also crushed pellets (very small amount and sprinkled it over). 4.) I started introducing grated apple and cooked pumpkin by week three. I started phasing out sunflower seed – so if she was on 90% I would make 10% more veggies or crushed pellets or healthy seeds and remove that amount of sunflower seed. It was at her pace – if she stopped eating we went back a step and waited until she was comfortable again to continue. 5.) Week by week I would decrease the sunflower seed by 10% increments and some weeks I would have to increase it again – eventually, after about 4 months, she started eating chop, only healthy seeds (canary mix with added seeds), and pellets.

Pictured below:

Popcorn (cockatiel) enjoying some delicious chop.

Pancake (cockatiel) checking out her chop to spot the next bite.

Nicola:

I love using squash/butternut mash with couscous, cooked in rooibos tea and turmeric. Crushed pellets and a healthy seed mix are added to this. Then when they start taking to this mixture you start adding more and more chop to it. Some birds take longer than others to convert. My Galah refused to eat chop for over a year since I got him and has only recently started enjoying the healthy diet.

Sprouts absolutely didn’t work for my birds. I know it’s usually one of the preferred methods – especially sprouted sunflower, but I am not comfortable with sprouting it in the shell unless absolutely necessary, because of the increased risk of infections such as aspergillosis (a primary cause of which is fungal spores present inside the shell of sunflower seed and peanuts)… I feel like exposing these seeds to moisture as part of the sprouting process increases the risk of fungus growing where it should not. I do include sprouts in their daily diet, but I chop it up along with other vegetables, greens, flowers and even seeds (such as flax seed which is more easily digested in powdered form) in the food processor. None of my birds have taken to sprouts in their “natural” form, but to each their own! If you do choose to sprout sunflower seed, make sure it’s the de-husked, human food-grade variant, and watch your sprouting times so that they don’t get soggy.

Healthy seed mixes such as those from Parrotainment SA (the ‘Pluckers Mix’ or ‘Galah Mix’) or The Parrot Hotel (the ‘Seed Mix’ or ‘Eckie Mix’) has been excellent in my experience. Mixing this into mashed vegetables and very moist chop, along with powdered or crushed pellets, has been my go-to – the mixture just has to be quite crunchy to start with. Even baked treats made with these seed mixes and banana or chia seed as a binding agent (there are many recipes on the web) has piqued their interest and started the conversion process. The mushier the base ingredients, the better to start with so that the bird really has to DIG for those seeds.

Placing the dreaded black sunflower seeds (in the shell) in foraging boxes and puzzle toys has also helped my birds learn that this seed should rather be seen as a high value treat worth working for, instead of a commonly available dietary component.

Pictured below:

Founding member of the #OneLeggedGang Morgan (Bare eyed cockatoo) with a chop beak.

Our favourite Angry Ice Cream, Orochi (Galah), enjoying his chop.

Andrea:

Gomez came into our system with a note that he liked apples. He had been on an all-pellet diet, so some serious changes were needed. I added fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs to his bowl and he went right for it. He is still a little weary of the number of ingredients in his chop but keeping his chop finely chopped and adding extra peas and corn has helped keep him interested in exploring his bowl.

Pictured below:

Gomez (Red masked conure) thinks that this is a very yummy chop recipe.