A balanced diet is important for your pet bird’s health; the mix of foods should satisfy their nutritional requirements. Some birds, however, are best left with a seed-only diet. This can take a toll on their health, making them susceptible to health problems, particularly cardiovascular conditions, and behavioural disorders.
The dilemma here is that most pet owners struggle to make birds eat a variety of foods, trying different strategies, but to no avail. The truth is, birds do not eat what they are not used to eating. Longacres.co.uk recommends using wild bird feeders as a model to encourage feeding pet birds something new.
A New Meal
Vegetables are a rich source of vitamins, minerals, and carbohydrates and should make up 15-30% of the bird’s diet. Fruits, on the other hand, have high sugar content. Five percent of the pet’s meal should be fruits. When it comes to vegetables, go for carrots, green beans, tomato, broccoli, eggplant, and squash. For fruits, apples, mangoes, pineapples, bananas, pears, oranges, and grapes are the best choices.
You may also add formulated food such as a mix of seeds, grains, vegetables, proteins, vitamins and minerals, making nutritional imbalances less likely to happen. Formulated food may be in the form of nuggets or pellets and they are made for specific species. It’s important to choose wisely, making sure that the product is appropriate for the pet to encourage good nutrition.
An Appealing Treat
Birds decide to eat by what they see, feel and taste. Be creative when preparing food. For example, if you will feed carrots, try different ways of preparing food, like having it steamed, shredded or grated or combine fruits and vegetables to add colour.
In terms of presentation, you may hang the food from the top or sides of the cage. You can also weave it into the bars. Or, stuff food in spaces of toys. Most experts recommend feeding corn on the cob instead of kernels of corn in a dish to larger birds. This will not just provide entertainment for the pet, but also stimulate the senses.
Improve your pet bird’s diet by helping them eat variety of food. This will promote good nutrition, reducing risk for health problems.