Parrot Food Type Pyramid TM: SEED MIXES
About Seed Mixes
Seed Mixes are the most common parrot food type. There are lots of rumors about sunflower seeds being “bad for parrots”. However sunflower seeds are healthy foods and are often one of the main ingredients in pellets for this reason. They are usually messy to feed but more importantly, most parrots eat only one or two seed types from the mix. Parrots are like small children, feed them a bowl full of peas, corn, carrots, and M&Ms and what would you expect them to eat? That’s right, they will pick through the bowl eating their favorite items, throwing the rest to the floor as they search for the last favorite item at the bottom of the bowl. Seed diets are also often high in fat.
Nutritional balance is difficult to achieve with seed mixes not only because the birds will not eat all the ingredients of the mix but also because the label does not give an accurate picture of the nutrition available to the bird from eating the mix. When the nutritional analysis is done, as required by law, it is done not only on the parts of the seeds the bird will eat but also on the hulls and shells.
Never the less, we consider seed mixes an important part of a healthy parrots life because of the “fun value” or entertainment value that hulling seeds offers to pet parrots. Most pet parrots live a less stimulating life by comparison to their wild counter parts. Hulling seeds is a favorite natural behavior that we believe should be provided for them. Seed mixes also store well and are easy to feed by bird sitters or emergency caregivers.
People’s least favorite feature of seed mixes is seed mixes will contribute to creating a mess and they do contain enzyme inhibitors (what prevents the seeds from sprouting).
The optimal way to feed seed mixes is in a shallow tray or flat surface rather than in a bowl – this way the bird does not need to dig to the bottom of the container to find its favorite seed (throwing the rest to the floor). As the bird finishes off its favorite seed in the mix it will then move on to its next favorite, etc. Using this approach the bird will usually eat most of the seeds in the mix and will discard less to the floor.
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