Help with parrotlet diet...

[Snugglebun01]

My new baby parrotlet has been on Hagen Budgie seed and I can't get him to try anything else. My first question is this budgie seed says it's "Vitamin & mineral enriched with added iodine". Is this better than regular budgie seed? Now I had tried to feed him something called "Kaytee-Exact rainbow" food and he seems to like that.

My second question is would mixing the two together (Seed & rainbow) be a decent diet for him? Just for now untill he gets a little older and wants to try new foods? Also, with the seed...does it have to be stored with no air in a zip lock bag or can it be left open to the air? Thanks everyone!

[chapala]

In my opinion, no, seed mix and Kaytee Exact Rainbow is not a decent diet. If you want to feed pellets, I would go with Harrison's available on-line at many vendors and at some avian vet offices. I suggest adding nutritious fresh vegetables and a little fruit to your bird's diet. There is quite a bit of information in the diet sub-forum, so please take a look there and let us know if you have more questions.

A little seed in the diet is fine, better sprouted than dry because the fat content goes down quite a bit after germination and sprouting. A diet high in seeds has way too much fat (most seeds are 40 to 50% fat) and can cause health problems and shortened life span.
Reta

[Taylor]

The best time to get them to try new stuff is when they are young. They are much less afraid of new things when they are young. You should try to expose them to as many different foods as early as possible. Even if they don't eat it, they at least see it so in the future they won't be afraid of it and will most likely eventually try it. I don't feed any pellets to my p'lets. They are all 2 yrs and very healthy and thickly feathered. I have read to many mixed opinions about pellets. Some people feel that they can cause liver damage. I decided not to risk it. Pellets arn't very interesting either. My P'lets LOVE to eat. Mine like everything you can imagine. I serve up basic brown rice and fruit/vedgie mix every AM, that I make for all my birds, then through out the day I put small snacks of every variety in little sushi dishes. They love it. They always have a dish on seed mix and a millet spray along side.

[pam311]

Try sprouting your Millet, it is a grain and it will sprout and your birs will go crazy for it. My fids love all kinds of sprouts except mung bean. I eat those : )

[Taylor]

The only sprouts that I have fed them is Alfalfa sprouts from the supermarket.
They liked them. I'll have to try millet. Do you sprout the whole millet spray?

[BUUZBEE]

I'm in agreement with the others. I like either Harrisons or Roudybush for pellets. I offer that along with a seed mix that I make myself, avoiding the seeds that they of course are drawn too, the fatiest ones LOL) Fresh veggies & fruits daily. As as posted, the younger the better!

[Mamabird]

My parrotlet wouldn't eat vegetables until I chopped them up quite fine in a food processor ( I now have a small cup sized chopper on my counter that I use just for this). Now that the pieces are very tiny - he loves his veggies (he was afraid of them before)! He also loves when I stir a tablespoon of cooked oatmeal in with them. Often I mix a batch of both together and freeze them into "balls" so that I can defrost one each day for him. Now he prefers this to seed.