Vitamins

[Steve]

What kind of vitamins should parrotlets get? Izzy has been having poop problems and the vet thinks it's related to her liver/ diet. We offer her a cuttlebone and mineral block but that only provides calcium right? How often should they get a vitamin supplement? What kinds of vitamins should they be getting. Right now she is on a seed diet as she doesn't like pellets and refuses a lot of the fruits and veggies we give her.

[chapala]

If someone is feeding pellets or any other fortified food product, they should not get any vitamins since they already are in the supplemented foods. If the bird is fed a varied diet including a lot of vegetables, grains, legumes and a little fruit, they will get a lot of vitamins and minerals from the food, as well as protein, carbohydrates, and good fats.

A seed diet is very high in fat, and not good nutritionally. What I would suggest as a first step is overnight soaking or sprouting a grain mix, keeping seed quantities very low. Most birds take readily to soaked or sprouted grains, and they are easy to prepare. Check back on other threads in the diet forum, or do a search on sprouting and grain mixes to see how to do it, and which grains to choose from. There are other threads that talk about converting a bird from a seed only diet, gradually adding in very finely minced vegetables (preferably food-processed), etc. After you've looked through the threads, let us know if you have questions!
Reta