wet food

Question
Hi chrys,

Is there any benefit in feeding steamed rice or cooked pasta to cockatiels and parkeets?

Thanks,
Karla

Answer
Hi, Karla.  Yes, I believe there is benefit in feeding rice and pasta to keet and tiels.  In feeding birds, variety is key since we don't know exactly what their ideal diet should be.  The more vitamins and minerals, the better.  In addition, when a bird is used to eating a variety of food, especially soft food (or wet food), it's easier to medicate them and also provide them with herbs, etc., to help them maintain good health.  Also, this type diet is great when they have babies to feed.  When using rice, use brown rice (brown rice is healthier than white rice ) and it must be cooked/steamed).  I feed all my small/medium sized birds daily a basic brown rice mix, to which I add a variety of different things (I make it different each time), such as barley, small amount of corn (don't feed too much corn as it binds calcium in their bodies), peas, red peppers, Ramien noodles, pasta, whole grain dry cereal with raisins/ nuts/other, shredded cheese, cooked macaroni, shredded carrots, brocolli flowerettes, shredded zuccini or other squash, etc.  Keets/tiels love cornbread and other types of whole grain breads (sometimes I add blueberry muffin mix or other for variety).  Anything you can get them to eat....haven't had much success with fruits, except apples (I often add applesauce to their mix).  One thing you must remember is that a bird will not eat anything it does not recognize as food.  Therefore, when feeding something new (or trying to convert a bird from seed to soft food), you must be patient and offer that food every day (the older the bird, the harder it is to convert).  Eventually, a bird will try it.  If not, some birds will eat whatever they see their humans eating (eat in front of them making good food sounds like "yum, yum" while eating...some birds can't stand it and will eat right from your hand at that point)!  Tiels/keets love popcorn, too, but feed salt free/butterless.  They also like greens (spinach, collard, etc...wash well and hang in cage with clothes pin or other)  Stay away from sweets and caffeine...chocolate, avocados, coffee, soda, candy, chips and the like with salt.  Tiels/keets have tendency for fatty liver syndrome (they become overweight if not feed properly) so feed healthy.

If you have any more questions, come back.

Chrys