Feed Your Bird Well: its Essential!

Feed Your Bird Well: its Essential!

In the wild, some birds are granivores, others insectivores, frugivores (they feed on fruits) or nectarivores (nectars). The ones we adopt are mostly granivores, which simplifies the task. However, not everyone wants the same seeds!

Blends suitable for most captive birds are commercially available. Be careful, birds have the annoying habit of sorting their seeds to eat only the ones they prefer. Not only do they put them everywhere, but most importantly, if you do not change their food on a daily basis, the seeds left behind will become moldy and cause digestive disorders. Also think of fresh water and a cuttlebone, to make available.

Small birds: every day a little bit

Bird food

Their needs are modest: for example, 5 to 6 grams of seeds per canary per day are enough. Ready-to-eat mixes are available in specialized stores and meet the specific needs of each bird: this is by far the most practical solution. Because for those who want to start a meal at home, it gets complicated: basically, you need seeds of canary grass (65%), oatmeal (20%), the shuttle (5%), the flax (5%), hemp (3%) and niger (2%) for a canary. The mandarin diamond also takes seeds of the canary seed, but rather mixed with millet. And the proportions change according to the birds (ask advice to the veterinarian).

To give them also in small quantities: a piece of salad leaf (to change every day) and a piece of fresh fruit (apple, pear, cherry, etc.), not treated with pesticides. Once a week, it's Byzantium: you can give your canaries a little animal protein in the form of flour worm, fly, aphids or dehydrated ant eggs (on sale in pet stores).

Parakeets and parakeets: beware of imbalances

In terms of quantity, the needs of a parakeet are double those of a canary: 10 to 12 grams per day. Here again, the easiest way is to buy a mix of "special parakeets" in the trade. Otherwise, we need seeds of the canary grass (50%), white millet (14%), yellow (14%) and red (5%), oatmeal (10%), paddy rice (5%) ) and hempseed (2%). For fun, we can give a little sunflower seeds but not too much because of their high fat. As for millet, parakeets crave it so much as to sulk all the other seeds: again, the quantities distributed must be very small. A piece of fruit or salad (untreated) are welcome, including some flaxseed in the moulting period. Finally, a little bit of weekly animal protein (worms, flies, aphids or ant eggs) is helpful.

For parrots, whole feeds are sold in the form of pellets (this prevents the bird from sorting its seeds, but not all of them appreciate the formula) or mixtures of seeds composed of 70% of cereals and 30% of cereals. % of oilseeds. We can add in very small quantities, nuts, almonds, fruits, vegetables, even a little minced meat and cooked ...