Caring for your bird

Feeding your bird

For seed eaters such as Budgies, Canaries, Finches, Cockatiels, Lovebirds and Rosellas

What to feed your seed eater

  • Bird pellets or crumble should be available at all times
  • If your bird is on a seed diet it should not eat only one type of seed
  • Selection of fresh vegetables such as spinach, beans, parsley, broccoli, carrots, silverbeet, etc.
  • Pasta, rice, toast, eggs, mashed potato (potato only, no added dairy), chicken bones and other meats
  • Fruit may also be offered but many birds will not eat it
  • Medium sized birds (cockatiels, lovebirds, rosellas) can have no more than 10-15 sunflower seeds per day (less for smaller birds)
  • Insects (including grubs and woodboarding larvae)
  • Tree leaves and blossoms (banksia, eucalyptus, acacia, grevilleas, mallees, casuarinas, melaleuca, hakea)
  • Necta, pollen, wild fruits in season
  • Grass roots
  • Wild grasses and and their seeds

What not to feed your seed eater (Toxic)

  • Chocolate, Coffee, Milk, Cream, Butter
  • Anything containing alcohol
  • Avocado, Rhubarb, Egg Plant
  • Onion, Asparagus
  • Milky sapped plants, Nutmeg

Why all seed diets are a problem

  • Birds don’t eat dry seed in the wild
  • Low amounts of low quality protein
  • Sunflower and Safflower worse – low protein and high fat
  • Calcium:phosphate ratio in sunflower seeds is 32:1 – Ideal is 2:1
  • Sunflowers are “addictive” and birds love them – they then have a tendancy to overeat and become overweight