What do parrots eat? Unfortunately, the diet of parrots and parakeets is not thoroughly researched. What do they eat can’t answer quickly.
However, we can be sure that we know from field observations that free-ranging parrots and parakeets do not eat dried grain mixtures.
What the right parrot food consists of
The classic parrot food consists of seeds, nuts, or even seeds and pellets.
It can be purchased as an ample parakeet food in the pet store or even on the Internet and is healthy for your bird.
However, this is not enough, because besides you should also feed fresh parrot food.
This is how you feed your parrot to keep it healthy in summary
- Feeding with fresh fruit or vegetables must be done daily.
- Apples, pears, but also soft fruits, carrots, or cucumbers are particularly suitable here.
- Avocados, on the other hand, must not be given under any circumstances.
- Special requirements have the Loris. This parrot species must not be fed with grains and needs a special porridge.
- In addition to the appropriate food, parrots also need lime to cover the need for minerals. It can be supplied, for example, in the form of powder or limestone.
- Finally, you should give the parrot food in the morning if possible and feed it again in the afternoon.
- Avoid too fatty seeds, and make sure that your parrot also gets enough fresh water to stay healthy.
What do parrots eat? – The List Of Foods That Parrots Can Eat.

1. Grain seeds
Usual grain feed, but without peanuts and with reduced sunflower seed content. The bird’s size depends on the bird’s size: supplemented with the supplement instead of buckwheat, flaxseed, glossy, and negro seeds. Dried bird berries and rose hips can also be getting mixed in with dry food.
Home-mixed grain seed mix: various feed stores offer individual seeds that can be getting mixed to create your mix
2. Sprouted and pregelatinized feed
The digestibility and the content of proteins and amino acids increase, but so does the fungus risk. Since this risk is not related to the nutrient gain, we do not recommend feeding sprouted feed.
3. Animal protein
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Cottage cheese
- Cream cheese
- Yogurt (with live cultures)
4. Green fodder
Fresh vegetables: peppers, corn, cucumbers, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach leaves, parsley, wild herbs, and grasses, e.g., chickweed, dandelion, fresh fruit tree branches.
5. Fruit
All fruits: apples, bananas, oranges, kiwis, melon, cherries, grapes, berries of any kind(especially rowan berries), etc.
6. Minerals
Shell limestone, limestone, cuttlebone.
7. Drinks
- Low sodium non-carbonated mineral water
- Fruit juices with no added sugar.
- Water must be getting offered fresh every day.
8. Grit
According to conventional reading, Grit is needed to grind the grain portion of food in the gizzard to make it usable. A chronic lack of grit will sooner or later lead to digestive and resorption disorders.
9. Feed quantity
It is related to the primary feed (grain mixture)once or twice a day, a fixed amount of 10-20% of the body weight, a maximum of one level teaspoon per day for a canary or budgie.
10. Habituation or changeover problems
Unfamiliar feeds are often eyed critically and not accepted immediately. Only patience and frequently repeated offering, possibly mixing with the already known and bought food, can help. For the changeover to pellets, there is a special changeover feed, and a radical zero diet familiar with the new food’s exclusive offering is necessary and successful for some birds.
11. Supplementary feeds
The immense number of supplementary feeds offered (nibble sticks, energy mixtures, health mixtures, treats such as bird crackers, bird bread, and mouse aids) is getting judged critically throughout. At best, we can express that the products have no benefit; at worst, they are harmful to health because they are unbalanced regarding their ingredients. Particularly critical are products whose composition is mentioned only anecdotally or not, especially products containing sugar or honey.
12. Unsuitable foods for parrots
Alcohol, tobacco, salty and spicy foods, caffeine, and anything very high in sugar or fat (e.g., chocolate, chocolates, etc.) Raw white cabbage can cause severe flatulence. Avocados are toxic; chocolate contains Theobromine, which causes heart failure in birds if too much enters the body.
Wild parrots do not eat pellets.
Of course, we are also one hundred percent certain that parrots & parakeets do not eat pellets in the wild.
The studies that deal with parrots and parakeets in the wild indicate that mainly semi-ripe fruits and seeds are eaten. Also, flowers, leaves, maggots, and insects are found on the actual food in small quantities.
Semi-ripe fruits are not fruits.
The fruit we purchase in the supermarket is nothing like the semi-ripe fruit that parrots and parakeets eat in the wild. Supermarket products are ripe. Also, they are cultivated varieties, which are usually far sweeter than wild ones. So the fruit from the supermarket contains much more sugar than the semi-ripe fruit that the wild relatives of our parrots and parakeets eat.
The recommendation is Vegetables as parrot food.
Therefore, you should feed significantly more vegetables than fruits in the diet of your parrots and parakeets. Vegetables provide a good nutrient density and have the advantage of usually having a much lower sugar content than fruit.
Vegetable protein
The body needs protein. However, we know that parrots and parakeets often have problems with animal proteins. Amino acids are found in all seeds, legumes, and nuts. Therefore, you should avoid feeding animal proteins.
FAQ What do parrots eat?

Parrots are real gourmets, and they have an extensive range of food in the wild like fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, berries, and herbs.
Macaws feed on seeds, nuts, fruits, berries, and buds. Due to their specially designed beak, parrots can easily crack the shells of nuts and hard-shelled fruits.
They feed on seeds, berries, fruits, flowers, buds, and roots. Many species also eat insects and their larvae, and some species occur in large flocks.
Besides, there are nuts and seeds – the bird takes everything available and quickly adapts to a changing food supply. The gray parrot diet should include an abundant amount of green food: Vegetables, fruits, corn, chickweed.
Round out the gray parrot diet with nuts, such as peanuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, coconuts, and greens, such as chickweed, dandelion, parsley, sorrel, or lettuce.
The diet is based on a lot of fruits and vegetables. We should balance the mixture of grains; we need to advise them. Since the noble parrots do not eat seeds in the wild, it would be fatal to feed them only cereal seeds.
Peppermint, chamomile, rosehip, and fruit.
Conclusion:
Your parrot may reject certain foods.
Reasons for this are often difficult to find, and strange things are often looked at critically and not immediately accepted.
If you have parrots from an early age, you can offer them different foods early enough to make them familiar with them.
It is best to try other foods with patience to find out what the animal likes with adult parrots.
Mix the new food with the known, and it is more likely that the parrot will accept it.
Feel free to share this article about “What do parrots eat?” with someone who wants to know more about this topic.
For Below Links A Disclaimer: We hope you like here the goods we recommend. FYI: Buzz This Viral may receive a commission of sales or other benefits from this page’s links. Prices are here accurate and items in stock as of the time of writing.
Check out here “parrots foods” related and different products on Amazon:
- Kaytee Forti-Diet Pro Health Parrot – See On Amazon
- Bird Street Bistro Parrot Food Sample Pack Cooks in as little as 3 to 15 min | All Natural & Organic Grains and Legumes, Healthy Fruits, Vegetables, and Spices – No Fillers or Additives – See On Amazon
- Wild Harvest Advanced Nutrition Parrot 8 Pound Bag – See On Amazon
- F.M. Brown’s Tropical Carnival Gourmet Bird Food for Parrots, African Greys, and Conures Under 13″, Probiotics for Digestive Health, Vitamin-Nutrient Fortified Daily Diet – See On Amazon

Last Updated on 16/03/2022 by Buzz This Viral