Best Cockatiel Food

Many people who want to keep birds as pets prefer to keep a cockatiel. This bird is usually grey in color, but has orange or yellow cheeks. As it is a social bird, it can be handled very easily as a pet. Also, if they are trained, cockatiels can learn to speak. The lifespan of a cockatiel is around 15 to 20 years.

If you have a cockatiel as a pet, it is important to know what to feed the bird in order to keep it healthy. There are many readymade foods available for cockatiels in the form of seeds, supplements and cooked food. You can, in fact, approach the manufacturers, who would be more than willing to send you samples of the foods. This is advisable as cockatiels can be picky eaters.

Remember, a cockatiel will be famished in the morning, and that is why mornings are the best time to feed your bird. Make sure that your bird receives an optimum diet consisting of cockatiel seeds and pellets. Both can be fed in equal quantities, and should comprise around 50 percent of your bird's diet on a daily basis. The seed should be high in vitamins, but low in fat. So, do not go for seed mixtures that have sunflower seeds. You can feed sunflower seeds, but feed it sparingly.

Supplement your cockatiel's diet with green leafy vegetables like turnip greens, kale, Romaine lettuce and cilantro. This will give them the required calcium. These greens can be cut into small bits and fed to the birth. You can also feed the bird small quantities of yogurt, but do not give it any other milk products as this specie finds it difficult to digest lactose.

Cockatiels also need proteins. So, give them things like chicken, turkey, fish and eggs that are fresh and cooked. Do not allow the meat products to remain the in cage for more than 30 minutes as they will start breeding bacteria, and this could make your cockatiel sick.

Besides these, you can feed your cockatiel sweet potato, asparagus, carrot, apple, grape, rice, pasta and whole wheat. Do not feed the bird spinach and parsley as they can damage the kidneys and also prevent the absorption of calcium.

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