Dr Mac's - Why Feed Pelletised Diets to Birds?

Many people are reluctant to convert to using commercial diets as they perceive them to be artificial or not part of a ‘natural’ diet.  However, the reality is that it is nearly impossible to replicate the wild diets of birds so any diet that we provide our birds in captivity is not a ‘natural’ diet.  Birds have specific nutritional requirements that are difficult to provide from the commercially available nuts, seeds and produce alone and most birds require supplementation of some kind when maintained on these diets.  Most seeds are deficient in calcium and essential amino acids (the building blocks of proteins) and are also low in provitamin A carotenoids.

There is also a general perception that birds will exhibit nutritional wisdom and select the most nutritionally balanced foods.  This may be the case in the wild as it is ‘survival of the fittest’ but in captivity this is not so. 

Birds eat predominantly to satiate hunger so will choose the fattiest and most energy dense foods offered to them.  Just watch any bird when offered sunflower seeds or nuts in a bowl of mixed food.  They will always go for these ingredients first.

One of the other problems with feeding a home-made diet is knowing how much of a vitamin or mineral supplement to add.  Supplements are not standardised so one teaspoon of one product could equate to a cupful of another product.  It is difficult for the non-nutritionist to calculate exactly how much should be added to any diet and it is easy to overdose birds on these supplements. 

Standardising intake of supplements is also difficult.  Many manufacturers recommend the addition of these supplements to water.  However, water intake will vary among individual birds in the aviary, between species and with different climates.  Birds that are suffering from other clinical conditions such as kidney disease may significantly increase their water intake and absorb toxic amounts of supplements.  Another common recommendation is to ‘sprinkle’ the supplement over the food.  This assumes that a bird will eat everything that is offered and divide it equally with its aviary mates.  This ad hoc addition of vitamin and mineral supplements is a dangerous way to nutritionally manage birds in captivity.

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