Products - Bird Diets
Dr Mac’s Organic Origins provides a range of diets for
birds, with new diets developed each year. Products are
currently available in 1kg and 5kg bags in a range of pellet
sizes. Most diets come in:
- maintenance for nonbreeding birds,
- breeder for those coming into breeding condition (commence
feeding 4-6 weeks prior to breeding season to build up nutrient
reserves), and
- hand rearing.
Ingredients
Ingredients are human grade and selected to optimise digestibility. Organic
linseed provides essential fatty acids, with organic sunflower
and organic peanuts added to breeder and hand rearing diets for
extra fat. Macaw hand rearing and breeder diets contain
organic macadamias to increase monounsaturated fat levels. Ingredients
for each diet vary in amount and, depending on the diet, are
selected from the following:
Nutrient Composition
Nutrient composition of all foods has been verified by independent
government laboratory analyses. Diets are randomly checked
to ensure optimal nutritional quality. The following is
a guide to nutrient composition of Dr Mac’s Organic Origins
bird diets currently available:
Birds Diets
Parrot
Diets formulated for Parrots and Cockatoos contain
basic formulations for birds that do not have uniquely different
nutritional requirements. They come in a range of pellet
sizes for different species. Large pellets are suited
to cockatoos, medium pellets for galahs, Amazons, king
parrots, ringnecks and smaller pellets for lovebirds,
neophemas, parakeets. Some birds such as ringnecks may
prefer the smaller pellets. For cockatoos with higher fat requirements,
use macaw diets.
African Grey
Diets formulated for African grey parrots account for their higher calcium
and vitamin D3 requirements. These come in a medium pellet. |
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Budgerigar
Diets formulated for budgerigars come in a small pellet size. They
contain higher concentrations of organic kelp meal to provide sufficient iodine
to minimise incidence of goitre. Budgerigars are particularly susceptible
to excesses of calcium, so these diets are lower in calcium than standard parrot
diets. |
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Cockatiel
Diets formulated for cockatiels come in a small pellet size but are longer
than those for budgerigars as some cockatiels prefer to pick up pellets
and handle them. These diets are formulated to minimise the incidence of
renal (kidney) disease. |
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Lory/Lorikeet
Diets formulated for lories and lorikeets account for their susceptibility
to excesses of dietary vitamin A and iron storage disease. Diets contain
less than 80 mg kg-1 (ppm) iron and are low in vitamin A. These
diets contain pollen and do not contain sugar as this encourages yeast overgrowth. Diets
are best mixed with a puree of your bird’s favourite fruit and pureed sprouted
seeds for best results. |
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Macaw
Diets formulated for macaws are lower in protein than standard parrot
diets but are higher in fat, with the extra fat coming from the addition of organic
macadamia nuts. Macaws are also susceptible to excesses of dietary calcium
and vitamin D3 so these diets contain lower concentrations in the
maintenance diets. Formulations for hand rearing mixes are based on extensive
field studies of nutrient composition of crop contents from wild macaws. The
higher fat diets for macaws are also suitable for other cockatoo species that
have higher fat requirements such as palm cockatoos. |
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Finches
Diets formulated for finches currently come as a supplementary
crumble. These diets are formulated to accompany a fixed
amount of a seed mix and should be fed out accordingly. Feed
dry or mix with a small amount of water to bind to seed mix.
Coming Soon
New diets are being developed all the time, with the following
currently being researched:
- eclectus
- fig parrot (high vitamin K)
- species specific lory diets
- lory/lorikeet hand rearing
- low iron diets for birds of paradise, toucans, hornbills
and mynahs
- a range of passerine diets (canaries, finches, etc) with
natural food extracts for pigmentation enhancers
- flamingo diets
- poultry supplement
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