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The Eclectus Diet | |
Like people, parrots like variety in their diet. No parrot should be subjected to a seed only, or a pellet only diet. That would be like us living on bread and water, day after day. That is not to say seeds and pellets should be eliminated from their diet, they should be just one of the many foods they eat. Mine have 3 dishes each day, one for water, one for dry food (seed & pellet) and one for moist foods, depending on which one is on the menu for the day, fruit salad (6 or 8 different fresh fruits), mixed vegetables, boiled eggs, chicken, or bean, rice and pasta mixture. My personal preference in pellets is the Pretty Bird Eclectus Special. I could see a noticeable improvement in their overall appearance when I switched to the Pretty Bird Eclectus Special. It has the highest Vitamin A content of any of the pellets I researched. You will hear all kinds of differing opinions about feeding seeds and pellets.
If there is any one thing that is different
about the Eclectus diet from most other parrots it is their need for foods high
in Vitamin A, such as: cooked sweet potatoes, dried chili peppers, raw
cantaloupe, cooked squash, cooked broccoli, cooked carrots, or fried beef liver.
Parrots love People Food. In
general, if it is healthy for you it will be healthy for your Eclectus as well.
Do not give them tea, coffee, alcoholic beverages, junk food, chocolate, or
avocados (the pits are believed to be poisonous to parrots).
Your parrot must always have fresh clean drinking water.
This may mean changing it a couple of times a day (or more) as Eclectus
like to dunk their foods, making "stinky" soup out of their water.
I don't give my parrots any
vitamin supplements as they eat a very healthy diet every day and shouldn't require any extra vitamins. It is
very easy to overdo the vitamins as I learned, the hard way, when I first got
Indy. I fed her so many dried chili
peppers she developed yellow feathers over a great deal of her head and body.
This made an otherwise gorgeous bird look like the "great speckled
bird".
It took over a year for the yellow to all molt out.
The only exception to no added supplements is when Indy has double clutched
with laying eggs I give her a calcium supplement - just in case.
She always looks absolutely gorgeous, not a feather out of place, even
after long stays in the nest box. She
comes out of the nest box, does her stretching exercise routine with lots of
"oooohhhs" and "aaaaahhs" and immediately starts preening her feathers.
She is a very meticulous little lady!
