Food And Care For Your Parrot

Cleanliness and a good diet are very important to your parrot's health. You must take care to keep its cage clean and to feed it properly. If your bird becomes fat or its plumage grows dull and lifeless, you alone are to blame.

A well-balanced diet of seeds, greens, and fruit is good for parrots. Like humans, parrots often have favorite foods that they will eat too much of. For example, parrots love to eat sunflower seeds, but these seeds are rich in fats and should make up only a small part of the total diet. The bulk of a parrot's diet should be made up pf wheat, corn, millet, and canary seed.

Parrots also need fresh greens, such as carrot tops and beet leaves. Fruit is also good for parrots, but feed it to your pet a little at a time until the bird's stomach becomes accustomed to it. Fruits as well as greens may give your pet loose droppings. Besides fruit, your bird should hae nuts in the shell as occasional treats.

"Laying mash" or "chick-starter" feed is another excellent basic food for parrot. It can be found in most feed stores. If your parrot will not eat chick-starter or laying mash, you must add cod-liver oil to its other seeds. To do this, mix one teaspoonful of cod-liver oil with one pound of seed. Store this mixture in the refrigerator to keep in from spoiling.

Two other items necessary to a parrot's diet are gravel and cuttlebone. Be sure to change the cuttlebone in your bird's cage as soon as it starts to wear down. With a proper diet and plenty of care, your parrot will give you years of happiness and companionship.