I put Rio in a new diet. Pellets are going to be his primary diet instead of seeds. He will have access to pellets the whole day. When he first wakes up in the morning, I give him new pellets with a half a carrot and a piece of kale with a fruit. That gives him the serving size of the nutrients for fruits and vegetables for the day. If I see him eating his pellets and veggies, I will give him 3-4 nutriberries in another bowl. That will give him his serving size of seeds and the benifits of foraging and the benifit of pellets.

What do you guys think? I like pellets for birds because when you give them a seed diet, birds can pick and choose what they want and ignore the rest resulting in lack of nutrition. Pellets are packed with all the birds nutrition needs and they can't really choose which pellet because it's the same nutrients in each.

Nutriberries are actually equivalent to pellets - the ingredients just aren't ground up as fine. They do allow for some picking and choosing, but the "glue" that holds them together is loaded with vitamins so it's still superior to plain seed.

You have to be very careful when you're converting a bird to a new diet, because they could starve if they don't accept the new diet right away. It's not stubbornness, they simply don't realize that the new diet is food.

Pellets are very beneficial but the burning question is what percentage of the diet they should be. The pellet companies want you to feed 80-100% pellets but they obviously have a financial interest in having you feed as much as possible. There are some very respectable sources who think that about 50% is the best amount. You're not likely to have nutritional deficiencies at that level, while the bird still gets the psychological benefits of eating a varied diet.

It would be beneficial to read the first part of my pellet article at http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/i ... llets.html You don't need to read the last part where I dispose of anti-pellet myths unless you want to. There are some people who are strongly anti-pellet and go around telling others that pellets are bad for birds and you shouldn't use them, but this simply isn't true.

If Rio doesn't accept pellets easily you can read the diet conversion article too: http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/i ... rsion.html He's still young so it might not be too difficult to get him to accept pellets. It's much harder with an older bird. You can always give him lots of Nutriberries while you work on getting him to accept the more conventional pellets.

Rio isn't having trouble eating pellets. I made sure he was eating pellets before hand before switching him and he is doing fine with the diet. I'm not feeding 100% pellets and nutriberries are pretty expensive than pellets so I would rather give him pellets as his primary diet and throw in 3 nutriberries a day.

I read the article, I learned a lot. I just want to know if the diet is safe and healthy.

It sounds pretty good. A wider variety of vegetables would be nice too.

Yeah. There will be a wider variety. I'm not always going to have kale in hand so going to have to use other vegetables. I just wrote kale and carrots because I was in a rushing to write this post for some reason. Is lettuce healthy or is it just like 99% of water? Is it worth feeding?

Rocko and Loki dont pick and choose with their seed I feed them Pellets in the morning and they always have Kale hanging in their cage they usually finish their pellets in less than an hour so I give them some seed and they always have something to eat during the rest of the day.Also I dont wake up very early so I give them their pellets before I go to bed so they can eat them when they wake up.

Iceberg lettuce is mostly water and doesn't have many nutrients. It isn't harmful though as some sources claim. Other types of lettuce like romaine and endive are a lot higher in nutrients.

I just go to Walmart, Raley's, Trader Joe's and get the assorted spring mix. It's got all kinds of lovely leafy greens in there and they love them all. Then I always have broccoli (their favorite), carrots, rice, peas, bell peppers and other good things on hand and that is their veggie dinner. Sometimes they'll get something else like butternut squash or eggs and perhaps a bite of tomato flesh (Jaid's favorite... I know, it isn't good to feed, but Jaid gets a bite every now and then). I blend it all up in one of those chop machines and store it in the refrigerator. It usually lasts a couple of days.

my birds don't eat both of them but rabbits do. An opposite with red chard - birds LOVE it but rabbits won't touch. Also birds LOVE beet greens but I think it's very high in oxalates. Also my birds love spinach, but it's also high in oxalates. They like broccoli crowns as well

My cockatiels don't like any kind of lettuce either, but I know there are some parrots who do. There's definitely no harm in trying it to see what happens.