Parrotlet diet?

Question

I recently adopted a young parrotlet. I have a little "homemade" mouse food I mixed up no longer need, so I was thinking I could mix a little in with his food. It has oats, raisins, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, and kashi cereal. Would it be safe to add to my parrotlets seed? I just hate to throw it away.

Also--I can't get my bird to eat any fresh food other than brocolli. I've offered apples, strawberries, peaches, carrots, green beans, corn, and rice, but he's not interested. Any suggestions on getting him to eat other things?

Answer 1

The mouse food that you mentioned is fine to feed them.  Sometimes with parrotlets it is hard if they are feed an all seed diet before you get them, to have them try new things. Parrotlets in the wild are ground foragers, that means that they run around on the ground hunting for food. I do certain things for my breeding pairs so that they will at least try the foods I prepare. I bought a food processor- so sometimes I run things through that. Sometimes just cutting up the food a different way makes it more desirable to them. I buy small white paper plates (no designs sometimes they won't go to them if they have big funky designs on them) and put their fresh food on the plates. I take sprays of millet and grind it with my fingers through the fresh food- parrotlets LOVE millet! You can even take small cut up pieces of paper and place them over the plate, leaving enough space for the bird to see their is food under there. This acts as a foraging toy and sometimes makes it more interesting for them. Usually the parrotlets will at least try some of what is on the plate because they are eating the millet pieces.

Also I steam corn on the cob, and cut the pieces in half long ways and then cut them so they are short half cobs. I place these on the bottoms of the cages...alot of my parrotlets love these.

Answer 2

Maybe try some dry fruit.