Complete Psittacine by Eb Cravens
If there is one act that many of us parrot keepers are guilty of with our birds, it is the daily overfeeding of the flock. It is not an easy habit to avoid considering how important nutrition is to the health and longevity of psittacines. The rationale often is, “Give birds lots of food and they will pick out what they need and never go hungry, hence I am doing the right thing.”
The problem with this is parrots are all different, and they were not all raised with the same eating habits. Furthermore birds do not eat the same every day. Like dogs and cats, they will fill up heartily one day and nibble lightly the next depending upon needs, desires, weather, season, what is offered, and factors we do not even fathom.
Days when I go out to pull all the bird dishes in our aviaries and find a significant amount of uneaten food left over, it is easy to conclude that the parrots did not like what I offered. Yet a few days ago, the same foods were consumed with gusto. Another explanation could be I had been overfeeding my flock.