If you’re a responsible pet parent, you know how crucial it is to give your parrot the right kind of food. And while a basic dry seed mix was once the go-to food for pet parrots, vets have found them insufficient to fulfill the nutritional needs of our feathered pets.
Enter parrot pellets, a specially formulated type of food that provides a balanced diet and fills the gaps in your bird’s vitamin and mineral requirements. But what are the best parrot pellets? How do you know which one are high-quality? What type of pellet does your bird need? Let’s find out!
What are Parrot Pellets?
Pellets are compact pieces of parrot food no bigger than the size of a pea. They’re made by drying and mashing different ingredients, including seeds or grains, fruits, vegetables, and nuts. The formulation of pellets is specific to each brand, as is the quality.
High-quality parrot pellets are healthy, tasty, and palatable. They’re lower in fat but higher in nutrients than seeds. This makes them an excellent addition to your parrot’s diet.
Does My Bird Need A Formulated Food?
While wild birds are free to eat whatever they want. Pet parrots are not. They rely on their owners to feed them, and just seeds are not enough. Adding plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits to their diet helps, but still: pet parrots have distinctive requirements. Pellets are ideal to help fill any nutritional gaps.
Parrots go through different life stages, some only once and others on a yearly basis. Baby birds grow in their feathers and have to be weaned. Adults go through cycles of moulting, egg laying, incubating eggs, and more. Their feed requirements change during these stages.
Pellets have balanced amino acid, protein, fat, and energy contents to help keep parrots healthy throughout their lives.
Did you know? There are even special high-energy formulations that can give your bird that little boost it needs during a hard molt or a stressful time!
Do Brand And Type Matter?
Parrot pellets come in different types, such as organic and non-organic pellets. You can buy them with or without artificial flavor, coloured or natural beige, and with varying nutritional profiles, such as high-energy and maintenance pellets. Some are higher in quality with less filler ingredients like soy, while others are cheaper but also less nutritious. It’s important to choose the right pellet for your bird!
A starter pellet should be high in protein, as parrots require more protein during the early days of their lives to grow feathers. These pellets are also great for birds that have been eating a less-than-ideal diet for a long time, as it helps their body and feathers recover.
Maintenance pellets have a balanced nutritional profile and are perfect to fulfill your parrot’s regular daily nutritional needs. And don’t worry about them being boring! Most birds will eat even the bland-looking beige ones with great gusto once they’re used to them. You can add plenty of color by offering a range of veggies and fruits along with the pellets.
What are the Best Parrot Pellets in the UK?
Several companies make pellet food for parrots, but here at Parrot Essentials, we’ve come to particularly like the Harrison’s Bird Foods Brand. Harrison’s High Potency Complete Organic Pellet line is one of the best choices, if you ask us.
These pellets are vet-approved and made with organic ingredients. This means they’re free of artificial flavours, toxic fertilizers, and pesticides. This high-potency pellet is suitable for parrots undergoing moulting, breeding, or weaning. It’s rich in essential vitamins that prevent or help correct vitamin deficiencies, which can cause weight gain, feathering, untreatable nervous diseases, and death.
For daily maintenance, there’s Harrison’s Adult Lifetime. This is perfect for fully-grown parrots who have been eating pellets for more than 6 months and are not moulting or breeding.
You can choose from different pellet sizes based on your parrot’s species. Harrison’s Super Fine, for example, is suitable for small birds like budgies. It can also be a good choice for parrots who are just getting used to pellets, as they might not understand yet how to crack the larger ones. Harrison’s Coarse, on the other hand, should work well for large birds like macaws and cockatoos.
Conclusion: The Best Parrot Pellets
In conclusion, choose the right pellet feed wisely to ensure your bird’s health. Both Harrison’s High Potency and Harrison’s Adult Lifetime are excellent choices, but the former is more suitable for parrots undergoing moulting, breeding, or weaning, while the latter is perfect for adult parrots who are at a healthy weight and don’t need extra nutrition.
While these pellets may be a bit more expensive than others, they’re worth the investment to ensure your parrot’s health and well-being!
To find out more about parrot diet and what your bird should be eating, don’t forget to have a look at our posts about:
My African grey parrot is now 28 years of age. I’ve had her from a breeder since she was here atched and able to feed. She has always been on Harrison’s pellets and is perfectly healthy and in excellent condition. She has yearly checks at the vets and is a great addition to our household.
Thank you for sharing Ann.
In my opinion, feeding the right diet to companion parrots is the number one and most important job for us humans.
Anguel – Parrot Essentials
I bought a pack of Kaytee to try my grey on who I adopted from an owner who had Ocpd. Read to mix it with his regular seed mix, but he won’t touch it and just throws it out of bowl. Tempted to go cold Turkey with him but have also read that they would rather starve than eat something they don’t want. So not sure what to do?
Hi Willent.
Thank you for the comment. Switching to pellets is a good idea but can sometimes be challenging, especially with older birds who have been on a poor-quality diet for a long period of time.
Please have a look at this article https://blog.parrotessentials.co.uk/converting-your-bird-to-parrot-pellets/
If you are still struggling, please call 0800 327 7511 and ask for some advice. One of our export will gladly assist you and in no time, you will be able to convert your parrot to a complete pelleted diet.
Anguel
I have a 14 year old Rock Pebbler. When I got him the breeder told me he was about 6 months old and he was feeding him a seed diet including sunflower seeds and advised feeding the same. When he was about 9 years old he developed seizures and shaking. My vet was treating him for the seizures and advised switching him to Harrisons pellets. It took me a good few weeks to get him to eat the pellets and he wouldn`t eat the Harrisons lifetime fine pellets and would only eat Harrisons lifetime coarse pellets. I have to crush them up for him and I also give him vegetables and fruit. I recently noticed he is passing long coiled droppings at times that look a bit wet but sometimes the usual coiled droppings. In the last couple of weeks when he is sitting on the perch he seems to puff up the feathers on his back that forms like an arch shape towards his tail and seems to be straining but he is still eating and passing the same droppings. I crush about 5 pellets morning and evening but there is always a few bits left in the cup. Not sure if I should reduce the pellets and add some seed?
Hi Elizabeth,
Thank you for posting your question and concerns.
We are not vets and my first advice would be to take your feathered friend to an Avian Vet who can examine him properly.
You can also reduce the fruit and Veg and see if this makes any difference. If it doesn’t please reduce the pellets to lets say 4 in the morning and 3 in the evening but continue to offer fruit and veg. Offer more veg than fruit.
Don’t introduce seeds again under any circumstances. Seeds are very high on fat and with previous medical history of seizures it will be only a matter of times when they start again.
I hope this helps.
Anguel
Parrot Essentials