What Your Bird Can & Cannot Eat

Your pet birds main diet should be a good quality seed and pellets or crumbles. Pellets and crumbles are more of a complete mix of birds as they are packed with the right amount of nutrients they need. Bird seed is the most common and easy food to give birds and is fine. We recommended mixing shell grit and bird vitamins & minerals into the seed.

The brand of the food does matter and you will notice a big difference between the quality of food off the supermarket shelf compared to the better product you can get from your local pet store. Brands that we recommend for bird seed is Breeders Choice and pellets/crumbles we recommend Vetafarm and then Passwell. What other foods can you give to birds? and what foods should you avoid giving your pet bird? We have compiled a list of good, bad and in between foods.

 

Food That Birds Can Eat

 

Great Food for Birds

These high energy foods should be included in your birds diet.

  • Corn
  • Peas
  • Beans (seed pod/pea part)
  • Legumes/Mungbeans/Crunchy Combo
  • Pumpkin Seeds
  • All Fruits

 

Good Food for Birds

These medium energy food are good to include into your birds diet.

  • Sweet Potato
  • Pumpkin (flesh only, seeds are very high energy)
  • Carrot
  • Beetroot
  • Tomato
  • Squash

 

OK Food for Birds

These low energy foods should only be a small part of your birds diet.

  • Spinach
  • Celery
  • Silverbeet
  • Broccoli
  • Brocolini
  • Rocket
  • Pak Choy
  • Buk Choy
  • Capsicum
  • Chilli (not too many seeds)
  • Alfalfa
  • Cucumber
  • Snow Peas (except pea/seed pod part)
  • Brussel Sprouts
  • Beetroot Leaves
  • Cabbage
  • Wheatgrass
  • Cauliflower

 

Foods That You Should Avoid Giving Your Bird

Steer Clear of Lettuce due to its high water content, it does not have much nutritional value. Rather dark green and leafy salads & vegetables are better.

Avocado, Onion and Garlic are toxic for birds, so avoid these foods at all costs. Dairy products, alcohol, soft drink. salt and chocolate are all very bad for birds and can cause major health problems, even in small or infrequent amounts. Apple seeds (in normal amounts) and cabbage are not toxic, despite what some websites say.

 

Foods Not To Give Birds

You should never give your birds any of these foods.

  • Lettuce (due to its high water content)
  • Potato
  • Bread
  • Rice
  • Pasta
  • Avocado
  • Onion
  • Garlic
  • Dairy Products
  • Alcohol
  • Soft Drink/Soda
  • Salt
  • Chocolate

These are by no means all of the foods you can and cannot give your bird. This list of foods is a great guideline for your birds health.