What food should I give to African gray parrot?

Question

Which feed is suitable for an African gray parrot. Also mention name of that feed and other edible foods for parrot if that specific feed is not available.

Answer 1

The Old Train of Thought

We are slowly but steadily making progress on diets for our captive parrots, the old train of thought was comparing parrots to chickens in the sense of only feeding them seeds and nuts. This has led to many many health issues such as fatty liver disease, heart disease, vitamin/mineral deficits, egg binding and more..

Pellets, pellets, pellets!

We have a few wonderful companies who dedicate their time to studying parrots and creating diets that meet their nutritional requirements. It is important that parrots get some pellets as a daily staple, these pellets contain essential vitamins, minerals, proteins, sugars and carbohydrates to keep a parrot happy and healthy.

A few reputable brands:

• Harrisons Adult Lifetime
• Zupreem Naturals
• Roudybush
• Lafebers

Fruits & vegetables are a must!

It is ideal that a parrot gets a large variety of fresh vegetables and some fruit, the more variety the better! A parrot can survive on pellets alone (with the exception of some species) however they will thrive with added fruits and vegetables.

A few good choices of vegetables/fruits to buy:

• Kale
• Bok Choy
• Broccoli
• Parsley
• Chili Peppers (parrots are not affected by spice)
• Squash (Zucchini, butternut, spaghetti)
• Peas
• Sweet peppers
• Carrots
• Cranberries
• Blueberries
• Bananas
• Ground flax seed (Omega 3)

Source 1 Source 2

Answer 2

We have a 25 year old Grey . They are omnivores, they eat a wide variety.In addition to standard commercial food we give her some fresh fruit and vegetable each day. One of her favorites is the end of a bell pepper with the seeds . Another favorite is chicken leg bones although she likes any meat bone where she can get marrow. She loves nuts but we limit those to a couple per day. She likes any breakfast cereal with milk also ice cream. Probably a better question is "what shouldn't" I feed them ? My wife believes tomato and chocolate are bad.