Which formula should I feed my bird?

Why not seeds?

These formulas have been very carefully calculated and created by avian nutritionists and avian veterinarians. Ingredients and ingredient amounts are chosen based solely on the intentions of balancing out a formulation that will yield excellent results.

The difficultly with seed is that it is incomplete with everything the bird needs in a diet. This proves to be bad if parrots are given a seed only diet as seeds are often high in fat. Usually what birds do is that they pick out exactly what they like (the fatty seed) and leave what they don’t want behind. With high fats and over-eating accompanied by the deficient vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, birds fed on a seed only diet will not develop and grow as they should. Formulated diets are also 100% edible and no wastage which is a great advantage over seed as seed has about 40% wastage (ie, shells).

If you make chop, sprout your own seeds, grow your own veggies, and feed all these to your birds, your parrot will not starve. But if they pick and choose what they eat, they may not get the full range of nutrients they require. Pet parrots also do not exercise as much as they would if they lived in the wild. All of mine are flighted, yet they choose to walk everywhere. I too am capable of running, but choose not to - it's too much work! And because of that I can't have my McDonald's Kiwi Burger every day of the week, even though technically it has all the 'good foods' - meat, bread, egg, and beetroot! Seeds are McDonald's for birds. It's not the seeds themselves, but how they're delivered and eaten, and the high fat content. Pellets are made from seeds but they're formulated and combined in such a way that your bird gets all the nutrition at the same time as the seed taste they enjoy. 

Parrots that are not lorikeets

The options we have for parrots are Harrison's, TOP's, and Vetafarm. See bottom of this page for Lorikeet options.

Harrison’s Bird Foods is a family of formulated diets that were created by avian veterinarians and nutritionists with the health of your bird in mind. These products require little or no supplementation. Harrison's Bird Foods are manufactured in the USA - click here to read more about these products.

Please refer to the chart below to identify the best Harrison's formulation for your bird. Feeding charts are intended as general recommendation. All birds switching to Harrison’s should start out and remain on High Potency for a period of at least eight months. Some birds may then switch to Adult Lifetime, but most birds can remain on High Potency indefinitely.

General Feeding Amounts:

• to help reduce waste, feed as distinct meals.
• birds may eat all they want, but use the tables below as a guideline.
• feed fresh food daily (discard uneaten food), do not “top off”.

Coarse (bigger birds):

Fine (medium birds):

Super Fine (small birds): Super Fine is not available in New Zealand, but you may want to use Fine or Mash depending on your bird's preference.

TOP's pellets are cold-pressed from natural ingredients and are not supplemented with anything else - the vitamins and minerals come from the raw ingredients that are added to the pellet. They recommend supplementing with at least 40% of fruit and vegetables.

Vetafarm are another pellet manufacturer, their pellets often come with fruit and nut pieces in the mix. These are fortified with vitamins and minerals, just like Harrison's. They also produce specialist mixes such as those for South American parrots (conures), Eclectus, and Canaries.

Nectar-eating birds (lorikeets)

For nectar-eating birds, such as lories and lorikeets, we stock Nekton-Lori and Vetafarm.

While Harrison's can be made into a wet mix for nectar-eaters (with addition of mānuka honey or glucose syrup), it takes a lot more effort to do that than the already formulated Nekton-Lori that just needs addition of water.

Vetafarm also produce a couple of lorikeet mixes - Forest Fusion and Wild Earth, which are lower in sugar.