Tips For Choosing The Best Cockatiel Food
One of the biggest questions current or future cockatiel owners is this: What makes good cockatiel food? As this article will show, there are a variety of safe, nutritional, and healthy treats for your pet cockatiel that will supply them with the energy that all cockatiels have and all cockatiel owners adore. These clever creatures need a particular diet to stay happy and healthy, and by reading this article on cockatiel food, you will be able to give them exactly that.
Let us first discuss the cockatiel in case you are researching about the animal to figure out if you want to get one of your own. A cockatiel is a miniature cockatoo that originates from Australia, but has been exported all over the country. You can most readily identify them by their gray body feathers, yellow heads, and red “cheek” dots. Also, they have a sharp beak and a very alert and cunning look and posture about them. If they receive proper care, quality cockatiel food, and plenty of exercise, then cockatiels can live from 15 to 20 years – and up to 30 years, in a few rare cases!
The first thing to know about cockatiel food is what you prefer to use: seed mix, or fresh food. We will first talk about seed mix. There are specialty cockatiel mixes made just for cockatiels at pet stores. These commercial brands, though, tend to have more fat because they have a large amount of sunflower seeds. One recommended tip is to mix some canary seed with you and mix it in with the cockatiel seed – and not add in any sunflower seeds. Dry seeds will be eaten by cockatiels, but you have to make sure they do not eat just the high-fat seeds like sunflower ones.
To make your cockatiel seed more nutritious, you should sprinkle vitamins over it. Calcium is particularly important for your bird. Also, it may help to actually sprout your bird seed. This kind is often more nutritious than the dry variety. To do this, place some seed between two damp paper towels. If you keep the towels damp, you will see your seeds sprout in a few days. You can then feed it to your cockatiel for the best results. If your seed does not sprout, then there is a good chance it is too old for your bird and needs to be replaced.
If you want to take a different approach and feed your cockatiel “people” food, then you can definitely do that as well. Cockatiels will actually eat human food, such as fresh fruits, vegetables, bits of bread, and pasta. Foods such as apples, berries, corn, dark green lettuce, cooked pasta, wheat bread, pineapple, and broccoli are very nutritious and will give your birds a great supplement to their regular supply of bird seed. Baked potato, pumpkin, and cooked rice are good ideas as well. Just be forewarned that cockatiels are wary of new food and can be quite picky; therefore, you will more than likely have to have patience when using human food as cockatiel food.
In addition to the above, make sure your cockatiel as a steady supply of fresh water. Also, it helps to add supplements of iron and calcium to the drinking water or food to help the bird’s diet. A cockatiel can be picky, but once you introduce a new food, chances are the cockatiel will grow to love it. Changing up your bird’s diet is fine every year or two, and you will have to make some adjustment s if it gets overweight (which is easy for a cockatiel to do), but make sure you do not drastically alter the diet too often. Follow these tips and before you know it, your cockatiel will be a happy, healthy, and beautiful companion for you and your family.
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