Your Birds Health and longevity of life depend on you, the caregiver. Good nutrition is essential to accomplish this. Never feed your bird a diet of just seeds. While birds can survive on a diet of just deeds, this practice is not good and will lead to health problems and cut down on his / her life span. Birds need a variety of foods just as we humans do.

Sometimes birds can be very picky about their food and pick out only the seeds. If you should experience this behavior, my suggestion is to mix the seeds with non colored pellets and add some dried cereal to the mixture.

I have prepared a list of suggested foods to feed your bird. He / she may not eat everything listed, but at least try him /her on them from time to time. Dinner time for you should be dinner time for him / her as well as breakfast time. Birds like to forage for food from sun up till sun down, so try to make his food fun to eat. String Cheerios or put shredded wheat on a kabob skewer and hang it in his/her cage as foraging foods. You can also hang different kinds of fruits and uncooked vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, apple, celery, pears and pea pods.

Any fortified cockatiel mixture / Zupreem natural cockatiel pellets / Harrisons small pellets / Roudybush small pellets.  I Avoid anything that uses ETHOXOQUIN as a preservative. In my opinion I believe that this is bad for your bird and can cause cancerous tumors in them.

*Dry cereal such as Cheerios / plain corn flakes / bite size shredded wheat / Kix (plain) /raisin bran / wheat germ / any of the Chex brand / puffed wheat or rice cereal / any whole grain cereal will do. Be sure to avoid sugar added and sweetened ones.

*Whole wheat or grain breads / corn or bran muffins crumbled up and spead on top of a mixture of scrambled eggs / cooked brown rice / cooked barley / pasta and warmed bag of mixed vegetables (store brand is fine). I feed this for breakfast, but dinner time is fine. For people who don't like to cook, there are commercial brands of beans and rice mixtures that you can just add mixed veggies and scrambled eggs to.

*Cooked whole beans are a good source of vitamins and fiber that will aid in digestion.

You can buy several different one and mix them together or just buy a bag of 16 bean mix.

*Vegetables such as green and yellow squash can also be added cooked or uncooked.

You can leave the skin on or just lightly remove some of the skin.

*Romaine / Red or Green leaf lettuce and Spring salad mix are better for your bird than just plain lettuce. Plain lettuce contains more water and can cause your bird to have diarrhea. Be sure to wash all of your vegetables and greens thoroughly to remove any dirt or debris that may have gotten on them during the handling process. I soak my vegees for at least 20 minutes in a bowl of water.

When microwaving or heating any of your birds foods, stir it up and make sure that it is cool to the touch and there are no hot spots before giving it to your bird. If you feed food that it too hot for him / her it can cause serious and sometimes fatal burns to their mouth, throat, and crop.

Be sure to remove all uneaten fruits, vegetables, and cooked foods after a few hours. These types of foods spoil after a few hours and can contain bacteria that is harmful and make your bird sick or even become fatal to your bird.

*Fresh water is must for the health of your bird. Change it every day during the cooler months and twice a day during the hotter months of the year. Bottled water is a good choice for birds, due to the different levels of bacteria and lead in tap water. Your bird has a very small digestive tract along with much smaller insides in general compared to a human. Tap and well water that can be suitable for human consumption can contain levels of bacteria and organisms as well as metals that are considered exceptable for a human, but can build up in a birds system. Most tap water is fine, but I prefer to give them bottled water instead. I do not recommend using distilled water. It has the ability to leach out important nutrients from the body therefore making it an unwise choice.

Nutritional Supplements

Some supplements are beneficial to your birds health and some are not. It depends on the species of bird, the types of food and the amount that he / she consumes.

Mineral block and cuttle bone both supply calcium and help to keep the beak in check. I only recommend vitamins in the water if you change it 3 times a day. Vitamins in the water tend to cause slime in it.