Should I try to feed my cockatiel fruits and veggies in addition to his bird cereal diet?

Cockatiels will benfit greatly from fruits and veggies! Although your current food may say it is "complete" bear in mind that they use synthetic vitamins to fortify it.

Not all Cockatiels like fresh fruit and veggies, but you can try cutting up some dried fruits and veggies such as raisins, dates, dried cherries, ect. Cut them up into small pieces, as most Cockatiels will not try ro bite chunks off of a huge piece of dried fruit.

For a great article on adding fruits and veggies to your bird's diet, go to the Yahoo group helloeberybirdie. This group has very experienced and friendly people, and a wealth of information!

Good luck!

Birds should be on a 60% pellet diet 30% fresh fruits and veggies and 10% Seed. If you do a search on google for bird nutrition you'll find that a pellet diet while good is NOT well balanced. You can also feed fresh or dried herbs. In the wild birds self medicate with herbs.

Seeds, cereal and fruits are all good for your tiels. I feed mine grapes, a small piece of orange, broccoli, a little celery top, apple.

Some of the things mine love best are cooked grits, boiled egg or scrambled egg and their all time favorite is dry corn flakes or cheerios. Thry love vanilla wafers, but I don't give them much because of the sugar content.

Also be careful with the greens, like celery tops, too much of that will make for runny poop.

I feed my birds some of almost everything I eat and the last Cockatiel that died here was 29 years old (normal life span for a tiel is around 20), so I know I didn't give him anything that hurt him. I have heard that raw potatoes and Cinnamon were definite NO NOs for birds. I won't try them to find out.

PS: Apple seeds contain Cyanide and are poisonous to EVERYTHING including humans, but a human would have to eat hundreds of them to die from them. Our horses eat apples right off the tree, but it would take thousands to kill one horse. They usually eat 4 or 5 and walk away to graze.

I'd make sure my birds didn't get the seeds though.

Yes you should, but depending on how long your bird has been eating only seed depends on how long it is going to take to get him to try new things. My vet said that better than seeds actually is pellets, and the way to introduce new foods to to make a mixture of the things that they like with new things, for example for my bird i mixed his seed with mashed potatoes so that if he wanted the seed, he also had to try something new. He ended up really liking pasta, potatoes and corn on the cob. As far as vegetables go, corn is good for them and it also doubles as a toy and a treat. Take it slowly introducing him to new things so that you dont stress him out but you should definatly try it because no matter what the package says, seeds have a very high fat content ( sunflower seeds especially) and being an inside bird, he wont burn off that fat as fast as a wild bird. Everywhere i have read about birds have said that you need to supplement their diet with healthier things to prevent them from becoming a seed junkie.

Shore! Its all ways good to give your pets fruits and veggies "fresh" so try something like an apple without the peel no carrots that's just asking for gooey poop. And bananas are great also let them nibble on the inside of the peel!

Hope I helped :)

absolutely, but apple seeds are poisonous to birds, as well as avocados and chocolate. Peanuts are very fatty, they can eat them just in moderation. the healthiest would be canteloupe, fresh veggies. Also try giving them bones from meat that you're done eating....I have four birds and if i have bare bones left on my plate my birds go crazy for it! they crack it open and eat the marrow its good for them (a little messy tho)

yes! It gives the bird a well-balanced diet. I had a bird come to my school and do a presentation on his exotic birds and he said that most owners only give it the cereal that they buy at stores and the bird's personality changed (more lethargic) and it's feathers became more dull.

You should big time feed him fruits and veggies even if the bird food says it has them in them.Its best to feed him fresh fruits and veggies its good for him.

Even a pellet only diet can lead to problems.

May I suggest Beak Apitit. My budgies had the same

problem and they devour every last bit.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod_Display...

definitely!! in the wild thats wat they eat! they love it. my tiels love little pieces of apples and oranges, and right now they even like lettuce!! sometimes as a treat (like once a week maybe) i give em a little bread and crackers.