Food Preparation

Feeding your pet Amazon or other parrots, is a topic all by itself and deserves a page of its own. On Zachary's Amazon Q&A page, we emphasize strongly the many things Amazons need to stay healthy and happy. Each of those things are very important and very much needed for their health and well being. Parrot diet can be more confusing for some, but when you know the facts and have an organized method, feeding your pet bird can be creative, fun, less time consuming than you think; and most of all it's something your bird needs to stay healthy and happy.

This page is our personal way of feeding Zachary and other birds in this household. It has been requested by many viewers that we put them on a page, so that others can get ideas from it. It is by no means the best way to feed all pet birds, as even professionals are yet to fully discover what parrots really eat in the wild. What we feed is close to everything that has been learnt and taught to date by many reputable bird behaviorists, yet it's still our own personal way that is not here to be critiqued. Use what you like, and do your own homework to know the facts yourself, as it is important that you understand and believe in what you're feeding them.

Below is our personal food preparation for Zachary. Our Senegal parrot Sidney, and Lovebird, Kimo, eat the same foods that Zachary does, except in lesser amounts. I will list in detail as best I can - how I prepare them, and what I put in them. We hope that you will find something here than you can use for your bird's diet and care.

All our birds have their first meal at around 9am every morning - which is about 30 minutes after they wake up. Each bird gets a fresh food bowl in the morning and a second bowl at around 3pm.

Preparing fresh food bowls:

These are some of the foods that go into his food bowls:

(Prepared and chopped beforehand), are tupperwares of sugar snap peas (find those with big round peas in them); red seedless grapes, 2" stems of swiss chard & chopped broccolini. (You can vary the vegetables but stick to dark green, red, and high vitamin A vegetables.

Also added into the food bowls are a Rice/Beans/Vegs mix. To prepare this: Boil together in a large pot - Brown rice, mixed beans (soy, red, white etc), a pack of frozen corn, a pack of frozen peas/carrots mix; and chopped fresh broccoli stems. Boil till beans & vegetables are tender. Drain and mix well in mixing bowl(s) like you see above.( I always use soy beans as they contain lots of protein).

Spoon food into tupperwares to last no more than 6 days per tupperware. Refrigerate one, freeze the rest. Thaw as needed the day before use.
Here's little Zachary getting impatient and decided to help himself with the bean mix - straight from the tupperware.

Using the above, spoon some mixed vegetables and fruits into two bowls each for each bird & add a tablespoon or two of the rice/beans/vegs mix. A few times a week we add some nuts and cheese cubes. Make sure nuts are raw and unsalted. We use a combo of almonds, walnuts, macadamias & some nutriberries. Only about 3-4 nuts per bowl & a couple of cubes of cheese (we use Jalapeno Jack).

Result from the above:

This is one example of what Zachary's, Sidney's and Kimo's fresh food bowls look like when prepared in the morning:

One bowl is served in the morning while the other one is refrigerated until served in the afternoon.

The mixed fresh foods above are served twice a day with a small bowl of mixed pellets & some seeds, & fresh clean water.

** Always make sure that there is fresh, clean water in their water bowls all day. ***

Above is what a clean water bowl should look like throughout the day. If the water is soiled with food items or toy parts, rinse it out and give them fresh water - as many times as you need to a day. Cleanliness is the key to good health. And even if it's clean all day, you must give them a fresh bowl of clean drinking water the next day. Feed your birds water that you would drink yourself.

Our birds' dinners are fed at about 6:30pm. We try to do it around the same time that we eat, so that they can see us do so, as birds enjoy eating with their "flock".

Dinner Example #1:

Egg and Bean/Vegetable dinner:

We use two eggs, with crushed shell, beat them well and microwave for 2 minutes on high power. (Or use 1 egg with crushed shell and microwave on high for 1 minute).

We mix 3 Tbsp of the bean/vegetable mix from a tupperware in the fridge (see recipe under daytime food prep), and then spoon them into bowls for Zachary, Sidney and Kimo. We often also include chopped pieces of other vegetables (while preparing our own dinner) to their egg mix.

Dinner Example #2:

Another type of dinner they love is when we make vegetable soup. We spoon the soup and vegetables into their bowls, add brown rice and a protein food of some sort - normally tofu or egg, and occasionally chopped white meat; and serve it to them warm.

When using Tofu, choose the extra firm tofu - it has the least fat. Cut them into squares before serving. Tofu must be stored soaked in water to stay fresh, and in the refrigerator (up to a week). Use filtered drinking water when soaking them - the same quality water you and your birds use to drink. Spoon tofu cubes from the water when serving, leaving the rest soaked until needed. Tofu is good protein that can be added to either daytime fresh food bowls, or dinner meals.

Dinner Example #3:

In a small pot with water, boil some egg noodles, chopped carrots, corn, peas (or use frozen mixed vegetables); very little stock for taste, and any kind of lean protein foods. Boil till noodles and vegetables are tender and serve warm, with some soup (but not too much where it covers their food and they can't see what's underneath).

Our birds only consume the equivalent of about 1/4th or less, of their egg dinner. Although the enjoy it, they don't eat much and we end up discarding most of it. But every little bit they eat makes a big difference and eggs are nutritious for them. Being that they eat very little of it, we have no problems feeding them eggs for dinner often. We also vary their dinners so they are eating lots of other food types/groups as well.

After dinnertime or after we get home from dinner, our birds join us with a fruit dessert, and spend quality time with the whole family. Zachary loves red apples, asian pears, papayas, and mangos.

With proper planning, many of the above dishes (except the chopped fresh vegetables and fruits) can be prepared at one time and then frozen for future use, thus minimizing daily food preparation time. Make it creative and fun for yourself and you bird; bearing in mind that a varied diet filled with healthy, protein and calcium rich, & high vitamin content foods are what they need.

For every dish we serve them (apart from pellets), we make sure that it has these following ingredients:

Complex Carbohydrate

Protein

Calcium

Vitamin A

No/very low salt & sugar

Serving a varied diet using the above as a guideline, will make sure that they get a balanced diet filled with quality foods, that will naturally contain other good vitamins and minerals.

As an occasional treat, you can also make small peanut butter sandwiches with whole wheat bread; & bake them banana bread (use a banana bread mix and add extra fresh bananas before baking).

Add them as a treat in their fresh food bowls.

Also on occasion you can give them cubed melons and papayas. Fruits are high in sugar so limit the amounts. Always make sure that fruits are in good condition when you offer them to your birds.

Whenever possible, give your birds extra (cleaned) greens soaked in some water in a bowl, and place it in their cage. Most birds love eating greens this way.

Birdie Corncake:

To make this cake, use any corncake mix (I use Marie Calendars or Jiffy) and follow the directions (use water or soymilk in place of regular milk); then add pellets of any kind (we use a mix of Zupreem fruit and Scenic) then bake as directed. When done, let cool, then cut into 1" squares. Put them into zip lock bags, refrigerate one for a week's use, and freeze the rest. Thaw as needed.(To vary the above, we also use a Banana Cake mix and follow the same directions and add pellets before baking)

Allow your parrots to share with the family during holiday meals, as few as those come. Serve them only healthy foods, like pumpkin, mashed potatoes, peas, low-fat stuffing, and boiled carrots. Keep all holidays ingredients low in fat, sugar and salt.

For more detailed discussion on Zachary website's opinion of diet, behavioral issues, training and other parrot related matters, visit Zachary's Amazon Forum.