Good pellet diet for cockatiels? What about a seed diet?

[Tatuana]

Let me preface by saying I have extreme ADHD, OCD tendencies and I maxed out my therapist's chart for anxiety/depression. I say this because it means that whole there are *dozens* of "best cockatiel food and why" pages out there, I *cannot* grasp it and make a decision. I have to talk one on one and get suggestions.

With that out of the way, I have two cockatiels who need a better diet. They're currently on Walmart seed. Yeah...

The first, Giles, is a perch potato if the ripe old age of 20ish years. He's been on seed his entire life and *will not* change. He also hates veggies, fruits, and cuttle bones. As a result his beak is that icky toenail color and flaking. Pretty sure he's overweight as well. I'm looking for a balanced seed diet to keep him as healthy as possible. I've been told that you both should and should not feed cockatiels seed. Trust me, he won't switch.


The second, Bee, I assume is young. We actually adopted him by accident. Giles got out, but came home. Someone saw my missing bird poster two days later and brought me Bee. His owner was never found despite *extensive* looking. So I don't know his history. He's young, a very active flyer, and isn't shy about new things. Veggies are okay. He doesn't eat a ton but will nibble when available. He's obsessed with my rabbit's Timothy hay. He also doesn't use a cuttle bone. I'm assuming that since he's willing to try new things that he would be okay with pellets. I'd like to try some on him and see what he does. He's also impossibly active so I'd like to keep him healthy.


My budget *is* an issue.... Husband is dealing with terminal cancer so my income is strange. I can afford quality if it will last a long time, just not too expensive.


Can anyone help with suggestions for these two dudes? Heck, even if you could just look it up for me I'd be grateful. I literally can't process it!

 

[chickens really]

Well my Cockatiel is 15 and only eats Walmart brand lovebird and Cockatiel feed. He likes a few sprigs of the celery leaves, Apple, watermelon, Lettuce etc. Although this is sparingly because he is picky.
He is totally healthy and happy. Listening to his radio stations of choice. Mean and bites me. Wings are not clipped but he gets out to roam his cage top daily.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

Like you, I'm on a budget and when I first got my first rescue parakeet (he found me...long story) the first thing I did was join several large pet bird forums and I researched, researched, researched.
I've always known I wanted pet parrots and decided to start with parakeets until my son was older. Well, I still have the parakeets but have continued to read and research for when my life slows down enough for bigger more involved birds.
Anyway, Roudybush and ZuPreem are two of the better pelleted foods out there for birds that aren't terribly expensive.
In the size pellet I need (based on bird size) Roudybush is better priced than ZuPreem. I also read that many birds across the parrot family spectrum prefer Roudybush over Zupreem, and given some of the ZuPreem pellet types have artificial colors in them, I decided to try Roudybush and my birds love them. I still feed plain small bird seed from Walmart in some of the food cups and Roudybush pellets in different cups. The birds can choose what they need, when they need it, and they appreciate the variety.
Both have added vitamins, minerals, and extras that seed alone can't supply, but small birds like the act of nibbling on real seeds so I keep regular Walmart seed mix in there for them. Makes my wallet happy too as I don't have to buy much Roudybush and one bag goes a looooong way.

They both come in a variety of bag sizes and different shapes (pellets) and different needs like maintenance and such. They can be found on Amazon, local pet stores like Petsmart, and online pet places like Chewy.
Here's links to Petsmart's pages so you can see what the maintenance product looks like for searching -

Roudybush pellets

ZuPreem

 

[Quailobsessed]

I've spent a lot of time researching absolutely everything I could on diets and what to feed.
I feed all my parrots a veggie mix every morning for breakfast. I just buy the veggies and make a chop that I freeze that lasts for about a month. It's also surprisingly inexpensive.

I then feed my parrots the best pellets I can get (at the moment) for their evening feed. One of the best brands is TOPS, but I can't get it yet, it's only really recently been released here. Though, I understand that pellets can be expensive and most brands aren't any good anyway.

You could instead of pellets feed a top quality seed mix, smaller parrots can have some seeds. However, a supermarket seed diet is no good. You can get small seed mixes for a reasonable-ish price. I feed my small parrots, including cockatiels, pellets because I have galahs that need pellets anyway but a decent seed mix would be okay as long as they're still getting veggies.

I understand that changing a birds diet can be hard, but if you persevere, they'll eventually come through. There is also plenty of resources online about how to change it, I'd be happy to help with that too.

There isn't really a cheap way to own parrots, they're very costly in time and money, but, hopefully this is helpful.

 

[JaeG]

My Nan's cockatiel is nearing 30 years old. He will only eat one brand of supermarket seed. He's perfectly happy and healthy despite his diet. I think their lifespan comes down to good breeding and genetics more than anything else. They have different body shapes as well so one that looks overweight may not be.

I view pellets like I view cat and dog biscuits. They are a highly processed product that shouldn't be relied on exclusively to provide balanced nutrition (despite what the bag says).

You could try sprouting seeds for them - sunflowers, peas, mung beans, wheat, barley, oats, which they love. You can feed it to them as soon as it shows a little root. You may be able to sprout the seed you feed them but it depends on if it has been treated so that it won't sprout. Growing greens for them is easy too (if they'll eat it) and if you grow it from seed it works out to be very inexpensive. You don't need a whole garden, just a few pots of greens will do.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

any seeds will be fine as long as they get exercise as for the color of the beak that could be a sign of liver failure due to fatty liver disease

 

[Quailobsessed]

The problem with supermarket seeds is that they are cheap seeds that have been sitting on a shelf for who knows how long. This leaves them with basically no nutritional value.

 

[Tatuana]

Like you, I'm on a budget and when I first got my first rescue parakeet (he found me...long story) the first thing I did was join several large pet bird forums and I researched, researched, researched.
I've always known I wanted pet parrots and decided to start with parakeets until my son was older. Well, I still have the parakeets but have continued to read and research for when my life slows down enough for bigger more involved birds.
Anyway, Roudybush and ZuPreem are two of the better pelleted foods out there for birds that aren't terribly expensive.
In the size pellet I need (based on bird size) Roudybush is better priced than ZuPreem. I also read that many birds across the parrot family spectrum prefer Roudybush over Zupreem, and given some of the ZuPreem pellet types have artificial colors in them, I decided to try Roudybush and my birds love them. I still feed plain small bird seed from Walmart in some of the food cups and Roudybush pellets in different cups. The birds can choose what they need, when they need it, and they appreciate the variety.
Both have added vitamins, minerals, and extras that seed alone can't supply, but small birds like the act of nibbling on real seeds so I keep regular Walmart seed mix in there for them. Makes my wallet happy too as I don't have to buy much Roudybush and one bag goes a looooong way.

They both come in a variety of bag sizes and different shapes (pellets) and different needs like maintenance and such. They can be found on Amazon, local pet stores like Petsmart, and online pet places like Chewy.
Here's links to Petsmart's pages so you can see what the maintenance product looks like for searching -

Roudybush pellets

ZuPreem

Super duper late reply (mental breakdown - fine now!) But thank you! This little guy also found me. He's super duper active. And now a junk food bird. No interest in veggies now that he's found floor food. So frustrating. So I figure I'll at least get him on healthy seeds while he grubs around on the floor. He's addicted to Timothy hay. He shoves the rabbits out of their litter boxes to eat it... Worrying. (he now has a clipped tail because rabbits drag him around via his tail and broke his feathers. Oops) I'll buy some and see what he enjoys.

 

[Phocyn]

Try Roudybush crumbles. A 44 ounce bag will mix in just fine with seed and can actually eventually replace most of the seed. I throw whole veggies into their cups on top of my bird seed and even my finicky guys came around to it. I usually try to use kale and mixed veggies since they all have their favorites. I've stopped using chop when they refused to eat it. You can offer some boiled egg with the shell still attached. Try different types of eggs. Mine ended up using duck eggs after many, many failed attempts to get them eating chicken eggs.

 

[Pyxis]

There are a lot of brands of pellets that are fine to feed. 'The big ones' would be Zupreem, Roudybush, Harrison's, and TOPS. A lot of them will actually send you free samples if you contact them and ask.

My cockatiel Luna is on Harrison's. We tried TOPS and she would eat it, but she didn't like them very much and basically ground them up and left a lot of uneaten pellet dust in her bowl, wasting a lot. She will also eat Roudybush and Zupreem if they are offered. She prefers Harrison's though, so Harrison's is what she gets.

My older cockatiel Cricket is now finally eating Zupreem after a lot of work. I'm working on getting him to take Harrison's like Luna, just to make it easier, haha.

Both of them started out on a crappy seed diet. Luna, being a baby when I got her, was much easier to switch. Cricket is five and was deeply entrenched in his seed only diet and it took work but we got there. Now I'm trying to find veggies he'll eat because it seems he wasn't offered those, either.

Now, cockatiels CAN have seeds - in fact, they should. Mine do both get seeds daily, but it doesn't make up most of their diet. And I buy seeds that specifically don't contain the high-fat seeds like sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. Instead I only offer those occasionally as a treat.

It's just when the diet is all seeds or mostly seeds that it's a problem.