Offering Cooked Food

Diet Information      Eclectus Food Pyramid      Sprouting     Herbs     Fruit and Veg     Fruit and Veg Nutrition

Frozen and Dried Food    Offering Cooked Food      Edible Flowers    Seeds and Nuts     Pellets     Soy    Food Storage      Safe and Toxic Plants      Eucalyptus      Aloe Vera     Grit      Spirulina      Fussy Eaters   

Home

A lot of people like to offer their birds cooked mash or food made from boiled, steamed, microwaved or baked vegetables, & most birds thoroughly enjoy having this as an evening meal. Cooked mash is not a highly nutritious food. Once the veggies are boiled, microwaved, steamed or cooked in any other way they can lose a lot of their nutritional value, even if they’re steamed lightly. Carrots are an acceptation. You need to cook carrot to release the carotenes. Carrots block cancer and lowers cholesterol. Raw carrot is very high in vitamin A. Parrots who are hormonal or any adult/maturing parrot should not be offered mash. Offering mash can encourage hormonal behaviours as well as destructive and behavioural problems. When they’re breeding they offer each other regurgitated food which is warm and mushy. Offering mash is similar to this so it can cause problems. As an alternative to cooking the veggies you can grate them. This will retain the nutritional value & it won’t be a mash, there will still be the crunch to it. You can also add a cooked egg and shell to it every now and then. You can also make bird friendly fresh food recipes every now and then. Most birds do enjoy this & recipes can be found anywhere on the internet. Cooked food or mash is not a natural food for them and it won’t hurt them to never have it. If you do offer it try and make it on an occasion only and not on a regular basis. Pasta, Bread and Rice (carbohydrates) These foods are very high in carbohydrates so should be fed as an occasional treat. Foods high in carbs also have the same effect as cooked, soft,mushy food in Eclectus Parrots and hormonal behaviour, so try to avoid these foods all together. If you have to offer, only as an occasional treat. Meat, Chicken, Seafood, Egg (animal protein) There is some controversy over fish. Fish contains mercury, both naturally and from pollutants and there are many people who refuse to offer fish for fear of heavy metal poisoning. The largest fish are the ones who contain high levels of mercury. the smaller the fish, the less mercury in them and not ever fish will have mercury. Fish contains high levels of Calcium, vit D, omega 3, phosphorus as well as other minerals, protein, is excellent for the heart (in both parrots and humans) and lowers the blood pressure. These compared to small amounts of mercury in my opinion out way the risks. The mercury content of portions sizes of fish are very slim, we’re talking about a piece of fish, not a whole fish. The bigger the fish, the more mercury content it will have, so go for the small fish when buying them. Crustaceans have the very least mercury content of all seafood and these are perfectly fine to offer your parrot as well. And shop for local fish. Local is usually at it’s freshest and less likely to be contaminated in any way.

These foods are animal proteins. Some parrot species need them more than other. Eclectus Parrots don’t need a great deal of animal proteins and these foods can cause the same hormone behaviours. However, some animal protein is essential for them. In a single adult you can offer a little once a month. In fledging, egg laying, breeding, moulting Eclectus parrots you can offer more as these are the times they require a little more than usual.


All meat, eggs and seafood should be well cooked and have nothing added to them. Pan fry with no oil or boiled.

Harry eating a lamb bone