Question by Jackie Mellem: Is it safe to feed wild bird food to pet birds?
I found a block of seeds and nuts meant to be hung outside for a wild woodpecker. I have a pet green cheek conure that would love the ingredients and I would like to give it to him as a treat. Is this safe?
Best answer:
Answer by PPPPPP
yes
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2 Responses
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Hannah S Says:
Yes, the seeds found in most mixes made for caged birds are many of the same seeds that are fed to wild birds. The only difference is that most seed intended for feeding caged birds is cleaner (nitrogen flushed), and often coated with vitamins, minerals, and in some cases – food coloring. I’m not sure if the coloring will actually enhance the color of a cardinal…
In general, seeds that are produced for wild birds are less expensive.
For the birds that you listed, there are a variety of foods you can use, including seed, nuts, berries, fruits, jellies and suet. What to feed depends on the species.
Here is a site that you may find helpful:
http://www.wildbird.com/bird-food.html -
Moth Says:
I can’t believe people actually said yes to this question. =/
No, you should not feed wild bird food to parrots. If you wish to give it to him as a treat, it’s..acceptable, although you could probably find better treats out there for him (fresh fruits and vegetables, millet, honey sticks, Nutriberries). Giving it to him as a staple diet instead of pet bird food would kill him eventually, however.
Wild bird food says wild bird food for a reason, not “bird food for every bird yay”. It’s not like they put wild bird food into pet bird food and just rise the prices on it to be greedy or something.
Look on the back of your wild bird food, it should say a little bit of what it contains and the nutritional content of (look for things like Crude Protein….x%, Fat….x%, and such) Look at these values, compare them to your pet bird food.
Wild bird food has an astronomically high fat content compared to pet bird food. It has lower protein values. Why?Wild birds fly a lot. They need to keep themselves warm. Our wild birds have babies, mouths to feed, and don’t get a reliable food source most of the time. The wild bird seed should have a high fat content to help a bird do these things.
Wild birds aren’t depending on the bird seed. They get food from other places too. If they lived on wild bird food solely, they would become weak and thin and drop dead from malnutrition or a disease caused by it. Why is that? Wild bird seed wasn’t meant to be a sole diet- it lacks the key nutrients that a bird needs. The seed companies know that a wild bird won’t be depending on the seed, the seed is just a supplement. Therefore, they don’t need to have all the necessary different types of seed to give all the vitamins a bird needs. All they need to provide is fatty seed, because the bird will get his vitamins somewhere else.
So here’s where pet birds come into play. Our pet birds don’t need to fly from danger- in fact, many of them have their wings clipped. They just don’t get enough exercise to burn off that fat. Our pet birds don’t need to keep themselves warm- inside our homes it’s a cozy temperature. And, if they have babies, they have a reliable food source and don’t need to exhaust themselves looking for the next meal.
Not only are the seeds fatty, but like I mentioned, they don’t contain the right variety of seeds for your bird to get what he needs nutritionally. It’s not a problem for wild birds, since they eat things other than our wild bird seed, but with your bird trapped in a cage he doesn’t have this opportunity.
Not to mention, wild bird seed tends to be of a poorer quality than pet bird seed.
Is it safe? Yes. It won’t kill your conure, unless it’s the only thing you feed him. But is it that good for him? No. I would recommend finding another treat for him- fresh vegetables, millet, Nutriberries, honey sticks…there are better things to feed your bird than fatty, low quality wild bird seed.