Is it Okay to Feed Sunflower Seeds to Parrots

We are often been told to feed sunflower seeds to parrots. The catalog that comes with the bird feeder mentions so. However, if this feeding is limited only to visitor parrots than it is fine to feed them sunflower seeds. But if you are planning to feed these seeds to your pet parrot, you should think about it. Visitor parrots visit once or twice daily for their own measure of feed, and then they also fly and visit other places where they get other foods to eat. But a pet parrot is totally depended on you for the food. And hence he will eat only what you feed him. So if you keep feeding him only sunflower seeds then it may not be good for your pet parrot. Sunflower seeds are actually the seeds in its hull. Three common types that are used in sunflower seeds are linoleic, high oleic and NuSun. Sunflower seeds contain large amounts of carbohydrates and fats. What they lack is the vital nutrients and hence overfeeding the parrots, (here I mean excessive portions of sunflower seeds) only can make the bird overweight and thus will prone to high risk of illness.

 Birds can thus die of heart diseases and liver diseases. Due to lack of vital nutrients, the parrots can also be calcium deficient which would lead to brittle nails and weak bones. Hence you keep your birds healthy, it is important to include calcium rich foods such as small amount of chopped spinach or broccoli. Fresh fruits or a chopped portion of mixed fruits and vegetables such as carrots, apples, guava, can also be a perfect parrot food. This helps the bird to live longer and healthy. Ideal food that your bird feeder should include is mixed portions of bajra (pearl millet), ragi(finger millet), broken rice and sunflower seeds. This way you not only feed parrots but also other small birds such as sparrows.