Bird Questions

Roudybush Direct

Q: What diet should I feed my (macaw, cockatoo, amazon, cockatiel, etc.)? A: The diet you should use for your bird is usually more dependent on its age and physical condition than it is on its species. For example, most baby birds need to be fed a diet rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals. With few exceptions, Psittacines will grow well when fed our Formula 3 Handfeeding diet. For 1-3 months post weaning, feed one of our Breeder diets to help them get the extra protein, vitamins, and minerals needed during this growth phase. If your bird is overweight, you might want to consider feeding our Low-Fat diet. This condition is more common in Amazon Parrots than it is in most other groups of birds. In general, adult Psittacine birds should be fed Roudybush Maintenance diet. This diet has shown to do an excellent job of maintaining normal adult Psittacines.   Q: How much and how often should I feed my bird? A: The short answer here is that they should have feed available all the time. They will regulate how much they should eat without the need for you to intervene. The exception to this is the time when you are trying to reduce the weight of your bird. In this case some restriction may be needed. You may want to feed your bird only once a day, and then feed only about three quarters to two thirds of the feed it would normally eat in a day.   Q: I am trying to change my bird's diet to Roudybush. How can I tell if he's eating the pellets or just grinding them in his beak? I don't have a scale to weigh him. A: The best way to tell whether a bird is eating a new food, and you can't weigh him, is to examine his droppings. If the droppings have not decreased in volume and have not turned light green, it is likely that the bird is eating the new food. If the droppings turn light green and then over time turn a darker green, your bird is starving and needs access to its familiar food before you try converting him again.   Q: I've noticed that my birds droppings have changed color, consistency, and frequency since I changed him from seed. Is this normal? A: It is normal for a change in diet to result in a change in the color, consistency, and frequency of droppings. You must differentiate between droppings that indicate that your bird is eating our pellets or not eating at all. When birds are converted to Roudybush pellets, they begin to have droppings that are light tan in color with an increase in volume. If the droppings turn light green and then over time turn a dark green, your bird is starving and needs to have access to its familiar food before you try the conversion process again.   Q: What is a squab, and how does nutrition differ for them? A: A squab is an unfledged pigeon or dove. Pigeons and other Columbiformes are a little different from other species of birds. When parents are feeding chicks they produce a substance called “crop milk”. This is a material that is shed directly from the crop walls and is high in fat and protein. The chick’s need for this material decreases over time and eventually disappears. At this time, their nutritional requirements are similar to those of parrots. Our Squab Diet is formulated to replace the “crop milk”, and gradually be replaced by Formula 3.   Q: Should I feed pellets with Lory Diet? A: Lories do very well on the maintenance diet. In fact, feeding this diet with the Lory Nectar will result in drier, easier to clean-up droppings making lories all that much more pleasant to live with. You can also offer the Lory Nectar as a dry powder to further help make the droppings drier.   Q: What size pellets do Lories, pigeons, & doves eat? A: There is some degree of size difference among different species of birds, so these recommendations are generalizations. If you have an unusually small species then pick a smaller size pellet. Also keep in mind that the smaller the size pellet the bird eats, the less waste and the less mess it will make. As a generalization, most species of doves and pigeons do well with the Crumble size pellets. Lories do well on Small pellets, and Lorikeets do well on Mini size pellets.   Q: I do not breed my bird but she lays eggs at the bottom of her cage, what should I feed her? Should I supplement her diet? A: If your bird lays occasional clutches of eggs but does not raise its own chicks the Maintenance diet is sufficient and does not need to be supplemented. If your bird does raise chicks you will want to use one of our Breeder diets. If you have a bird that is a chronic (constant or very frequent) egg-layer or a bird that has a tendency to develop hypocalcaemia (like African Greys) mix 2/3 Maintenance with 1/3 High-Energy Breeder diet to supply the added calcium and vitamin D3 these birds need. If your bird also has a tendency to become overweight mix 2/3 Low-Fat Daily Maintenance with 1/3 Breeder diet to supply the added calcium and vitamin D3 without supplying as high a level of fat.   Q: Can I feed Roudybush to my Eclectus? A: Roudybush diets are safe to feed to your eclectus. In fact there are many eclectuses that thrive on Roudybush. Typically we recommend that your eclectus eat the Low-Fat Maintenance diet. Eclectus appear to be very sensitive to high fat levels in their diet and can appear to have dull or dark coloring when the fat level in their diet is too high.