Consequences of too much food

If there is one act that many of us parrot keepers are guilty of with our birds, it is the daily overfeeding of the flock. It is not an easy habit to avoid considering how important nutrition is to the health and longevity of psittacines. The rationale often is, “Give birds lots of food and they will pick out what they need and never go hungry, hence I am doing the right thing.”

- EB Cravens

High energy parrots like caiques will seldom become overweight

The problem with this is parrots are all different, and they were not all raised with the same eating habits. Furthermore, birds do not eat the same every day. Like dogs and cats, they will fill up heartily one day and nibble lightly the next depending upon needs, desires, weather, season, what is offered, and factors we do not even fathom.

Days when I go out to pull all the bird dishes in our aviaries and find a significant amount of uneaten food left over, it is easy to conclude that the parrots did not like what I offered. Yet a few days ago, the same foods were consumed with gusto. Another explanation could be I had been overfeeding my flock.

Of course most avian creatures eat in fits and starts, gorging one day when they find the right diet items or when weather or appetite or bodily needs tell them to eat more. Then the next day the same birds may cut back, rest up, and consume food frugally, much to the concern of many aviculturists who are prone to monitor closely all ingestion and worry if it slacks off at all.