What do you feed your birds?
Their daily diet contains a mixture of pellets from different brands:
- ZUPREEM Natural Pellets for Small Birds
- ZUPREEM Fruitblend Pellets for Small Birds
- HARRISON’S Adult Lifetime Fine
I usually get the ones for small birds as I find the one for medium birds is a little too big for my cockatiels.
They also LOVE the LABEFER Nutri-Berries range, these are the ones they have tried and enjoyed:
- LAFEBER’S Garden Veggie Nutri-Berries
- LAFEBER’S Classic Nutri-Berries for Parakeets
- LAFEBER’S El Paso Nutri-Berries Pet Bird Food
- LAFEBER’S Popcorn Nutri-Berries for Cockatiels
- LAFEBER’S Tropical Fruit Nutri-Berries
As these contain some amount of millet, we give them these occasionally as a treat.
First thing every morning we put out some fresh fruit and veggies (cucumber, carrots, apples) which they enjoy for breakfast. Also, since they would not leave us alone when we eat at home, we have established a habit of letting them have some cooked food (which we usually rinse off salt first) together with us. They really enjoy these “family” meal times and it’s a great way of introducing new foods to them!
Your birds are so cute, I want a bird too!
I have received too many “omg so cute I want one” messages and comments that are frankly very concerning since even the most responsible owners with the best intentions may not realise what a huge undertaking it can be to have a bird as a pet.
While I would never trade my tiels for anything else, I would not recommend them as pets. This is a good summary on the reality of bird ownership. Birds, unlike dogs and cats which have been domesticated for many years, are still very wild in nature, hence they are inherently destructive, messy, and extremely noisy (this cannot be iterated enough, imo). As a result, once the novelty of bird ownership has worn off, many parrots are returned, rehomed, abandoned, neglected, and (sadly in many cases) extremely mistreated by being locked away until they die.
I am fortunately privileged enough to have a supportive partner in this endeavour. Since getting our first bird in 2020, we have made significant lifestyle changes, dedicating much time, energy, patience, and money (for expensive avian vet care — see: Plato’s rehabilitation process), to give my birds the care they deserve. Birds live very long lives and we are committed to keeping ours with us until the end of their little, precious lives.
As I learn more about birds and caring for them, I also begin to feel guilty myself for contributing to the bird economy as I realise that birds should belong to the skies and not at home as pets ???? However, as releasing them would mean almost certain death since they wouldn’t know how to survive independently, the best I can do now is to commit to giving them full and happy lives.
If you really want to have a bird, I’d recommend first to foster one for a while and see if you are able to cope with the demanding nature of these little creatures. They may be small but they have very real feelings and big hearts. Foster, adopt, and rescue.
Here is a comic that illustrates a very sad but real truth of a lot of bird ownership.
How much sleep do your birds get?
We try to give them 12-14 hours sleep every day. We find it helps them settle their hormones. Whenever they get less sleep than that (due to our lifestyle changes), they definitely noticeably get more difficult / aggressive / territorial.
We uncover their cage at 8am every morning and tuck them in a little before sunset around 6pm, however we may leave them uncovered for a couple more hours. The blackout covers really helped us not being screamed awake in the mornings, it was a total game changer.