For anyone that doesn’t know me – I’m an animal lover. I’d own an entire farm if left to my own devices. Having said that, I think it’s perfectly logical that I own a “mini” farm right here at my place.
Part of my “mini” farm is comprised of four cute, wee parrotlets. From top left, going clockwise, they are as follows: Pickle – my standard male, Mia – my dilute blue hen (American White), Mya – my dilute yellow (American Yellow) hen, and Taka – my blue male.
My Four Parrotlets
Well, somebody I know, (cough, coughy, Mya) decides she feels like popping out some blank eggs. OK. No problem. If that’s what you like to do, you go for it girl. (Lol). The only problem was, about three eggs into the clutch, somebody (I’m not going to mention any names, cough Mya) decides she’s going to keep an egg inside their little birdie body and become egg-bound.
All joking aside, it wasn’t Mya’s fault. In fact, it most certainly was mine.
My preference has always been to feed my birds pellets. Various breeders, as well as several internet sites, have advised not to feed mutation parrotlets pellets, as it can cause kidney failure. I’ve listened. I’ve fed them seeds. I’ve fed them fresh fruit and vegetables. But I’ve never been comfortable feeding them that much seed. My avian vet is telling me that it’s OK to feed them around 80% high grade pellets, and about 20% seeds. Now, I know there are also other avian vets out there that caution against any seeds for any parrotlet that is even split to a mutation. As you can see, all my parrotlets are mutations, even the little split to blue standard male. What a decision!
The good news is that I left poor little Mya overnight at the vet’s, and the next day, she was ready to come home after passing the egg (yey!). I went home and started switching her over to pellets, with more success than I thought I’d have, to tell you the truth.
I have Mya and Mia in a breeder cage with a divider, so Mia has full access to see exactly what Mya’s eating. A few days later, I began to switch Mia over as well, and within a day, she was eating the pellets as well. Next goal: switch over my remaining two parrotlets, and after that, the four lineolated parakeets.
I must admit, it’ll be cheaper in the long run. While parrots will always kick food around, there’s going to be less wastage from seed hulls as there was before. My two parrotlet hens, as well as my two linnie hens, will be better equipped during egg laying to handle the calcium depletion which naturally occurs; that translates into less chance of egg-binding which is always a good thing.
My lingering concern is that my vet could be slightly wrong, and giving my babies pellets will shorten their lifespans, not to mention run up extremely high vet bills.
If you were me, what would you do? Any suggestions?
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