What Do Parakeets Eat? (Complete List of Foods)

If you’ve ever wondered about the ideal diet for your adorable parakeet, you’re in the right place.

In this article, we’re diving straight into the question: What do parakeets eat?

I’ll walk you through a complete list of foods that will keep your feathered friend healthy, happy, and chirping away.

Let’s explore the colorful world of parakeet nutrition together!

What Do Parakeets Eat?

Parakeets have specific dietary needs to maintain their health and vibrant personalities.

A well-balanced diet is crucial to their overall well-being.

A mix of commercial parakeet pellets, fresh vegetables, and fruits forms the foundation of their nutrition.

Dark leafy greens, cooked grains, and sprouted seeds provide variety and essential nutrients.

Additionally, mineral supplements, clean water, and a limited amount of seeds round out their dietary requirements.

Avoiding toxic foods is equally important.

This article provides a comprehensive guide to what parakeets eat, ensuring that your feathered companions receive the best possible care.

What Fruits Can Parakeets Eat?

parakeet eating fruit

Parakeets love eating fresh fruits and you can feed them with fruits to keep them stay healthy and hydrated throughout the day.

You need to make sure that the fruit that you are giving to your parakeet is clean and safe from any unhygienic conditions.

This is important to avoid any problems or imbalances digestive system of a parakeet that can be harmful to its health.

Always consider buying food items from trusted stores or markets as they are organic and pure from any pesticides or extra ingredients.

Don’t give too much fruit to a parakeet regularly as a high quantity of sugar values and other minerals present in the fruits can greatly affect the health of your bird.

Some Safe and Healthy Fruits for your Parakeet are,

What Nuts Can Parakeets Eat?

You can give nuts to your parakeet.

Nuts are healthy for parakeets because they have healthy antioxidants and omega-3 fatty acids.

You can’t compare the consumption and effects of food items on the body of a human being with a parakeet as they are very small and fragile.

Nuts don’t include any poisonous toxins or any other ingredient that can prove to be harmful to a parakeet to consume.

parakeet eating nuts

Some Types of Nuts that you can give to Parakeets are:

  • Walnuts
  • Pistachios
  • Almonds
  • Pecans

What Type of Seeds Can Parakeets Eat?

Seeds are the most common diet of a parakeet and all pet owners are recommended to give seeds to their parakeets as they are not harmful in any way to the health of a parakeet.

Seeds are small in size and easy to nibble on, which is why parakeets can easily consume them.

They don’t have enough vitamins, minerals, but they can give enough strength to your parakeet to stay healthy and doesn’t feel hungry.

You should keep this in mind while feeding parakeets with seeds, they are not the only ideal choice.

And you shouldn’t be feeding seeds to them on a regular basis as your parakeet can begin to suffer from vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

parakeets eating seeds

So some of the safe seeds as recommended by experts to give to your parakeets are,

  • Millet Seeds
  • Safflower Seeds
  • Sunflower Seeds
  • Canary Seeds

Can Parakeets Eat Pellets?

Yes, Pellets are also good for parakeets as they can easily eat them as well as digest them.

Pellets can be put into the feeder of your parakeet so that they can nibble on them all day slowly whenever they want to in case they feel hungry.

While they have their advantages, assisting parakeets with remaining satisfied with practically no exertion for your sake, they likewise have downsides.

Most pellets are made of grains, so you must know that they don’t make up for different things you need to take care of for your parakeets.

Parakeets need a new diet like seeds, nuts, and vegetables consistently, regardless of whether in limited quantities.

In this way, while pellets are a decent alternative for when you’re away from home, they aren’t so nutritious, so you shouldn’t intensely depend on them.

What Vegetables Can Parakeets Eat?

Fresh vegetables always provide good health benefits to parakeets.

Parakeets can eat any vegetables that don’t include seeds.

You can feed carrots and pumpkin to your parakeet without worrying about getting your parakeet sick if you are keeping the moderate quantity for him.

The vegetables are safe as they don’t contain too much sugar quantity that can be harmful to parakeet’s health.

Leafy greens are the best kind of veggies for parakeets if they are purified from any pesticides.

parakeets eating carrots

Consider feeding vegetables in moderation because most of them have large water content present in them and your parakeet may get loose motion or its stomach upset after too much consumption.

Some safe vegetables that you can offer to your parakeet are,

  • Squash
  • Asparagus
  • Pumpkin
  • Broccoli
  • Carrots
  • Zucchini
  • Beets

What Treats Do Parakeets Like?

parakeet peanut butter

Treats can include any food items that provide good health benefits to a parakeet such as fruits, grains, or fresh vegetables, and sometimes any sweet food item too.

Parakeets will go off the deep end about natural products, for instance, and since natural products ought to never make up more than 5-10% of their everyday diet, you can utilize them as treats.

Parakeets Favorite Treats

Following is the list of treats that you can give to your parakeet to make him happy.

Make sure you give them to your parakeet only in moderation.

  • Peanut Butter
  • Chilies
  • Coconut
  • Meat
  • Scrambled eggs
  • Toast
  • White rice
  • Beans
  • Boiled egg
  • Bread
  • Cake
  • Parsley
  • Pasta

Birds in aviaries are probably not going to be offered a lot of human food.

Nonetheless, with our pet birds, we regularly give them a portion of our own.

In the present circumstance presence of mind should direct you.

In any case, much as babies can glut themselves debilitated on junk food, parakeets can also enjoy that food a little bit.

A limited quantity of food varieties will not damage a pet bird.

An excessive amount of treatment can affect the liver, kidneys, and different organs.

To exacerbate the situation, most treats are too high in sugar and furthermore contain such a large number of seeds that remained together that can prove to be harmful to parakeets.

That is the reason they must be offered just a single time in some time.

To put it plainly, organic product is the most ideal sort of treat you can give parakeets and you can utilize them to help show your birds how to talk.

How Many Seeds Should You Feed a Parakeet?

You can feed around 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of seeds to a small parakeet and 1 full tablespoon for full-size parakeets.

The parakeets don’t usually eat more than 1.5 to 2 teaspoons of seeds in a whole day.

Do Parakeets Eat Flowers?

Yes, Parakeets love to blossom and flowers and they are safe for them to consume.

You can find wild parakeet-eating flowers like African violets, bottlebrushes, carnations, aster, daisies, gardenias, lilac, roses, sunflowers, violets, etc.

If you are thinking to feed your parakeet with flowers, then don’t consider getting flowers from any florists or commercial outlets as they have chemicals sprayed on them to keep them protected from unwanted bugs or pesticides.

How Often Can Parakeets Eat?

A full-grown and healthy parakeet normally feeds two times a day.

You can train your pet parakeet to eat the food you like according to the time of your choice.

You can consider giving it a meal in the morning and then the next meal in the evening.

You should know that no matter when you feed your parakeet with a meal, you should always provide him with clean and fresh water so that he stays hydrated and active all day.

What Do Parakeets Drink?

Parakeets can only drink water.

They can also drink other liquids but they are not recommended for any pet owners to give to their parakeets.

Any drink like soda, beer, or any other liquid that contains high sugar quantity or alcoholic substances is very harmful to a parakeet and it can even take the life of a parakeet.

Any drink other than water is very dangerous for your parakeet so don’t mess your mind up in getting alternative thoughts than water.

You are responsible to keep the water bowl of the parakeet clean and filled with pure water every day.

Make sure you refresh the water once a day by disposing of the existing water every night.

Try to use bottled water that is more safe and clean as compared to tap water has more chlorine and it can be harmful to parakeet’s health.

What Do Baby Parakeets Eat?

The baby parakeets are only fed by their parents.

You can let your parakeet feed its babies because hand-feeding a baby parakeet is a very tricky and difficult task to do by a human.

You will need proper guidance and experience before trying to hand-feed a baby parakeet otherwise you might mess up things badly.

Normally the baby parakeets are hand-fed with the help of a syringe or a teaspoon that is bent to an angle at the sides to resemble a beak of a parakeet.

It is for your knowledge that you won’t be able to get a baby parakeet from conscientious breeders as you would need some experience first in dealing with parakeets and baby parakeets.

How to Feed a Parakeet?

Parakeets are little birds, so cutting everything into small pieces will make it simpler for them to eat.

Since you understand what parakeets should eat, you can take care of your parakeets accurately.

All food varieties, regardless of the event that they’re seeds or new products of the soil, ought to be estimated according to your bird.

feeding watermelon to parakeet

In case you need to add another food to your parakeets’ eating routine, you should initially do your examination and see whether it is totally protected.

Inquire as to whether you don’t appear to discover this data on the web.

Pellets ought to be utilized as the principal kind of food, yet you can offer your pet birds seeds every so often and in limited quantities.

Feeding Fruits and Vegetables to Parakeets

Since these are significant as they contain heaps of nutrients and minerals, you’ll need to give a valiant effort at persuading your parakeet pair that they’re worth the effort.

Test out whatever amount of the food is safe as could be expected under the circumstances and figure out that your bird may not like that food sometimes.

Your budgies’ feeder and waterer ought to be kept as perfect as could be expected, so ensure you keep a responsibility to purify and recycle the water consistently.

Most Toxic Foods for Parakeets

Parakeets can have many bad health effects when they consume toxic food or any food that is not fit for their appetite.

This includes a list of the foods that we mentioned below.

1. Onion and Garlic

Onion and Garlic

Onions and garlic consist of thiosulphate which is very much bad and toxic for birds.

Ingestion of these food items can cause hemolytic anemia in which red blood cells of a bird’s body burst.

It can also cause gastroenteritis or inflammation in the intestines or stomach.

2. Fruit Seeds

While fruits are delicious and very healthy for parakeets, the seeds present in them are exactly very harmful to them as well.

For example, apples and oranges are very healthy in nutritional value for a parakeet to be fed on, but the seeds present in them can be harmful to parakeet as they can’t digest them and this can lead to bigger health issues.

The seeds contain cyanide which is bad for the stomach and you should consider always removing them first prior to feeding the parakeet.

3. Chocolate

Chocolate

As it is told that too much chocolate can be bad for the health of a human baby, it’s the same condition for parakeets but the difference is, even a little quantity of chocolate is not suitable for your little bird.

Chocolate consists of theobromine and caffeine that causes hyperactivity including tremors and they can also increase the heart rate of your bird, possibly seizures, and even death can occur for your parakeet.

Even if you think about giving a little quantity of chocolate to your parakeet then remember that the darker chocolate which has a more bitter taste is more toxic for a parakeet.

4. Avocado

Avocado

Avocado consists of persin which is a fungicidal toxin.

Such properties are not very good for the health of a bird and for small birds like parakeets, it can be life-taking dangerous.

The persin specifically damages the heart of living organisms and causes respiratory difficulties including weakness in a parakeet leading to its death.

5. High-Fat, High-Sodium, High-Sugar Foods

A rich quantity of fat present in any substance can cause great health issues for a parakeet.

Any food item having a high sugar volume or sodium quantity can badly affect the health of a parakeet.

Too much salt can lead to an upset stomach in a parakeet with electrolyte and fluid balance.

It can also cause the bird to get extremely thirsty or dehydrated.

Sometimes it can also cause death or kidney failure for a parakeet.

Conclusion

In conclusion, understanding the dietary needs of parakeets is key to nurturing their health and happiness.

By offering a diverse range of foods, from nutrient-rich pellets to fresh vegetables and fruits, we provide them with a well-rounded and balanced diet.

Remembering to include options like sprouted seeds, cooked grains, and mineral supplements ensures they receive essential nutrients for optimal well-being.

As responsible caretakers, it’s our duty to provide clean water, limit seeds, and steer clear of harmful foods.

By following this complete list of foods and guidelines, we embark on a journey to provide the best care for our beloved parakeets, contributing to their joyful lives and vibrant plumage.

FAQ

What should I feed my parakeet?

Parakeets should have a well-balanced diet that includes commercial parakeet pellets, fresh vegetables, and fruits. These provide essential nutrients for their health.

Can I feed my parakeet only seeds?

While seeds are a favorite treat, they shouldn’t constitute the main diet. A seed-only diet lacks necessary nutrients and can lead to health issues.

How often should I offer fresh vegetables and fruits?

Aim to offer fresh vegetables and fruits daily or every other day. Ensure they’re washed, chopped into small pieces, and free of any harmful pesticides.

What types of vegetables are safe for parakeets?

Safe vegetables include carrots, spinach, kale, broccoli, bell peppers, and dark leafy greens like lettuce. These provide vitamins and minerals.

Can parakeets eat fruits?

Yes, parakeets can eat fruits like apples, pears, berries, and melons. Remove any seeds as some can be toxic.

How do I introduce new foods to my parakeet's diet?

Introduce new foods gradually to avoid upsetting their digestive system. Start with small portions and monitor their response.

Can I give my parakeet cooked grains?

Yes, cooked grains like quinoa, rice, and whole wheat pasta can be given occasionally as a source of carbohydrates.

Last Updated on August 17, 2023 by Lily Aldrin

About Lily Aldrin

I am Lily Aldrin. I attended Cornell University, where I obtained my degree to become an Ornithologist so I could pursue my love of these magnificent creatures in and out of their natural habitats.

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