IndianRingNeck.com

Hi all,

My IRNs are almost 4 months old now (time flies!) and I'm wondering what is the best seed mix to feed them? I have several bags of conure and cockatiel mixes, which work just fine for them (among them is Dr. Harvey's Colossal Cockatiel food). I also give them Harrison's high potency fine pellets. Of course they also get 2 dishes full of fresh veggies every day (1 dish in morning and 1 in evening), so they are definitely not going hungry.

But I'm wondering if I should move them up to a seed mix geared toward larger birds such as African Greys? Ringnecks have pretty large beaks so I'm thinking they might like that better, and mine don't seem to care for many of the smaller seeds that a cockatiel or budgie might enjoy.

Kashi loves safflower seeds (not surprising) and Archimedes loves sunflower seeds. They both like pine nuts as a treat.


My question is, what seed mixes do you feed your birds?

That is some great information. I have a couple bags of seed mix that is mostly smaller seeds for budgies.

I'll continue giving them that mix. I don't let them have too many safflower or sunflower seeds, I know they are high in fat but I didn't know they inhibit calcium uptake.

I make sure they eat at least a handful of pellets per day in addition to their vegetables.

I just bought several bags of hookbill mix, so I'll supplement their smaller seeds with that.

The bird shop where I bought them and get their food doesn't have a machine but they have racks of seed buckets with premixed seeds as well as the option to mix your own, so I'll take your advice and do that as well

Glad it was useful information

If you're looking for more information on Calcium, I've had this page for quite awhile in my bookmarks and its a good reference:

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww22eii.htm

The author explains the balance of calcium and down the page there is a whole table on the various dietary supplements you could provide for your birds.

You'd find what i said in the last paragraph under calcium.

Excellent link, thanks! I'm such a nutrition junky. I love reading about that stuff haha.

I also found the Parrot Food Pyramid, which has some good info as well: http://www.holisticbirds.com/pages/foodpp1002.htm