Parrotlet Care

Housing

Like all parrots, parrotlets do best in a large cage. They are very active little birds, and will use almost every inch of available play space. The minimum cage size recommended would be 18 by 18 inches. Suggested bar spacing should be ½ inch, but no larger than 5/8 of an inch.

Your birds cage should be outfitted with a variety of perches and toys. For perches you will want an assortment of textures and sizes. The variety will offer some comfort to those little feet. Our cages often include natural wood perches, rope perches, cholla perches, a swing and a concrete or sandy perch. We also offer our birds a bath dish. I find that most of our parrotlets will bathe daily.

Please be sure as you clean your birds cage, to take a look at the toys and perches too. They will also need to be cleaned occasionally. Changing the perches and toys in your birds castle will provide them with new opportunities and activities.

Please remember, this cage is your parrotlets home. They occasionally will become very protective of their homes as well as the toys and food dishes. Parrotlets are territorial by nature so if your little one is upset or biting when you invade his cage, please be tolerant and patient. He is really just telling you how much he appreciates all his stuff!

Feeding

Parrotlets, like all parrots do best with a healthy diet rich in a variety. Our flock is fed a wide assortment of foods, with an effort to have fresh vegetables daily.

• Vegetables - I try to feed the flock an assortment of fresh raw vegetables every day. However, when those are not available, I will offer a good quality frozen vegetable or dried vegetables in its place.
• Grains and Legumes - These can be offered sprouted, or cooked. We feed them both ways. Some beans must be cooked.
• Sprouted Seed - I like the Dynamo Overnight Soak and Feed seed mix, or the Itty Bitty Birdie Bites Simple Sprouts mix. I also sprout mixes meant for human consumption, they usually contain radish, mustard and other slightly spicy sprout seeds. Feed sprouts just as the tails are showing.
• Bread - Pro Grow or another Birdie Bread. I also make my own breads using organic corn bread mixes, or other flours. Breads are a great way to sneak additional vegetables into the birds diet.
• Seed - I feed the cockatiel seed mix available at The Soaring Spirit in Plymouth. This is the main seed diet, although I often add other seed mixes for variety, such as Volkman's Parrotlet Super, Higgins Safflower Gold Additions, or Dr. Harvey's Cockatiel Mix, or any of the Goldenfeast foods.
• Cooked foods such as pasta, rice or grains. Hard boiled or scrambled eggs are offered occasionally, and are a huge hit. You can also feed any of the available cooked food mixes. Beak Appetit is always gobbled right up here.
• Millet spray
• Higgins Snack Attack Protein 25
• Fruit - Fresh, or dried
• Treats - We occasionally offer various fruit and vegetable sticks or other bird treats
• Pellets - We offer pellets to our birds, however, they are not the main diet for our flock. Many of our birds do not care for them, and as they are eating such a wide variety of other foods, we do not push them. There are some concerns that pellets may not be good for some of the smaller birds such as parrotlets and cockatiels, so I suggest not considering them as an exclusive diet.

And don't forget water. Clean fresh water should be available at all times. As we live in a large city, which adds chemicals to our water, I prefer not to give my birds tap water. I purchase bottled water for our flocks water and bath dishes.

Our flock enjoys sharing our foods with us. For many birds who are hesitant to try new foods, you can often coax them to give it a try by showing them how wonderful it is. They will often try any food they think is yours!

A few hints and suggestions for the single bird owner. Foods like bird breads and soft cooked foods like Beak Appetit can be prepared in advance and frozen in portion size packages. For cooked food you can either freeze portion sizes in an ice cube tray, or you can freeze in a thin sheet so you can break off small amounts as needed. A salad bar can be a source of a small amount of fresh veggies, just be sure to wash them really well prior to feeding. Health Food stores are a place to buy small amounts of seeds and grains.

Please note though, there are some things that should NEVER be fed to a bird, chocolate, alcohol, caffeine, and avocado can be fatal. Although the occasional potato chip or french fry will not hurt your bird, remember that a steady diet of these is not healthy and in the long run will damage your birds health.

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