All fresh foods diet??

I've been thinking lately of the possibilities of keeping our birds on an (almost) entirely fresh food diet.
The idea would be to offer a bowl of fresh foods morning and night, including peas, corn, carrot, broccoli, mashed potato, eggs, sprouted seeds, etc. During the day I'd leave a handful of pellets, not much but enough to give them something to eat if they get hungry. As well their pellets I'd leave some food that wouldn't go off quickly. Perhaps a piece of seedy bread or fresh gum leaves??
Does anyone have any idea if a diet like this is doable?
I know their pellets have most of the things they need (I refuse to see it as a be all diet) but I can't help but feel that they'd be better with a fresh food diet.
I'm going to the vet with Rory tomorrow (wing clip and toenail trim) so I'll get the vet to check him over and tell me if it's a dumb idea.

I can't converse intelligently on birds in your part of the world and i mainly deal with new world birds(Amazons),the issue with a all fresh diet is that in the wild they eat a variety of different foods at different times of the year and i would find it hard to match the diversity that they have available. Wild birds also have the option of searching out minerals and food that satisfy what ever nutritional deficiencies that they might have( macaws eating clay containing minerals ). Hopefully the pelleted diet provides the basic and trace nutrients that our fids need and should IMO be 50%-75% of their daily diet.I am not a vet and maybe he could offer better advice ,just my 2 cents worth.

I agree with Henpecked that we do not know enough about what each species is eating in the wild, and that their diet is varied year round. I personally have concerns as to the adequacy of the pelleted diets being touted for all species, but that's the best science can do at the moment. Dog owners who are feeding the BARF diet have similar concerns. However, a carnivore/partial omnivore's diet is easier to duplicate in captivity than foraging parrots from different parts of the world.

Also - from my understanding of cockatiels' natural wild diets, fresh is not what they're eating. I think budgies and cockatiels are dry grass head eaters in the wild. Don't know what the nutritional equivalent would be in captivity. You might also have to give live bugs to duplicate natural diet?

Another thing to consider - If going on a fresh diet as proposed, if something happens to you or you go on vacation, can someone else easily duplicate the diet? If not left specific instructions on what the diet is, if someone in an emergency were to feed them bird seed would they eat it right away in sufficient amounts? You know how birds are. They get used to something and a sudden change can put them off completely to the detriment of their health. In general that's another concern I have about specialty diets and specialty feeding regimens. Most people don't have specific written instructions somewhere or an alternate person trained in the special diet or special feeding regimen. Places like zoos or training centers can do specialized diets and regimens because they have training protocols, written procedures and paid staff to ensure continuity of care.

Thanks for yours thoughts given me some more to think about.
I'm not thinking about it for right now, but in about 6-12 months when the OH moves up to Canberra with the army and I need to have the conures. Dads also told me that he wants me to take his two birds. The conures love their veggies, so I spose it'd be more of a small amount of pellets (to take care of nutrients etc) and two big meals of veggies and legumes.
I think I'd do Similar with our Australian parrots, have some seeds (they're die hard seed junkies) there for when needed and serve up fresh veggies/fruit/nuts/legumes/bugs and always have plenty of fresh gum leaves inside. They love their gum leaves and it leaves a lovely smell in the house.
I'll try and do some more research until times comes for OH to go and I get the conures, because then I'll get to decide what they eat, since OH is far too busy to fit some quick and basic fresh food prep for them in his super busy, unemployed life (just incase you can't tell, there's a huge dose of sarcasm in that sentence. Huge).

patdbunny wrote:

Another thing to consider - If going on a fresh diet as proposed, if something happens to you or you go on vacation, can someone else easily duplicate the diet? If not left specific instructions on what the diet is, if someone in an emergency were to feed them bird seed would they eat it right away in sufficient amounts? You know how birds are. They get used to something and a sudden change can put them off completely to the detriment of their health. In general that's another concern I have about specialty diets and specialty feeding regimens. Most people don't have specific written instructions somewhere or an alternate person trained in the special diet or special feeding regimen. Places like zoos or training centers can do specialized diets and regimens because they have training protocols, written procedures and paid staff to ensure continuity of care.

good call roz, i wouldn't have thought of that

dusty

Roudybush did a lot of experimenting with cockatiel nutrition. Might be a starting point in building your own diet:
http://www.roudybush.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=birdbrain.articles

you could leave pellets in the cage all day so the bird can choose what it wants to eat and feed it fresh stuff at breakfast and dinner time. i know there are some people that do this. i think it would be better to still offer pellets though

coral wrote:

you could leave pellets in the cage all day so the bird can choose what it wants to eat and feed it fresh stuff at breakfast and dinner time. i know there are some people that do this. i think it would be better to still offer pellets though

Do we need a rule - Coral's not allowed on feeding threads?

I'M KIDDING CORAL!!!!
We love you!!!

Coral's suggestion is actually pretty much what I do. Most cages have pellets 24/7, small quantity of seed in the p.m., fresh foods in the a.m. If pairs are feeding babies then they get all three items topped off about twice a day or more.

My impression is that to do adequate research you'd have to get a grant, set up a lab and do it yourself -- we just plain don't know as much about birds as we do about other companion or farm animals. The existing pelleted diets are based on the current best knowledge of what parrots need, but it is one size fits all for the most part and it's got to be imperfect because there just isn't enough research. So my personal feeling is that the best I can do is offer pellets supplemented by fresh foods in as wide a variety as I can manage. In practice, though, I have Scooter picking safflower and millet preferentially out of any dry mix, mostly avoiding any pellets but eating fruits and veggies with great abandon and Scotty eating pellets but refusing most fresh food with the exception of grapes. I can't even achieve my imprefect ideal!