Cockatoo Feeding: Diet, Portions, and the Ratio Worth Memorizing

A cockatoo's diet comes down to one ratio worth memorizing: pellets make up most of the bowl, and seeds stay in treat territory.

This guide covers five cockatoos and notes where care differs by the size of the bird: the small Goffin's and galah, and the large umbrella, Moluccan and sulphur-crested.

The Staple Diet

Pelleted food should make up 75 to 80% of your cockatoo's daily diet. Fresh vegetables make up most of the remaining 20 to 25%, with fruit a smaller share and seeds a very small part. A simple split to hold in your head is about 75% pellets, 20% vegetables, legumes, grains and fruit, and 5% treats such as seeds and nuts. Dark leafy greens like kale and bok choy, plus carrots, bell peppers, broccoli, squash, and peas all work well. Pale, watery vegetables such as iceberg lettuce and celery add little and can be skipped. Fruit is high in water and natural sugar, so it stays a small share. A few tree nuts (almonds, walnuts or Brazil nuts) work as a treat or training reward and double as enrichment for a bird this intelligent, whose boredom and under-stimulation feed into screaming and feather plucking.

How Much a Cockatoo Eats in a Day

An adult umbrella cockatoo typically eats about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of pellets a day, with fresh vegetables on top. That cup covers everything formulated in the bowl: the pellets plus any pellet-based food such as Lafeber's Nutri-Berries, measured together. Any formulated parrot pellet from an established avian brand does the job, because the ratio matters more than the label. Individual birds vary with size, activity and how much fresh food they get, so the cup figure is a starting point for an umbrella. For any other species, measure the bird's own intake as below.

A cockatoo's daily portion is small, so it is easy to over-portion. Cockatoos also grind pellets to crumbs, which makes a full-looking dish hard to read. To find out how much one bird eats:

1. Measure the pellets that go into the bowl each morning.
2. Next morning, measure what is left, including the larger discarded pieces.
3. Repeat for three to five days and average the amount eaten.

That average is the daily portion, and it is the number to hand a boarding facility or a pet sitter. Pack a margin for waste on top of it.

The Daily Schedule

The same order every day keeps the pellets at the center of the diet:

1. First thing in the morning: the measured pellets go in before any other food, while the bird is at its hungriest.
2. Fresh food: vegetables with a little fruit, in a separate dish, once a day.
3. A couple of hours later: pull whatever fresh food is left, because it spoils if it sits in the cage longer.
4. All day: fresh, clean water. A water bottle gets emptied and refilled every day.
5. Every day: wash the food and water dishes with soap and water.

If a bird fixates on one food, cut the amount of it or drop it for a while so the rest of the bowl gets eaten.

Switching a Seed-Eater to Pellets

Hand-raised babies should be started on pellets. A mature cockatoo raised on seed can be hard to convert, and the switch can take anything from days to months, sometimes more than a year. Do it in this order:

1. Vet check first. Have the bird examined before the diet changes, so you start from a known healthy bird.
2. Weigh every morning before breakfast. Keep a daily weight chart for the whole switch, and learn what the bird's normal droppings look like so you can check them each day.
3. Mix, then shift a little each day. Mix pellets into the seed in the same dish, and replace 5 to 10% more of the seed with pellets each day. If the bird is not eating the pellets, slow down.
4. Know when to stop. A 5% weight loss is acceptable. At 10% of its starting weight, stop and call the vet. Never let a large cockatoo go 24 hours without eating, and ask the vet about a shorter limit for the smaller species. Droppings should never look black, and black or scant droppings are a reason to see the vet.

A slower start also works: three parts seed to one part pellets, stepping down from there, which is the stepped schedule for converting a bird to pellets.

Foods to Avoid

Cockatoos love sunflower seeds and peanuts, and a cockatoo given a seed mix will pick those out and leave the rest. Both are high in fat and short on calcium and vitamin A, so they stay occasional treats. Skip grit or gravel too: cockatoos already hull seeds before swallowing them, and grit can cause a dangerous digestive blockage.

Supplementation

A bird eating a complete pelleted diet at 75 to 80% generally doesn't need additional vitamin or mineral supplements. That formulation is already fortified to cover it. Supplements matter more for a bird still transitioning off an all-seed diet. Make any specific supplement decision, such as extra calcium for an egg-laying hen, with your avian vet instead of adding something as a precaution.

The Mistakes That Matter

A seed-heavy diet is the central feeding mistake with a cockatoo, and it's directly linked to fatty liver disease, obesity, and vitamin A deficiency. Cockatoos are also vulnerable to low dietary calcium, high cholesterol with the artery buildup of atherosclerosis, and egg-binding in hens. These are nutrition problems, so the defense is the bowl itself: pellets at the center, seeds back in treat territory, and the avian vet brought in if the switch away from seed runs into trouble.

High-fat diets are also tied to lipomas, fatty skin tumors that show up often in overweight cockatoos and several other parrot species. Birds that eat their pellets develop them far less. Even on a good base diet, regular calorie-dense treats or an overfed hand-raised baby can still tip a cockatoo toward obesity and the same fatty liver risk, so portion awareness matters even when the food itself is right.

Keep the Ratio, Measure the Bowl

Holding the ratio is the keeper's job, because a cockatoo left to choose will not hold it for itself. Keep pellets at the center of the bowl, measure what gets eaten, and let seeds and nuts stay treats. A bird fed that way is the one that stays clear of fatty liver and the weight problems that come with it.

Sources & Further Reading

Printable Guide

The Cockatoo Care Package puts the feeding section, an owner log and a pet-sitter sheet on paper, in a 49-page PDF you can keep by the cage, $8.99. Includes the Universal Pet Kit free: a routine chart and feeding log you can fill in.

Read the first 6 pages free