Quaker Parakeet Feeding: Seventy Percent Pellets, a Small Handful a Day, and the Seed Diet Behind the Fatty Liver

A quaker parakeet is a smart, greedy, selective eater that will build its own diet out of the fattiest items in any mix it is offered, and the disease the species is best known for follows directly from that. Here is the diet that prevents it: the pellet floor, the produce share, the portion, the foods that never go in, and how to move a seed bird over.

How Much, and What Share of It

The portion is a small handful a day, which for a bird this size is the equivalent of a dinner-plate serving for a person. Put it out fresh each morning, pull the produce after a couple of hours or sooner in a warm room, and keep fresh water available at all times in a dish washed daily with soap and water.

What Quaker Parakeets Eat

Pellets, as the base. A nutritionally balanced pelleted diet is at least 70 percent of what the bird eats, and a bird on that much pellet generally needs no supplement at all, with the one exception of calcium for a hen that is laying. The bird pellet conversion guide covers moving a seed-raised bird over without starving it, which for a stubborn quaker can take weeks.

Produce, the rest. Dark leafy greens, broccoli, carrot, squash, peppers and sweet potato, washed and chopped, with fruit kept to the small end of the range for its sugar and water. Pale, watery vegetables such as iceberg lettuce and celery fill the crop and carry nothing.

Seed, barely. Commercial seed mixes are high in fat and short on nutrients, and a quaker selects the worst of them. A pinch as a training reward is the whole role of seed in this diet.

Table food, a little. A small amount of lean cooked meat, fish, cooked egg or a little cheese is fine now and then. Cookies, crackers, bread, chips and pasta are not: frequent processed food leads to the same fatty liver a seed diet does.

Foods to Avoid

Avocado and onion, which are toxic. Chocolate, caffeine in any form, and alcohol. Processed and salted food. Grit, which is controversial for a bird that shells its seed and which a quaker will overeat. And the seed mix as a meal, which is not a poison and is the cause of the disease below.

The Disease That Comes From the Dish

Fatty liver disease, hepatic lipidosis, is the quaker's signature illness, associated with a high-fat diet and a seed-based one above all. It builds quietly over years and can end in cirrhosis or fibrosis of the liver. The signs a keeper sees are wet, mushy droppings, urates stained yellow or green where they should be white, more thirst, regurgitation, labored breathing, or a swollen, puffy abdomen, and the bird droppings guide covers reading the urate color that is often the first of them. The prevention is the table above, and the earlier a quaker moves onto pellets the more of its 30-year lifespan it keeps.

Why Quaker Parakeets Stop Eating

It does not recognize the food. A seed-raised bird given a bowl of pellets may go hungry beside it, which is why a conversion is gradual and weighed. A quaker can starve in front of a full dish.

It is sick. A bird that sits fluffed, sleeps by day, or has the dropping changes above has stopped eating because it is ill, and the quaker health guide has the same-day signs. Birds hide illness until it is advanced.

It is stressed. A new cage, a new person, a lost mate, or a nest it is being kept from building. A quaker that is upset stops eating and starts plucking, often together.

It is hormonal. A hen coming into lay eats differently, and needs the calcium the pellet does not fully cover.

It is hot. A bird panting in a warm room stops eating until the room cools.

When to Worry

A day. A quaker weighs around a hundred grams and burns its reserve fast, so a bird that has not eaten since morning, or that is fluffed and quiet beside its dish, sees an avian vet the same day rather than being watched overnight. The bird emergency plan guide covers keeping a small parrot warm and fed on the way.

Seventy percent pellets, a chopped vegetable, a pinch of seed as a reward, and a small handful in total. It is the diet that keeps a quaker out of the vet's fatty-liver column, and the bird will argue with every part of it.

Sources & Further Reading