Bird foods should provide your birds with a source of balanced nutrition. It should consist of food items that your birds will like to eat as well as enjoy eating. The birds’ diet should not cause nutritionally related diseases nor should it cause your bird to become overweight.

     Many of the bird pellet-type diets on the market have been researched and tested by leaders in the bird food marketplace such as Rolf C. Hagen, Kaytee Products, Pretty Bird, Purina and Zupreem.

     We are Martins Aviaries use several of the Rolf C. Hagen foods, such as:

• Tropican Granules -- an extruded granule. It has a greater nutrient density and digestibility than other products on the market.

• High Performance Breeding Diet -- made in three sizes - small granules, parrot sticks for the medium sized parrots and biscuits for the large parrots such as macaws. .

• Life Time Formula -- used for pet birds who are not molting or under any stressful conditions. This diet is lower in protein and calcium than the high performance diet. The natural colors of carrots and alfalfa are used in the granules which adds interest for the birds.

     Martins Aviaries chose Hagen’s Topican diets because they are significantly higher in fat levels than other products on the market. This means the birds do not develop wet, smelly droppings as seen when using other brands.

Birds eat to balance
their energy needs.

     Although Tropican is similar to other diets when comparing protein versus dietary energy, the percentage of protein in Topican diets is different. It has a higher caloric density which means birds eat less of it.

It has been found that  parrots  have more taste buds than chickens. 

     Tropican's ingredients include natural fruit flavors for increased palatability. The flavors  chosen by the majority of the 350 pairs of birds in Hagen's Avicultural Research Institute were natural orange, apple, banana and raspberry extracts. The dehydrated fruit extracts  are dusted and sprayed on the outside of the granule.

     The Tropican Diets contain a larger variety of ingredients such as corn, soybean, wheat, sunflower kernel, peanut meat, and safflower oil. This range of ingredients give the pellet a taste which birds are accustomed to and also improves the nutritional value of the formulation.

     Many bird owners feel that birds should have a variety of food items instead of one uniform formulated diet, so Hagen factors in this theory with their diet. Hagen’s Tropican formulated diets have generous levels of important nutrients which allows it to be diluted by adding up to 20 percent of the formulated diet weight of fruits and vegetables.

     Hagen’s Tropican granules, sticks and biscuits break cleanly and do not explode into fine powder like pellets do. Our parrots are able to hold the piece of food it breaks off and eat it. We have less waste using Tropican diets.

 

     There is a multitude of diets for birds. There are extruded pellets, granules, seed blends, fruit flavored pellets, multi-colored pellets, natural colored pellets, seed and pellet blends, seed with bits of fruits and nuts, and the list goes on. It is important to remember that your bird should receive a wide variety of foods.

     Martins Aviaries uses a combination of Hagen Tropican and fresh produce. We have used Mazuri, Pretty Bird, and Zupreem diets as well, but have found Hagen's Tropican to be best choice for our parrots.  

     When introducing new food to your bird be sure to gradually add the new food to the one the bird is used to eating. If the parrot does not recognize the food in its bowl it may not eat

                

     

The Lories and Lorikeets at Martin's Aviaries are fed a combination of Fulphyl Nectar with Tropican as well as fruits and vegetables.

                Fulphyl Nectar 
 
6% protein; .43% calcium;
87.7% carbohydrates; .5% crude fiber;
1.6% crude fat

contains: sucrose, fructose, isolated soy protein, oat flour, wheat flour, wheat germ, soy flour, soy oil-lecithin, spirulina, dicalcium phosphate, malt extract, soybean lecithin, natural flavoring, beet juice powder, guar gum, psyllium, microcrystalline cellulose, oat brand, bee
pollen, apple pectin, citrus bioflavonoids, bromelain, papaya, chlorophyll, and the following vitamin and mineral blend: tri-calcium phosphate, electrolytic iron,
magnesium oxide, choline bitartrate, inositol, vitamin C, vitamin E acetate, niacinamide, zinc oxide, ferrous fumarate, riboflavin, thiamine HCI, manganese sulfate, vitamin A palmitate, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine HCI, vitamin D, folic acid, potassium iodine, biotin, chromium chloride, vitamin B-2, sodium selenate, sodium moxybdate, vitamin B-12.