The food tools
Bird nutrition, one plain answer at a time
What share of each food, what your bird really eats, what is safe, and how to change a diet without harm.
Daily diet guide
The share of pellets, vegetables, fruit, and seeds and nuts for your bird’s species group, or a plain statement that no share has been published.
- About shares, never grams
- Means what your bird actually eats, not what is in the bowl
- Your avian vet may set a different mix
Mix check
On the Daily diet guide screen. Move three sliders, pellets, fresh food and seed, to your bird’s rough mix today. They always add up to 100. A guess is fine.
- Compared with the guide in plain words
- No score and no number back
- A rough look, not a diagnosis
Fresh mix
Build and save a chopped mix for each bird, picking only from the foods on the safe list.
- Leafy greens, vegetables, fruit, and cooked grains and legumes
- Plain notes on how the mix leans
- Always an addition, never a complete diet
Seed to pellets
A slow switch in steps, with weight and droppings checks and a plain answer after each one.
- Five steps of about two weeks each
- Keep going, hold, go back a step, or stop
- Never starves a bird into eating pellets
Is it safe for my bird?
168 foods, plants, home hazards and medicines from avian and veterinary sources. You get a verdict, why, and what to do about it.
- Works offline
- Understands everyday names as well as formal ones
- If it is not listed, that is not a yes
Signs linked to diet
Signs an owner can spot, who is most at risk, and what to do, always with the avian vet in the path. Species-specific needs sit beside them.
- Signs to raise with your vet, not a diagnosis
- Tailored to your bird’s species
- Hard breathing and a swollen belly go straight to emergency
The diet guide
A daily diet guide by species group
Open it and you see your own bird’s group. Where no one has published a share, the app says that plainly. The background is in our guide to what parrots eat.
Budgies, cockatiels and lovebirds
The Merck Veterinary Manual names these birds: about 40 to 50% pellets, a measured 30 to 40% seed mix, 10 to 15% vegetables and 5 to 10% fruit. The app adds Merck’s warning that even half seed and half pellets can fall short of vitamin A if portions are not controlled.
Amazons, African greys, cockatoos and macaws
About 80% pellets, 10 to 15% vegetables and 5 to 10% fruit, with seeds and nuts as occasional treats or for training. Merck says “larger parrots”. Placing these birds under it is our choice, and the screen says so.
Parrotlets, conures, Quakers, caiques, ringnecks
No diet source names them directly, so each follows the nearest published pattern and carries a “starting point” label on screen. Your avian vet can adjust it. For eclectus we found no diet source at all: the app shows the large-parrot pattern as a starting point only and says so, so ask your avian vet.
Canaries and finches
No share has been published, and the app says so instead of making one up. It gives what is known about seed mixes, pellets and soluble grit, and sends you to your avian vet for the rest.
Lories and lorikeets
These birds eat special nectar food. Pellets are not their base, and the seed-to-pellet switch is not for them. If your bird is listed as Other, the app offers this guide.
Chicks
The shares are for weaned birds. No source we use gives shares for chicks, so the app tells you to ask your avian vet how to feed one, and it will not start a food switch.
Sources: Merck Veterinary Manual, Management of Pet Birds · Merck Veterinary Manual, Nutritional Diseases of Pet Birds · University of Florida · NC State University · Texas A&M University · Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine
How much
Why there are no gram amounts here
We chose not to give you a calorie plan
We found no qualifying source that gives owners a gram amount for any companion species. A number from us would be false precision, so the app has no calorie sums and no gram portions. Any diet change goes through your avian vet.
What it gives you instead is a way to see what is really happening with your own bird.
How much to feed
Weigh your bird on a gram scale, watch the trend, and ask your avian vet about amounts.
Learn what your bird eats
Weigh the food you give, then weigh what is left after 24 hours. Do this for 7 days and show your vet.University of Florida
Treats always count
Treats and seeds are part of the day’s food. They count toward the total, so keep treats small.Purdue University
An overweight bird
Your avian vet can set a measured amount of pellets. The app does not cut food for you.Merck Veterinary Manual
Is it safe?
How the bird safety checker gives its answers
We explain the method here and keep the answers in the app, where you can reach them with no signal. The guide is it safe for my bird? goes further.
Search for whatever you are unsure of. The wording of the answer depends on what it is. A food is Do not feed, Caution or Safe to offer. A plant is Toxic or Caution, and no plant gets a safe verdict. A home hazard can read Danger. A medicine is Never without a vet or Only if your vet says. Each one comes with why, where that came from and what to do next.
If an item is not on the list, the app says so: “If an item is not on this list, we have not checked it. That does not mean it is safe.” If it matched only part of your words, it tells you which part and does not treat the rest as a yes. There is no AI in these verdicts. A dangerous result also shows the steps to take if it already happened, and you can call ASPCA Animal Poison Control with one tap.
Some of the dangers surprise new owners. Fumes from an overheated non-stick pan can kill birds quickly, even if your bird looks fine, which is why we wrote a whole guide on Teflon and birds. Avocado can damage a bird’s heart and kill it. Lead and zinc turn up in everyday hardware. And a plant list written for other pets does not make a plant safe for your bird.
Swallowed something, or breathed fumes? Act now.
Fumes or smoke: move your bird to fresh air at once and go to a vet. Anything swallowed: do not wait for signs. Call your avian vet, an emergency clinic or ASPCA Animal Poison Control on (888) 426-4435 now, and be ready to leave. The line is open 24 hours a day (a consultation fee may apply). Swallowed metal or avocado means go to an emergency clinic now. Do not try to make a bird vomit: it can breathe the vomit into its lungs.
Sources: Merck Veterinary Manual, Toxicoses of Pet Birds · Merck Veterinary Manual, Disorders Affecting Multiple Body Systems of Pet Birds · ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center · Association of Avian Veterinarians · University of Illinois
Seed to pellets
A food switch that is slow, checked and easy to stop
The app runs the plan and watches for trouble. Talk to your avian vet before you start, and read our guide on how to switch a bird to pellets.
Birds can starve rather than switch
“Never try to starve your bird into eating pellets. Pushing too fast can leave a bird thin and sick.”
That warning sits at the top of the screen for the whole switch. A full bowl can fool you too, since it may hold only empty seed hulls or crushed pellets. If the app tells you to stop, give back the food your bird knows and call your avian vet.
1 · Who may start
The app asks first: is your bird sick, underweight or under vet care for an illness? If yes, it says do not start. Chicks cannot start at all. A bird with no published share needs you to confirm that your avian vet advised the switch.
2 · Five slow steps
About 20, 30, 50 and 75% pellets, then all pellets, with about two weeks on each step. The next step opens only after the full two weeks and a clear check in the last two days. A slow bird may need months to a year or more, and that is fine.
3 · A check each time
Weight in grams, droppings compared with usual, whether your bird is eating, and how they seem. We suggest checking every 1 to 2 days on the same scale. No scale? Say so, and droppings become your early warning.
4 · A plain answer
Keep going, hold, go back one step, or stop and call your avian vet. Losing more than 2% in about a week goes back a step, which is our own suggestion. Losing 10% from the start, fewer droppings, hardly eating or a sleepy, fluffed bird stops the switch.
5 · Where to stop
The schedule ends at all pellets, but small parrots can have kidney problems on pellets alone. Merck’s guide for budgies, cockatiels and lovebirds keeps some measured seed. Ask your avian vet where to stop. You can end the switch at any step.
When it is an emergency
Huddled, weak, sitting low or on the cage floor: stop the switch and go to an avian vet or emergency clinic now. This stays on the screen the whole way through.
Sources: Merck Veterinary Manual, Management of Pet Birds · University of Florida · Texas A&M University · Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine · NC State University
Fresh mix
A chop built from the safe list
Birds should get small amounts of fresh vegetables and fruit each day. This tool helps you keep to safe foods and notice when a mix leans the wrong way.
A fresh mix is an addition, never a complete diet
You pick foods from the safe rows of the safety table, in four groups: leafy greens, vegetables, fruit, and cooked grains and legumes. Anything else is refused. The app then writes plain notes on the mix: whether it leans on fruit, whether it has a vitamin A rich food in it, and how long fresh and cooked food may stay out. There are no grams, no recipe and no supplements.
A homemade complete diet should be developed with a professional nutritionist, and this screen does not build one. Where the guide says pellets are the base, they stay the base.
Sources: Merck Veterinary Manual, Feeding a Pet Bird · Association of Avian Veterinarians · NC State University · UC Davis
Questions
