Formulated Diets Still Best For Healthy Birds, Manufacturers Say
By Devon McPhee
For Veterinary Practice News

Over her more than 25 years as an avian specialist, Michelle Velasco, DVM, Dipl. ABVP (Avian), said she has seen a steady rise in the health and well-being of the birds she has examined at the Fleming Island Pet and Bird Clinic in Orange Park, Fla.
She said she attributes the rise to the development and popularization of formulated diets, which she said provide more balanced nutrition than seed diets and human foods.
"They've improved the overall health of birds," she said.
Data collected by bird food manufacturers supports Dr. Velasco's observations, and continues to show that formulated diets are the best way to provide birds optimal nutrition.
Formulated Diets
What makes formulated diets so effective, according to Tom Roudybush, president of Roudybush
Inc. of Woodland, Calif., is that they not only deliver an exact amount of nutrients per bite, but that they also limit a bird's options.
As a graduate student at the University of California, Davis, Roudybush said, he had experimented with feeding birds cafeteria style— mixed portions of different foods. He said the birds would pick through the offerings and eat only what they wanted to eat, not necessarily consuming what was best for them.
"With a formulated diet, birds have no choice but to eat what is given to them," he said, ensuring that they receive optimal nutrition.
Both pellets and extruded diets are formulated diets, though veterinarians and consumers often use the terms "pellet diet" and "formulated diet" interchangeably, said Darlia Morris, DVM, director of veterinary affairs for Zupreem.
"Veterinarians and consumers should know that pellets and extruded diets are not the same thing," she said.
Pellet diets are cold processed; extruded diets have gone through a cooking process.
Some manufacturers believe the cooking process makes extruded diets more digestible, Dr. Morris said.
Formulated diets, as with any product, also vary in quality.
Premium Foods Pay
"When a bird is brought into my office that is fed a premium diet— an organic diet or one made with higher-quality ingredients, whole grains—I can tell," Velasco said. "[The bird] looks better and has better plumage."
With the abundance of formulated diets on the market, helping clients find a brand that works for their pet takes homework.
Roudybush said veterinarians should become familiar with a few brands of bird food, and make recommendations based on visible results.
"If you see clients using A, B, or C brand and they are having good performance, then you should recommend use of those brands," he said.
Veterinarians might also recommend that clients take the time to contact a manufacturer's customer service department and check out its website, Morris said.
"Bird owners should understand a manufacturer's philosophy and find a manufacturer they trust and have confidence in," she said.
Food as Entertainment
Though manufacturers agree that formulated diets should form the basis of any bird's diet, schools of thought differ on whether supplementing with seeds and human foods is beneficial.
"Adding seed to a pellet or extruded diet dilutes the nutrients," said Gary Lynch, senior technical nutritionist at Land O'Lakes Purina Feed, makers of Mazuri Diets. "Birds fill up on seed and do not eat enough pellets to get optimal nutrition."
Most manufacturers add extra nutrients to formulated diets to compensate for the potential loss, though, Lynch said.
Those recommending a variegated diet say birds need variety for behavioral enrichment.
"Supplements for behavioral enrichment give the birds stimulation, help them bond with their owner, and make for a healthier bird," Morris said.
She said she recommends an 80 percent formulated diet, with 20 percent supplements for behavioral enrichment.
Yet the idea of food as entertainment ruffles the feathers of some manufacturers.
"Consumers are too hooked on the idea that food needs to be entertaining," said Greg Harrison, DVM, Dipl. Emeritus ABVP (Avian), ECAMS non-practicing, founder and president of Harrison's Bird Foods of Brentwood, Tenn.
"They feel sorry for birds that eat pellets because the food looks boring. But pellets are no more boring
than if they were fed the same sunflower seed diet all their life.
"Birds don't need food [to stave off boredom], they need socialization, to be treated as part of the family."
For clients who do wish to supplement, veterinarians should make sure they are supplementing with healthy foodstuffs, said Morris.
Both seeds and human foods are acceptable in moderation, and
most manufacturers' websites have suggestions on what percentage of the diet their food should make up, said Margaret Wissman, DVM, Dipl. ABVP (Avian), co-owner of Wesley Chapel, Fla.-based Icarus Mobile Veterinary Service.
Even though great strides in avian nutrition have been made, manufacturers said that significant research is still necessary to acquire
the depth of knowledge that exists for other companion animals.
"There is a great need for more research to be conducted and funded," Morris said. "We need to learn as much about avian nutrition as we know about cat and dog nutrition."
Additional research will lead to a greater understanding of the subtleties of bird nutrition, said Roudybush, leading to ever more specialized diets.
Glimpses of this future already are popping up in the marketplace, with specialized diets for specific bird species, life stages and nutritional conditions, including iron toxicity, obesity and food allergies.
This trend toward increasingly specialized diets will continue, Lynch said, as long as there is enough demand that bird food manufacturers can "make [a formula] in enough volume to sell it commercially."