Kaytee Breeder Advisory Council, which was made up of a handful of bird breeders, committed to
feeding captive birds the best diet possible.
For several years I fed a pellet based diet, but I felt my birds were not thriving the way they should have
been, and I started researching other, healthier options. My research convinced me that a sprouted
seed diet is the most natural diet we can offer in captivity. If you compare the nutritional value of a dry
seed to that of the same seed, after it has been sprouted, it can increase in nutritional value by up to
500%! That’s amazing!
Birds in the wild do eat seeds, but they eat them before they’re ripe, or when they are in their milky
state. Sprouted seed is very much the same texture as that natural diet, and there is not “period of
adjustment” when you switch to this diet. Birds just dig in and love it from the first bite.
Sprouting is not difficult or time consuming. As a matter of fact, it’s much quicker and neater than
cooking a soak & cook type mixture. Plus, when you serve it, the seed is alive and continues to grow,
as opposed to a cooked mixture, which starts to grow bacteria immediately. You do need to start with a
good, balanced sprout mix, and clean water. You can buy a quality sprout mix from by China Prairie
called the Avian Fresh Diet. They also carry Fresh Stabilizer (GSE), which is added to the water to
prohibit the growth of bacteria and mold, and Fresh Addition, a vitamin powder to sprinkle onto the
sprouts before you serve them. If you prefer, you can follow my Sprout Recipe or mix your own.
My birds are fed a sprouted diet, to which I add pellets and veggies. I also feed fresh fruits and
occasional treats. A daily sprinkling of a quality powdered avian vitamin, and twice weekly dusting of a
calcium-D supplement is added to the sprouts before serving.
Jodi’s Exotic Birds weans all our babies onto this sprouted diet, and we highly recommend that you
continue feeding a sprouted diet, at least for the first several months after weaning. If you wish to
start making changes to the diet, it should not be too soon after a baby has just been weaned, or it
could result in weight loss or regression.
mix, try my sprout recipe.
