Volkman Parrotlet Bird Food

My Nipper
My little Nipper (a parrotlet) has been on this seed for 10 years. Along with fresh fruit and veggies, Nipper also has the addition of a variety of other seed mixes. Even though the price has gotten pretty high over the years, why change when my ten-year old parrotlet is doing so well.

My Parrotlets love this food!
My parrotlets love this brand of food. When you open the bag, it smells fresh, and they immediately fly over for a taste. I highly recommend.

Best quality, but not perfect
To begin, this is one of the only mixes available specifically for parrotlets. Parrotlets can be horribly picky, wasteful eaters, meaning this may be a rather expensive venture into husbandry for such a relatively small amount of feed [4 lb].Parrotlets are unique among hookbills as veterinary discussion and avicultural observation has found that it may be extremely harmful to feed pellets to color mutations of the popular Pacific parrotlet. It is necessary to feed this mix with fresh vegetables and fruit provided because the very small amount of dried vegetables in this mix is not enough for a parrot to be healthy. Often birds will reject fresh food in exchange for seed like that contained in this diet; we call them seed junkies. If your bird exhibits such behavior, it may be necessary to leave safe fruits or vegetables in the dish for several hours in the morning before they spoil and then give the animal this seed mix. It can prove necessary to do this daily for weeks or months until the bird becomes accustomed to and accepting of fresh foods, even if it does take a year for them to finally eat them in addition to this seed mix. An additional tip is to sprout some of these (undamaged, whole) seeds in a bag with moist paper towels after soaking overnight; if they germinate successfully it means the seed is fresh, and mold-free sprouts may be washed in cold water and fed safely to birds as an extremely healthy dietary supplement.The stated daily serving size on the package is one tablespoon for small birds or 1/8 of a cup for small parrots, which I support. Parrotlets eat seed by husking it and most often discard the husks in the dish, in the process covering uneaten food. By placing a small amount in the bowl less is lost among the husks and less food is also wasted if the parrotlet is a picky eater. It will also stop birds from becoming overweight, which poses a risk to organ health if they consume too much seed or eat only the seeds in this diet with the highest fat content.Instructions on the package recommend refrigeration after opening in order to preserve the diet.I would not add any additional high fat foods to this diet, such as sunflower seeds. The ingredient list as provided on the package is as follows:Safflower seed, white proso millet, buckwheat, cracked corn, paddy rice, oat groats, canary grass seed, sunflower chips, black oil sunflower, peanuts, orange oat groats (FD&C Orange #6), hemp seed, kibbled corn, cantaloupe seed, carrot dices, dehydrated green peas, red bell pepper dices, peppers, spinach flakes, soybean oil, orange oil (used as a preservative).The product has a few drawbacks, such as no indication of where the ingredients originate or whether the ingredients were farmed organically and responsibly. The product, like fresh foods, should be organic as it is extra healthful for the body systems of birds. It would be beneficial to reduce the size of the peanuts and further reduce the cracked corn as most parrotlets are unwilling to break these foods into smaller pieces and oftentimes are unable to do so.

Parrotlets are enjoying this mix
Nothing to dislike!The parrotlets are enjoying this mix. They primarily eat fruits and veggies with seed as backup.

Most of the stuff is far too big for a parrotlet, he can’t eat most of it.