A Galah’s Diet
I decided to expand upon my Galah FAQ as I recently received an email regarding the Galah’s diet. Here is the gist of the email I sent as a reply to the question:
Galah’s like to eat seeds, nuts, berries and fresh corn. From Woolworths/Coles you should be able to find a good staple seed diet such as “Bird Munchies Gourmet Parrot Blend” or “Lovitts Small Parrot Seed Mix”. In my opinion, I try to avoid Trill products as they appear to contain more fat and sugar than the other varieties.
You may also give your bird a few treats a week. I always give my bird a protein treat and a dairy treat and I will sometimes give a flower treat. When offering treat foods, you can measure them using a teaspoon, never giving more than a rounded teaspoon worth.
An example of a protein treat is some boiled egg, cooked salmon or a big ‘chicken wing’ bone (with no meat, gristle is ok). An example of a dairy treat is a spoon of plain custard, plain yoghurt or a square of hard cheese. For flower treats, only offer banksias and gravillias but be careful as giving the wrong flower type can poison the bird.
Here are some Diet do’s and don’ts:
- Never feed Galah’s many sunflower seeds – while they love them – it will kill them due to their high oil/fat content over time. A Galah’s diet should not be more than 10% fat and sunflower seeds contain over 35%.
- Each day make sure your bird eats something fresh other than the seeds. This could be some fresh fruit like a cherry, passionfruit, pear, banana, peeled fig and berries like raspberry or blackberry (my bird does not like strawberry but I have read others do). Alternatively to fresh fruit, try lettuce, boiled spaghetti (no sauce) or a spoon of mashed potato (no butter), mashed pumpkin or boiled brown rice. You can also offer carrot and apple but the bird will usually use it to chomp up and make a big mess.
- Only give a maximum of one or two protein and dairy treats a week.
- Only let them drink water and change the water daily or every second day, depending on the mess.
- In the morning, they will happily have a spoon of soft weet-bix or the crust off one side of your toast, but not too often.
- Never feed your Galah lemons, grapes, soy products, cabbage, cream, chocolate, anything with caffeine, beans or avocado. It will kill them or make them very sick. Limit the amount of peas that you feed your bird – sugar snap peas are fine a few times a week.
- Remember a Galah’s crop is about the capacity of a rounded (not heaped) teaspoon, so never overfeed them.
- Fresh corn can make birds aggressive if given too often. Try to only give it once a week.
Here is an example day menu that I give to my bird:
Morning: Check water and seeds in cage (and refresh if necessary) and offer a piece of toast crust – the bird will then graze more on seeds if still hungry.
Lunch: I’m usually at work so they will graze on seeds during the day. You can install a hanging device that will hang pieces of fruit or vegetables so they can have some variety while your away at work.
Evening: A teaspoon of boiled egg and a piece of fruit or some vegetables like mashed potato – the bird will still graze more on seeds if still hungry.
So there you go, hope this explains a Galah’s diet a bit more clearly.