Cockatiels are fun to interact with and are generally easy to care for, which is partly what makes them such great pets. One of the most important things that you can do to keep your bird healthy is to feed them a well-balanced diet. But which cockatiel food on the market is best to invest in? This is a question that most owners ask at one time or another.
With so many different products available, how do you know you are choosing the right one for your beloved pet? One way to ensure that you are making a good choice is to read reviews of the available options. To help you out with this daunting task, we put together a list of the best foods for cockatiels so you can make an educated buying decision the next time that you order sustenance for your bird.
Higgins Safflower Gold Natural Mix Conure & Cockatiel Food is designed to provide birds with gourmet meals that satisfy their appetites and keep them full until their next mealtime, making it the best overall food for cockatiels. Made predominantly of safflower seeds, which is something cockatiels seem to particularly like, this food is fortified with dried fruits like raisins, papaya, and pineapple, along with cashews, coconut, and carrot, just to name a few. Your bird will enjoy a well-rounded diet that helps ensure a healthy nervous system throughout all life stages.
Also included are probiotics to support proper digestion and belly comfort after a big meal. Added DHA in the form of omega-3 and -6 fats helps support strong eyesight and a healthy immune system. This food does not contain artificial colorings or flavorings.
The only downside is that the resealable package is tough to work with.
Pros
Made with high-quality ingredients
Contains no artificial colors or flavors
Includes a variety of dried whole fruits
Cons
Resealable package is tough to open
2. Kaytee Forti-Diet Pro Health Cockatiel Food — Best Value
Kaytee Forti-Diet Pro Health Cockatiel Food is the best food for cockatiels for the money for a few good reasons. First and foremost, it contains all-natural ingredients and no fillers like many other options on the market do. This feed is formulated specifically for cockatiels, ensuring that all their nutritional needs will be met no matter the stage of life they are in. This is a seed-based formula that includes natural sources of protein that cockatiels need for strong bones and muscles, such as canary grass seed, millet, and sunflower and safflower seeds.
Cracked corn and flax meal are included for a healthy dose of carbohydrate energy and essential omega oils. Both probiotics and prebiotics are also featured in this food to ensure proper digestion and gut comfort for your bird. This cockatiel food is naturally preserved with mixed tocopherols and will hold up well for several days after the packaging gets opened.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t reseal well, so you may have to transfer the contents to a better container.
Pros
Made with all-natural ingredients
Contains no artificial fillers or preservatives
Full of healthy carbohydrates
Includes probiotics and prebiotics for healthy digestion
If you prefer not to feed your cockatiel seeds, ZuPreem Natural Bird Food is a great option to consider. It is made with corn, millet, oat groats, barley, and wheat to provide the protein and carbohydrate energy that medium-sized birds like cockatiels need. It also features a wide variety of vegetables like carrots, celery, and beets to ensure a strong immune system and a healthy heart. Fruits like cranberries and blueberries are also included for antioxidant support.
This food comes in pellet form, making it easy for cockatiels to eat and digest. All nutritional needs are addressed here, so there is no need to invest in additional supplements of any kind.
However, fruits and veggies may still need to be served as snacks to help round out your bird’s nutrition intake and add variety without worrying about vitamin or mineral overdosing.
Pros
Comes in an easy-to-eat pellet form
Promotes a strong immune system
Includes real fruits and veggies
Cons
Can get boring for cockatiels that enjoy texture varieties
What’s unique about Higgins Sunburst Gourmet Blend Cockatiel Bird Food is that it is made not only of grains and grass seeds but also includes fruit seeds from cantaloupes, which is something that other options on this list here do not feature. An assortment of nuts like cashews and walnuts, along with coconut, provide a hearty dose of healthy fats that are essential for the proper growth and development of your feathered family member.
This blend is colored so it is vibrant and more reminiscent of a natural cockatiel diet in the wild. Fortunately, it is colored using whole-food sources, such as beet and turmeric powders, alfalfa, and annatto seeds. A specially formulated blend of probiotics ensures a healthy immune system and comfortable digestion.
This product only comes in 3-pound packages, so you may have to buy it often if you have more than one cockatiel.
Pros
Unique blend features cantaloupe seeds and nuts for added variety
Naturally colored using whole food sources, like beets
This seed-free bird formula is designed specifically for parrots, including the cockatiel. Made for adult birds, this is a natural food that comes in crumble form so adults and seniors can easily consume it. Every morsel is edible and contains important ingredients, such as l-arginine and yucca schidigera extract, to ensure that all your bird’s nutritional needs are met as time goes on. The Roudybush Daily Maintenance Crumble Bird Food comes in 44-oz. and 10-lb. packages, so you can stock up for months at a time if you want to.
This formula is a little higher in fat than some other options on the market, which can be a problem for low-energy cockatiels, especially when they get older. Also, the higher fat content means that this food needs to be stored in a cool, dry place to keep it from going rancid.
Pros
Made specifically for adult parrots like cockatiels
Comes in crumble form for ease of consumption
Available in bulk packaging
Cons
Higher fat content can result in obesity for lower-energy cockatiels
Lafeber Classic Avi-Cakes Small Bird Food is formulated with both seeds and grains to create a unique, highly nutritious flavor profile that your parrot is sure to get excited about. As the name suggests, this food comes in the form of little cakes made up of canary grass seed, white millet, hulled oats, and corn, which makes for a hardy, varied meal that offers multiple textures and flavors.
This food does not include any real fruits or vegetables like many others on this reviews list do, but it is fortified with essential vitamins and minerals to help ensure that your parrot does not end up with any deficiencies. This is a great food option for those who do not mind supplementing their food with fruit and vegetable scraps from their kitchen.
Pros
Comes in a fun cake-like form that most birds enjoy pecking at
This tropical cockatiel food is filled with exciting fruits that parrots are accustomed to enjoying in the wild, like papaya, pineapple, and mango. Developed by veterinarians, Lafeber Tropical Fruit Nutri-Berries Bird Food delivers all the vitamins and minerals that these birds need to thrive. The texture of the food is crunchy, which helps stimulate a cockatiel’s senses while they eat. This food is naturally preserved and contains no artificial ingredients, so you can have peace of mind knowing that every bite they take lends to their health instead of taking away from it.
The seeds and grains in this food blend are hulled, which decreases their nutritional value somewhat. But it does make the seeds and grains easier for birds to digest. The nutrition that is stripped during the hulling process is reintroduced through supplementation during production.
Pros
Offers a true taste of the tropics
Veterinarian developed and approved
Crunch texture for brain, tongue, and beak stimulation
Cons
Hulling process strips some nutrients away from this formula’s seeds and grains
Crunchy nuggets may need to be broken up before feeding to younger, smaller cockatiels
ZuPreem FruitBlend Bird Food is full of healthy fruits that medium-sized birds like cockatiels are sure to love. Included in the formula are oranges, grapes, bananas, and apples—all dried, of course—to keep your cockatiel busy and satisfied during mealtime. Corn and wheat are also included, offering plenty of carbohydrate energy to get your bird through the day. Fortified with vitamin B12, thiamine, and niacin, among other essential vitamins and minerals, this food offers all the nutrition that your cockatiel needs to stay happy and healthy throughout life.
This colorful blend features small bite-sized pellets of different shapes to keep mealtime interesting for your beloved winged pet. It can be fed to wild birds in the yard too!
The downsides to this food are that it contains artificial colors, which do not offer any benefits to your bird’s health, and that it contains fillers like soybean meal and vegetable oil, neither of which are necessary.
Pros
Filled with tasty fruits that cockatiels cannot seem to resist
Kaytee Fiesta Variety Mix Cockatiel Food is made for all small and medium-sized parrots, including the cockatiel, but despite the name, it is not specifically formulated just for that species. It is formulated with a wide variety of seeds and grains to offer a broad nutritional profile. It does contain fruits and veggies like apples and peppers, but most of this food is made up of grass and safflower seeds, oat groats, ground corn, millet, and wheat.
This is a food option that is most suitable for cockatiels that are also fed fresh fruits and vegetables as treats between meals. This food can be purchased in quantities of 2.5-, 4.5-, and 25-pound packages. One major downside is that the seeds and grains are colored using a variety of artificial colors, including FD&C red, blue, and yellow.
Pros
Made for all small and medium parrots, making meal time convenient for multi-bird households
Contains whole fruits and veggies
Cons
Made with artificial colors
Not formulated specifically for cockatiels, so supplementation may be necessary
Buyer’s Guide: Selecting the Best Foods for Cockatiels
Buying quality commercial food for your cockatiel is a serious business. If the wrong blend is chosen, there is a risk of your bird developing nutritional deficiencies and consequently, health problems as they age. There are a few things you can do to make sure the cockatiel food that you choose to invest in is the right choice for your fine-feathered friend. We have outlined important tips to consider here.
Schedule a Checkup
One of the most important things you can do before choosing a new food for your cockatiel is to schedule a checkup appointment with your veterinarian. This will help ensure that your bird does not have any underlying health conditions that have gone unnoticed. If health conditions are found, they may require a special diet as part of a treatment plan. Your vet can let you know exactly which ingredients to look for and which to avoid.
Even if no serious health conditions are found, your vet can recommend food options and ingredients based on things like their activity level, current diet, and fruit and vegetable intake. You can bring a list of the foods that you are considering to the vet visit to get expert feedback about each one. This should help you narrow down your options.
Consider Snacks & Treats
Image Credit: MIH83, pixabay
If you enjoy feeding snacks and treats to your cockatiel regularly, take note of which foods you typically offer them during these times. For example, if you typically give them shredded carrots and pineapple chunks at snack time, you should choose a daily food that contains no carrots or pineapple and instead includes other fruits and veggies, ones that are not already regularly being offered as snacks.
The same goes for any nuts, seeds, or grains that you might feed your parrot as treats. This will help ensure that your cockatiel’s diet is well-rounded and does not lack any vitamins or minerals. It also means that you won’t overfeed your birdie any specific nutrients as time goes on and that your pet will not easily tire of their diet and start becoming picky when it comes to their offerings at meal or snack time.
Talk to Other Cockatiel Owners
If you have friends or family who own cockatiels, ask them which food options they like the best and which ones their birds tend to enjoy the most. They may offer valuable advice and recommendations that can make choosing a new food to buy for your cockatiel easier and less stressful overall. If you do not personally know anyone who owns a cockatiel, read reviews for the foods that you are most interested in to gain insider knowledge about them. Visit cockatiel chat rooms and forums to get more advice.
Feeding your cockatiels the wrong mixture of seeds can be dangerous to their health, so we recommend checking with an expert resource like The Ultimate Guide to Cockatiels, available on Amazon.
This excellent book will help you balance your cockatiels’ food sources by understanding the value of different seed types, dietary supplements, fruits and vegetables, and cuttlebone. You’ll also find tips on everything from housing to health care!
Final Verdict
Whether your cockatiel has special dietary needs, is picky about the types of seeds and fruits they eat, has health issues that need to be managed, or will eat just about anything you put in front of them, you should find the perfect food option for them right here on this reviews list. We highly recommend our top pick, Higgins Safflower Gold cockatiel food, because it provides complete nutrition, contains an impressive variety of dried fruits, and has no artificial colors or flavors.
Our second pick should not be overlooked either. Kaytee Forti-Diet Pro Health cockatiel food is full of healthy carbohydrates, prebiotics, and probiotics for optimal digestion. Every option on our list is unique and deserves consideration, so take the time to check them all out! Does any specific brand stand out from the others in your eyes? If so, let us know!
Nicole is the proud mom of 3 rescue fur babies, Baby, a Burmese cat; Rosa, a New Zealand Huntaway; and Mac, a Lab/Mastiff. A Canadian expat, Nicole now lives on a lush forest property with her Kiwi husband and new baby daughter in New Zealand. She has a strong love for all animals of all shapes and sizes (and particularly loves a good interspecies friendship) and wants to share her animal knowledge and other experts' knowledge with pet lovers across the globe.
