The LaTorre Lo-Fat Diet
By John LaTorre

Author's Foreword - " I have been telling people for years that the diet you feed your birds makes all the difference in the world!  It will give larger clutches, more clutches, and babies that color out faster and better, and more rapidly-maturing birds.  Recently a lot of breeders have been asking me how to get their birds off the old seed diets, and they are finally realizing that they are going nowhere fast with this type of diet.  My diet can make a big difference with mutation ringnecks, because it cuts down the number of years it used to take to get  these birds to breed.  I hope this will help."

        After reading a number of articles on the subject of avian diets in various books, magazines, journal and newsletters, I am amazed at how little thought some people give to what theses diets can do to their birds.  Most people apparently do not know that in the wild, birds will eat insects, leaves, wild vegetables, roots, nuts, fruits, and even the flesh of dead animals.  In the wild, birds also fly many miles each day to forage for food, and this activity burns large amounts of calories.
        In captivity, we take these species and flight them in various-sized cages, and feed them high-fat diets consisting mainly of seeds and nuts.  The results are not optimum, and we end up with problems like low fertility, egg-binding, and shortened life spans.  Total seed diets are too high in fat, and lack some of the most important vitamins and trace minerals, and  slowly but surely the birds on these diets become deficient.  One must realize that high-fat, high protein and starches do not burn off so readily with the exercise available to birds in flight cages.  And when these birds produce off spring, the hen is depleted of many minerals and vitamins.
        If you favor a total seed diet, with the addition of cuttle-bone and vitamin supplements in the water, along with fruit, this is not sufficient to replace what is used in the reproductive process.  Nutritionists have been researching and analyzing psittacine diets for over a decade, and this is how the extruded and pellet diets came into being.  These new diets are getting better all the time and will eventually replace all types of seed diets.  There is a great variety available in new diets, such as proteins and fats, and they are well balanced, easily digested and readily absorbed into the bird's systems.  There is also less waste.
        These diets even come in medicated form!  Now, it doesn't matter if you the pellet or extruded type, because either one is far superior to seed.  And pellet or extruded food is by far the most important part of a well-balanced, low-fat diet.  I prefer the pellet type because it is  grain-based and has a protein content of about 12%, and a fat content of about 4% or less.
        Nutritionists will tell you to use at least 95% pellet food, and fruit or vegetables for the remaining 5%.  I live in a very hot part of Florida and personally do not serve much fruit or vegetables in the summer months, due to spoilage.  In summer I use mostly pellets, with a very small amount of safflower-based seed mixed in.  When the weather cools down, I add both fresh and cooked foods, plus the pellets, vitamin and mineral supplements.
        Now to the question of how I get my birds to eat pellets.  I have used a number of methods to convert.  I had a hard time converting my birds in the beginning, because some of them were wild-caught and viewed the pellets with great suspicion, and others had been raised on seed for up to 20 years.
        After many failed attempts, I came up with a successful method.  First, the birds must be taken off sunflower seed and nuts (I had been   using safflower-based diets when I changed my birds over).  If you've ever noticed how birds will dig and shovel most of the seed out to get at the sunflower and nuts, you will know why these are the first things to omit from the diet.
        The next thing I did was use measuring cups to figure out how much each pair of birds was consuming.  Because birds will rarely eat every seed in their dish, the challenge is to eliminate waste.
        If there was anything left over at the end of the day, I would subtract that much from the following day's portion, until the birds were eating everything in their dishes.
        Next, I served a little less seed than usual, so the birds were still a little hungry when I removed their dishes that night.
        On the third day I added a small amount of pellets to their seed, and most of the birds consumed the pellets on that first day.
        Incidentally, I feed my birds only once a day: early in the morning, just at dawn, and I remove both food and water dishes a couple of hours before sundown, so the birds fast overnight.
        My theory is that if birds are overfed they will be picky eaters, just as humans are.  But if you research the capacity of your birds and follow my plan, they should begin eating the new foods right away.
        Some birds might not respond to this changeover right away.  If this is the case, don't give up or try another method; if you persist you will win.  I used this same method when I wanted to convert my birds into eating a larger variety of vegetables, and it worked very well.  Nowadays, whenever I add a new birds to my collection, I use this conversion method, and all my birds eat their pellet and vegetable mix with no problem.
        At the approach of breeding season I start by cooking premium whole hard corn.  All birds will eat the corn without hesitation.  At the health food store I buy a dry, 13-bean salad mix, plus mung and soy beans to add to it.  I also buy natural brown rice from the health food store.  Here is my recipe for the bean mix.

Mix together and store in container:
5 lb bean mix
1/2 lb soy beans
1/2 lb mung beans
        Rinse off 4 cups hard yellow corn and place into a large stewing pot.  Add enough water to cover the corn and boil until it has expanded to double.  Add 2 cups dry, rinsed bean mix to corn pot.  Add enough water to cover the mix by 2 inches.  Simmer for 20 minutes, making sure water still covers food.  Add 1 cup rice, cover the pot and shut off burner.  When mix is cooled, drain off the excess water (the rice should have absorbed most of it).  Store this bean/rice mix in the fridge, in plastic containers, or freeze, until needed.
        Every night I diced up fresh fruit and vegetables for the next day, and add the bean/rice mix as needed.  If you have frozen your bean mix, just place the frozen mix in a strainer and run hot water over it to thaw, and add it to the diced fresh produce at serving time, or warm it in the microwave to room temperature.
        I buy vegetables fresh, as needed; some examples are celery (leaves and all), beets (use the leaves and root), parsley, all colors of bell peppers (including their seeds), carrots, a variety of squashes, sweet potatoes, slightly cooked yams, and fresh pole, waxed or string beans in season.  Fruits include apples and pears (any variety omitting the seeds), fresh pineapple, strawberries, cranberries, etc.
        In the morning I remove the diced produce from the fridge and place it on the counter to warm up in the air, and often put the bean/rice mix in the microwave to take off the chill.  Then I toss the two together and add pellets, vitamins and trace minerals to this mix.
        I then spoon out the correctly measured amount of food to each pair of birds and put their dishes out as early in the day as possible.  My birds always wake up hungry and wolf down this serving eagerly.
        Remember to measure and adjust the amount of food given at breakfast so that the birds eat the right amount of pellets, as it's important to maintain that balance.
        I keep my birds on the above diet during the breeding season, serving this concoction anywhere from 3 to 7 days a week.  The key to success is to learn the individual consumption of each pair of birds, and to control their intake by putting the food out early in the day and taking it away before dark.
        Remember, birds in the wild eat at sunrise and fly back to the safety of the flock before dark.  Take their dishes in to wash, and rinse in bleach, every night, so that you have fresh, clean dishes waiting for you in the morning.
        Implementing my plan might take a little work, in the beginning, and some getting used to on the part of the birds, but it will make a big difference in the birds' health and the development of their offspring.  I have noticed the biggest difference in the second year of life, when young birds begin to show sexual maturity  and color out rapidly.
        Good luck to all who try it, and feel free to write me at john@johnbirdsonliine.com  .  I'll share whatever help or advice I can.

This article was originally printed in The QPR Asiatic Parrot How-To Book in 1997.  Rewritten with permission from author.