Feeding Your Macaw

Wild Macaw diets are often high in fat but remember Macaws spend up to 70% of their waking hours foraging for food in the wild, and that includes fruit, leaves, roots, nuts, bark, and even clay! 

Pellets

A high quality, complete and balanced formulated pellet diet should make up 60-75% of your Macaw's diet. Pellets come in a wide range of sizes, shapes and colours and in some cases are species specific. When choosing pellets for your macaw it's important to look for those specifically formulated for macaws, south American species or large parrots.

While feeding a quality nutritionally balanced pellet is the foundation of your macaws diet, the wild diet should be replicated as closely as possible by adding a variety of fresh and natural foods to the diet.

Fruit and Vegetables

Fresh fruits and vegetables should make up about 25-40% of the diet and this should be about 3/4 vegetables to 1/4 fruits due to the higher natural sugar content in fruit. Suitable fresh fruit and vegetables include pumpkin, sweet potato, leafy greens like spinach, celery, and bok choy, capsicum, chilli, berries, apple, carrot, peas, passionfruit and pear.

Avocado, onion, garlic, ginger, chocolate and caffeine are toxic to birds and should be avoided.

Fresh food can be cut up or grated finely into a chop mix which can then be refrigerated for up to a week. This is a great way to both offer variety and reduce selective feeding in fussier eaters. Fresh food can also be fed as whole pieces of fruit and vegetables.

As part of normal macaw behaviour is foraging, it's great to feed whole pieces as this takes longer to get through and encourages beak work. Pumpkin, cucumber, and cobs of corn with the husk on are great options. There are lots of ways to get creative with feeding fresh foods for example you could stuff half a capsicum with pellets and other fresh vegetables and perhaps even leaves or shredded paper for your macaw to forage through.

As macaws have evolved to eat a large variety of foods, at least 5 varieties of fresh food should be offered on a regular basis, and ideally 10 or more!

Another great option is to grow fruit trees and vegetables in the aviary itself! Many dwarf fruit trees will easily fit within a macaw-sized aviary. Celery, kale, capsicum, and cabbage can be easily grown in pots or off the ground

Seeds and Nuts 

Macaws, particulalry larger species like Hyacinth Macaws have a higher requirement for fat in their diet and naturally eat nuts in the wild. As nuts are higher in fat however and pet parrots are far less active than their wild counterparts it's important not to overfeed nuts and consider them more of a treat.

Nuts such as walnuts, macadamias, and peanuts are treat foods, and should only be given in small amounts. Macaws can have the equivalent of a walnut 4 times a week. For extra fun and beak work give them the nut unshelled!

Seeds can also be fed as a treat. Dried seed can be sprouted, which reduces the fat content and increases the vitamin content. Sprouted seed can be fed once the little sprouts start to turn green, usually in 2-3 days in warm weather.

Fresh grass seeds are also a great addition when they are in season during the warmer months. Grass seeds are ready for picking once they start to form firm seed heads, and bunches can be hung in the aviary or cage for your birds to forage from. They also make a great environmental enrichment option, promoting natural behaviours. Consider growing some in a pot and letting your birds enjoy them! Unlike dried seeds, seeding grasses have a much higher nutritional profile and can be offered to your macaw as often as daily.

Other suitable treats include sweeter fruits like peach, grapes, and banana. Treat foods should only be given sparingly and should not make up more than 10% of the total diet.