08/26/2026
If you think this is “gourmet” food for birds, you might want to rethink your approach to avian nutrition.
I’m was invited to speak at another avicultural event on the “evolution of avian nutrition” which has me looking back and forward a great deal. Much of what has developed of the years has been an attempt at convenience… but there is nothing convenient about the keeping of the many different species we keep.
To truly know birds is to know that they require a diversity of food items that each have their own nutrient matrix, which can include hundreds of different bioactive compounds… many of which are lost during the processing of extruded pellets. Because of this significant loss, synthetic vitamins and other compounds are added to those foods in an effort to make them complete. But they aren’t.
Whole food items are critical to avian health and longevity. They can survive on ultraprocessed foods for a time, and some longer than others, but survival in our care shouldn’t be enough. Thriving should be a constant goal and satisfying not only physiological needs, but also mental/behavioral needs should be just as important.
I see many attempt to validate reductionist diets by saying “I’ve had good results” or “my bird always has eaten this” but how should we be measuring success? Birds are complex organisms that should be treated as birds, and that means treating them as organisms that have evolved to consume diverse items through a variety of foraging behaviors for most of every day.
At the Avian Nutrition Summit we hosted this past weekend, we heard from professionals who care for a wide diversity of species and all agree on a central point: You cannot beat, by any measure, real, living whole food.
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