Daily food costs with OptiBird
Feeding your parrots and parakeets with a top quality food such as OptiBird does not necessarily have to be more expensive than the food you used to give to your birds. It is true, that a high quality balanced food produced out of high quality raw materials is considerably more expensive per kg in comparison to the price of the usual conventional seed mixture for parrots and parakeets, which is often of low quality.
But this comparison is not adequate!
Experience has shown that the usual food for parrots is fed in unlimited amounts. As a consequence the parrots eat less than a quarter of the offered food. The remainder falls on the floor of the cage and has to be thrown away the next morning.
Additionally, parrots eat the seeds only but not the husks, which represent an often considerable weight and volume, e.g. in peanuts or sunflower seeds. High quality food is swallowed entirely by the parrots. The birds are therefore satisfied with a smaller daily intake of food. As a result, you can feed one African Grey Parrot with 1 kg OptiBird for about 1 month for example. In the same period you would easily feed 3-5 kg of the conventional seed mixtures. When feeding seed mixtures you have to add minerals and vitamins. These relatively expensive products have therefore also to be included in the feeding costs.
So a popular seed mixture will cost you about half the price of OptiBird per kg*, but you will end up using 3 to 5 times as much per month due to waste.
Considering all these facts this results in the below listed daily feeding costs per bird, based on the price for a 2,0 kg bag of OptiBird:
| Species | Body weight | Daily food quantity
(15% of bodyweight) |
Daily food costs with 100% OptiBird |
| Small Parrots
Such as Lovebirds, Cockatiels, Parakeets |
130 – 150 g | 20-25 g | € 0,18- € 0,22 |
| Medium Parrots
Such as Amazons, African Grey, Eclectus |
390 – 650 g | 60-95 g | € 0,54- € 0,85 |
| Large Parrots
Such as Macaws, Cockatoos, Golden Conures etc. |
900 – 1400 g | 135-210 g | € 0,90- € 1,40 |
- By ordering the larger sized bag of 7,5 kg the price can be decreased by 25%
- The small bags with 900g are about 18% more expensive than the 2 kg bags.
These calculations do not take into account that the birds are healthier and more resistant to diseases when fed with a high quality balanced food and that they will therefore become sick less often. As a consequence you can save on costs for the veterinarian. On top of this, it is more than money can buy to have an energetic and joyful bird that has a longer life expectancy.
* price is based on Zooplus listing on 03-01-2011. Zooplus is a German based European online pet shop discounter.