Calcium supplement for African Grey Parrot

Our customer asked:

Can you please tell me if you do a calcium supplement for an African grey parrot ?

Our reply:

The most effective calcium supplement in my opinion is Nutrobal. It comes as a powder so it has to be added to some moist food, such as fruit or some form of treat. One small pinch per day will supplement calcium and vitamin D3, both of which are important requirements for African greys. It is possible to get calcium supplements to add to drinking water, but they tend to be less effective in my opinion. Ideally your African grey should eat a mixture of different seeds as well as vegetables and fruit. These birds tend to be very fussy and just eat large quantities of one or two types of food which they particularly enjoy, so they get a very unbalanced diet, despite being offered all sorts of good things. The way to counter this is to severely restrict the things they particularly like (eg sunflower seeds) so that hunger encourages them to eat other foods. Alternatively, and perhaps even better, is to offer a complete "kibbled" diet such as Harrison's Adult Lifetime Coarse. This has all your bird will generally need, so that you do not need any supplements.