Fruits make up a very small portion of a cockatiel’s diet, around 5% overall.

Although it’s a small amount, it’s essential, fruits contain nutrients that are often not found in vegetables or pellets.

Below you’ll find the full list of safe fruit for cockatiels.

You can use this list as a reference when you’re picking up fruits at the shops.

You’re also going to learn what fruits are toxic to cockatiels and how often to serve safe fruits.

Full List Of Safe Fruit For Cockatiels

All fruits listed below are safe for cockatiels, however, the seeds and pips of most fruits are toxic to parrots and must not be served.

Experiment with these different fruits to find out what your cockatiel likes.

Before serving any fruit, you must ensure they are free of any toxic preservatives such as pesticides and sulfur dioxide.

Both of these toxic substances are often found on supermarket fruits, give all fruits a good wash before serving.

Dried Fruit For Cockatiels

All the fruits listed above are safe to feed in their dried form.

Some other delicious dried fruits for cockatiels include:

• Dates

• Raisins

• Prunes

• Cranberries

The same rules apply to dried fruit, they must be washed and free from added preservatives.

Other Safe Foods

These foods don’t fit anywhere else on the list, they can be enjoyed by cockatiels but should be fed in small amounts:

• Eggs

• Cooked Pasta

• Cooked meat

• Unbuttered popcorn

What Fruits Can Cockatiels Not Eat?

Despite the large variety of safe fruits, there are still quite a few fruits and other foods cockatiels CANNOT eat, these include:

• Avocado

• Eggplant leaves (The fruit is safe, the leaves, stem, and plant are not)

• Tomato leaves

• Pickles

Toxic Fruit Seeds/Pips

Some fruit seeds, such as pepper seeds and watermelon seeds, are perfectly safe for cockatiels to eat.

However, most fruit seeds are toxic or even deadly, toxic seeds/pips include:

• Cherry pips

• Apricot pips

• Peach pips

• Plum pips

• Nectarine pips

• Apple seeds

• Tomato seeds

Other Toxic Foods

A list of other foods that are toxic to cockatiels, these items didn’t fit anywhere in the previous lists:

• Chocolate

• Garlic

• Onion

• Rhubarb

• Mushrooms

View the full list of food toxic to cockatiels.

How Often To Feed Fruits To A Cockatiel

When people discuss how often to feed fruits to cockatiels, I’ll often hear them say fruits AND vegetables, which wrongfully implies that fruits and veggies can be served in the same amounts.

This is 100% false.

Fruits should definitely not be offered to cockatiels as much as vegetables.

The reason for this is that fruits are high in natural sugars, which are bad for cockatiels in large amounts.

Furthermore, fruits should only make up around 5% of a cockatiel’s overall diet while veggies make up around 20%.

To put this better in perspective…

A portion of vegetables should be served once a day while a portion of fruits should be served once a week or less.

Serving Fruit To Cockatiels

It shouldn’t be too hard to convince a cockatiel to eat fruit, they seem to be more willing to eat fruits than vegetables.

This is based on my own experience with cockatiels.

If you are having trouble getting your bird to eat fruit, you should try presenting the fruit in different ways to further encourage them to eat it.

Different fruit presentation ideas:

• Served fruit in their bowl
• Fruit platter (on a large plate)
• Poke the fruit through a skewer (fruit kebab)

Fruit platters are my favorite way of serving fruit.

You can use lots of fruit and just set it out on a large plate, your cockatiel will investigate and start eating the fruits they like.

(Having a huge variety is a great way to learn what foods your cockatiel likes)

Fruit kebabs are just as good in terms of providing a huge variety…

Poke a whole bunch of fruit through a stainless steel skewer and serve in their cage.

This is a veggie kebab, I couldn’t find a fruit kebab image, but you get the idea.

Cockatiels who won’t eat their fruit could be their way of telling you it’s too boring.

Serving fruit in different and unique ways will spark their curiosity, making them investigate the fruit and eventually start eating it.

If they like it, they’ll continue to eat it.

Short Summary

Cockatiels can eat many different fruits, but too much at one time is not good.

Most fruits contain lots of natural sugars, which are bad for cockatiels if eaten in high amounts.

Fruits only make up 5% of a cockatiel’s overall diet, alongside pellets, seeds, and vegetables.

They should definitely not be fed as often as veggies, despite some claims.

Avoid feeding the pips/seeds of most fruits, there are some exceptions to this such as watermelon or pumpkin seeds which are non-toxic.

However, apple and cherry seeds are toxic and definitely off your bird’s menu.

Fruit presentation is also important…

If you find your cockatiel avoiding the fruit, you may need to present it differently to spark their curiosity.

You can present fruit on a platter or poke them through a skewer.

There are endless creative ways you can present vegetables.

Sources

• ^{https://www.cockatielcottage.net/tablefoods.html}
• ^{https://peteducate.com/what-fruits-can-cockatiels-eat/}
• ^{https://www.albionparkvet.com.au/cockatiel-care-and-faq}
• ^{https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/cockatiels-feeding}
• ^{https://www.petcovergroup.com/au/what-can-cockatiels-eat/}