Vegetables are high in nutrients and very healthy for cockatiels.

In fact, veggies should make up around 20% of your cockatiel’s overall diet, alongside pellets, seeds, fruits, and treats.

See the full cockatiel healthy diet chart here…

Below, you’re going to find the full list of safe vegetables for cockatiels, as well as toxic vegetables that should never be offered.

You can use this list as a reference when picking out some veggies for your cockatiel.

Quick Navigation:

• Full List Of Safe Vegetables For Cockatiels
• Unsafe Foods For Cockatiels
• Frozen Or Fresh Vegetables
• Presenting Veggies To Your Cockatiel
• General Tips For Feeding Fussy Parrots
• Summary
• Sources

Full List Of Safe Vegetables For Cockatiels

Cockatiels are mostly herbivores, which means they mainly eat plants, vegetables, and seeds.

Since they would get a ton of food variety out in the wild, you should do your best to provide as much vegetable variety as possible to your cockatiel so they stay strong and healthy.

Here’s the full list of healthy vegetables you can serve your parrot:

All vegetables must be washed thoroughly before serving as pesticides are used on most supermarket veggies to keep them fresh for longer.

Pesticides are toxic to cockatiels.

Unsafe Foods For Cockatiels

There are not too many foods your cockatiel can’t eat, there are definitely more safe foods than unsafe foods.

Here is a list of some of the toxic foods you must avoid feeding your cockatiel:

• Onion

• Chives

• Avocado

• Rhubarb

• Mushrooms

• Garlic

• Raw potatoes (cooked is safe)

View the full list of toxic foods here.

Make sure you research any foods you aren’t sure about or aren’t on the lists above.

Not only should you research if the food is safe, but also how to serve it.

Take potatoes, for example, they are completely safe cooked but are toxic to cockatiels when raw due to the alkaloid and solanine, which are both toxic substances for parrots.

Frozen Or Fresh Vegetables For Cockatiels

Fresh

From what I’ve seen, freshly served are a cockatiel’s preferred way of eating their vegetables, but it does take a bit longer to prepare fresh vegetables all the time compared to just taking frozen veggies out of the freezer.

I personally serve fresh veggies all the time but there is absolutely nothing wrong with serving frozen veggies.

Frozen

Serving vegetables that have been frozen is perfectly safe for cockatiels, in fact, many bird owners freeze all their veggies in serving portions to save time.

This is a highly efficient way of storing and serving veggies for your cockatiel.

Frozen vegetables don’t lose any of their nutritional content, despite popular belief, they are just as nutritious and healthy as fresh vegetables.

Presenting Veggies To Your Cockatiel

If you own a cockatiel, you’ll know that they are often fussy eaters, especially when it comes to vegetables.

They’re literally like toddlers, avoiding the healthy foods while only eating the stuff they like (seeds, millet).

Whether they like it or not, cockatiels need to eat their vegetables.

Here are some ways you can serve veggies that might intrigue your cockatiel into eating healthier:

• Serving it in their bowl (often gets ignored this way)

• On a skewer hanging in the cage (poke the veggies through the skewer to make a veggies kebab)

• Clipped to the side of the cage

• Mashed up in a bowl and mixed with millet (They love it this way)

• Chopped into bite-size pieces (served in a bowl or plate)

Presenting vegetables in new and exciting ways will encourage fussy cockatiels to eat them as it sparks their curiosity.

Clip some romaine lettuce to the side of the cage and watch them go at it!

General Tips For Feeding Fussy Parrots

Some cockatiels are a little harder to convince than others when it comes to eating their vegetables.

Here are some helpful feeding tips you can use if you’re dealing with an extremely fussy bird:

• Be persistent: Cockatiels may not like a new food the first or even the second time it’s offered, if you continue to offer it, they may finally eat it and hopefully enjoy it.

• Show yourself eating it: Cockatiels are flock birds, if they see a member of their flock (you) eating something, it will further encourage them to follow along and eat it too.

• Serve the food near their usual eating spot: If you serve the food where your bird usually eats, it’ll reinforce the fact that it’s food and should be eaten. I often hang vegetable kababs over the empty food bowl ring, which seems to get him eating it.

• Try the different presentation ideas: What the food looks like and how it’s served play a huge part in whether or not they will engage with their meal.

Summary

Cockatiels will need to be served a portion of different vegetables every day, you should aim to serve a different mix of veggies every day to ensure they get all essential nutrients.

Here’s the full list of safe veggies for cockatiels

(This link takes you back to the top)

Feel free to screenshot this list and use it as a reference or a shopping list.

All vegetables on that list have been thoroughly researched and are 100% safe for your cockatiel to eat.

Birds who are seemingly not interested in eating their veggies should continue to be encouraged.

My cockatiel would never eat fresh vegetables out of the bowl, so I decided to make vegetable kababs with seeds sprinkled around them to make the veggies more appealing to him.

Now, after he eats a few seeds, he will start munching out on the nearby vegetables…

Works like a charm… mostly.

Hopefully, you found this vegetable guide helpful 🙂

Sources

• ^{https://petkeen.com/can-cockatiels-eat-potatoes}
• ^{https://www.cockatielcottage.net/tablefoods.html}
• ^{https://www.cockatielcottage.net/diet3.html}
• ^{https://www.thesprucepets.com/safe-vegetables-for-pet-birds-390623}
• ^{https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/fruits-and-vegetables-in-bird-diets}
• ^{https://www.petcovergroup.com/au/what-can-cockatiels-eat/}
• ^{https://www.thebloominvet.com.au/single-post/2017/05/23/what-should-i-feed-my-budgie-or-cockatiel}