8 Best Foods for African Grey Parrots – 2024 Reviews & Top Picks

Like all pets, parrots need a great deal of care, which includes a nutritious and balanced diet. Owning a breed like the African Grey means meeting their specific nutritional requirements, so providing them with the best diet is essential.

However, there is quite a variety of parrot foods to choose from, so here, we have eight reviews of bird foods for your African Grey Parrot. This way, you save time and get to see firsthand the best options for your pet!

A Quick Look at Our Winners of 2024

The 8 Best Foods for African Grey Parrots

1. ZuPreem Natural Daily Parrot & Conure Bird Food — Best Overall

The best overall food for African Grey Parrots is ZuPreem’s Natural Daily Parrot & Conure Bird Food. It contains everything that an African Grey needs daily for their diet with the right balance of amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. Additionally, it has no artificial flavors or colors, and it’s made in the U.S.A.

It contains healthy ingredients like beets, cranberries, blueberries, carrots, and ground flaxseeds. Also, since the pellets are all the same shape and color, you don’t have to worry about your parrot eating selectively.

The only real issue with this parrot food is that some picky African Greys might not like it.

---

2. Kaytee Forti-Diet Pro Health Parrot Food — Best Value

The best food for African Grey Parrots for the money is Kaytee’s Forti-Diet Pro Health Parrot Food. It has a variety of seeds and grains, including oat groats, canary grass seed, and millet, making it quite high in protein.

It has added DHA omega-3 to keep your parrot’s brain, heart, and eyes healthy, along with probiotics and prebiotics for your bird’s digestion. However, also included are tiny seeds that some parrots might not want to eat.

---

3. Lafeber Classic Nutri-Berries Parrot Food — Premium Choice

Lafeber’s Classic Nutri-Berries Parrot Food is a premium-choice pick for African Greys. This food contains cracked corn, peanuts, oat groats, and hulled canary seeds, which are hand-pressed into a shape that helps promote foraging.

The grains and seeds are hulled, and it has added omega-3 and -6 for healthy skin and feathers. It’s made in the U.S.A. and doesn’t contain any artificial ingredients.

But it is expensive, and while it can be given to your African Grey as part of their main diet, many parrot owners use this food only as a treat.

---

4. Roudybush Daily Maintenance Small Bird Food

Roudybush Daily Maintenance Small Bird Food contains pellets made with all-natural ingredients and without any artificial flavors, colors, or sugars.

Roudybush doesn’t add any extra vitamins and minerals or other supplements because the ingredients in the pellets make a complete diet for your parrot. Despite the name, this food is formulated specifically for parrots that are 6 inches and taller, like African Greys. The only issue is that these pellets are costly.

---

5. Volkman Avian Science Super African Grey Bird Food

Volkman Avian Science Super African Grey Bird Food has been made quite specifically for the African Grey’s diet. The food is packed and sealed fresh and has been triple cleaned to remove dust and any other impurities.

It contains a combination of fruits, veggies, nuts, and seeds, including blueberries, plums, papayas, peaches, cherries, pears, apples, and cranberries. Various minerals and vitamins have been added, as has cuttlebone for calcium. The issues here are that this food is relatively expensive and that it contains dyes.

---

6. Brown’s Tropical Carnival Gourmet Small Hookbill Food

Brown’s Tropical Carnival Gourmet Small Hookbill Food gives your parrot a combination of different textures, flavors, and sizes to create an enjoyable foraging experience. It’s filled with seeds, grains, nuts, vegetables, and fruits and has been fortified with nutrients.

It also includes beneficial bacteria and antioxidants for healthy digestion and has been specifically formulated for medium-sized parrots like African Greys. However, this parrot food contains dyes and might contain too many seeds.

---

7. Lafeber Tropical Fruit Nutri-Berries Parrot Food

Lafeber Tropical Fruit Nutri-Berries Parrot Food comes with nuts, grains, veggies, and fruits that are hand-pressed into shapes that create a satisfying eating experience and promote mental stimulation.

The seeds and grains have been hulled, and omega-3 and -6 have been added for healthy feathers and skin. The veggies and fruits are sulfite free and are naturally preserved and flavored. This means there are no added artificial ingredients.

But this food is pricey, and picky African Greys might not like it.

---

8. ZuPreem Pure Fun Parrot & Conure Bird Food

ZuPreem’s Pure Fun Parrot & Conure Bird Food is called “fun” because it features a variety of flavors, shapes, and textures that are all designed to promote an enjoyable eating and foraging experience. These include fruits, vegetables, seeds, and pellets.

Some of the ingredients are peas, carrots, bananas, canary grass seeds, and millet, and the inclusion of pellets among everything else makes this a great supplement for your African Grey.

However, it is fairly pricey and some parrots might not like it. Additionally, dyes are used in the food.

Buyer’s Guide: Picking the Best Food for African Grey Parrots

Before purchasing food for your African Grey, you’ll need to look for what’s the best and most nutritious. That means knowing what to look for when you start shopping, and that’s where this guide comes in. We hope that it can help you in your quest to find your parrot the right food.

Seeds

Look out for seeds. These are essentially the parrot version of junk food, which means parrots tend to love them. Seeds should only make up about 25% of their total diet, or your parrot might encounter health issues, including obesity, high cholesterol, or heart problems.

Nutritional Needs

When you’re shopping for these pre-packaged foods, you’ll need to ensure that they have the right balance of protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals.

Protein ranges from 3% to 15% but should be roughly 12% at a minimum, though it also depends on the fiber content of the food.

The fat content can range from 5% to 12%, with coconut, chia seeds, flaxseed, and red palm oil being the best sources. Vitamins A, B, C, D, and K, along with calcium, are essential for your African Grey.

Understanding Your Parrot

It can help to have an understanding of what your African Grey eats in the wild and mimic it to the best of your ability. So, do your research! Also, remember to remove any fresh, uneaten food after a few hours before it spoils.

Pellets are the most common form of food that constitutes a parrot’s diet because these are made to be nutritionally complete and are part of a balanced diet. Fresh veggies and fruit should make up about 20% to 30% of a parrot’s diet.

Lifestage

As your parrot ages, their diet should change to reflect their current life stage. Ensure that you have food formulated for a juvenile, adult, or senior, depending on your bird’s age. Each life stage has different nutritional requirements, so giving your African Grey the appropriate food for their life stage is essential.

Conclusion

Our favorite food for African Greys is ZuPreem’s Natural Daily Parrot and Conure Bird Food because it has no artificial ingredients and contains healthy things like blueberries and cranberries.

Kaytee’s Forti-Diet Pro Health Parrot Food is affordable and high in protein and contains added DHA, probiotics, and prebiotics.

Lafeber’s Classic Nutri-Berries Parrot Food is our premium choice because its shape promotes foraging and the grains and seeds are hulled.

We hope that these reviews have led you to the right food or at least given you a few ideas of what you should be looking for. After all, what works for one African Grey won’t necessarily work for another!

• See Also: 10 Best Foods for Amazon Parrots 

---

Featured Image Credit: Epic Vision, Shutterstock