Bird Food

The global market for pet bird food is estimated at US $ 345 million in 2018 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 6.3% during the forecast period and will reach the market value of some US $ 700 million by 2030.
In the United States of America 4.6 million households keep 12.6 million companion birds which is an 8% increase in last two decades. Not only are birds kept as pets but people are also feeding wild birds, spending nearly US $ 2.7 billion on bird food. In the recent decades there has been a spike in bird keeping and households owning birds as pets. The increase in general households that keep pet animals and peoples conscious of nature and wildlife in general has resulted in the explosive growth of outdoor feeding, bird keeping and wildlife observation. Birds have ranked fourth in the most popular household pets, after dogs, cats and fish.

Bird diet mostly consists of a “base” diet which is the primary food item or ingredient that the bird is fed on a daily basis and everything else can be considered a snack. Base diets for birds are served in the morning when the bird is hungriest and it should be as nutritionally sound and compact as possible. Many manufacturers specialize in base diets for birds and formulate their products so the bird can get all the nutrients it needs.
Bird food is largely composed of mixes of small whole or broken grain, dehydrated fruits and berries, peanuts, rice, dried eggs, honey, dried insects, grits and mineral and vitamin supplements. Most common small grains that go into mixes are cereals such as crushed maize, barley, proso millet, wheat, oats and buckwheat. Oil seeds, striped and white sunflower seed, safflower, groundnut, rapeseed. In addition to these mixes which will largely and in most cases be the base diet for your pet bird, there are many snacks that birds eat throughout the day and the most beneficial for them are fruits and vegetables such as apples, bananas, berries, oranges , beans, carrots, broccoli, celery, peas and peppers.