What is the Perfect Diet for a Macaw?
Macaws are stunning, intelligent, and full of personality, but when it comes to feeding them, they’re also one of the easiest parrots to get wrong. A poor diet is one of the biggest causes of health and behaviour problems in captivity, and sadly, too many macaws spend their lives eating the same thing from the same bowl, day after day.
The truth is, a healthy macaw diet is not complicated, but it does require variety, balance, and a bit of creativity. Here’s how to feed your macaw so they can truly thrive.
Morning: Fresh, Colourful, and Full of Life
A macaw’s morning meal should be mostly vegetables, around 80% of what’s in the bowl, with the remaining 20% made up of soaked or sprouted seeds, fresh herbs, edible flowers, a sprinkle of pure bentonite clay once a week, and some fruit if your bird can tolerate it.
Seasonal vegetables keep things interesting and nutritionally rich. Think dark leafy greens, peppers, carrots, courgette, broccoli, squash, sweet potato, peas, and okra. You can rotate what you offer so your macaw never gets bored.
🦜 Sprouted or soaked seeds boost nutrient absorption and are much gentler on digestion than dry seeds, they're considered a super food in the world of parrot diet and are completely bioavailable, meaning your parrot is better able to absorb nutrients from them.
🦜 Fresh herbs such as basil, parsley, dill, or coriander add flavour and antioxidants.
🦜 Edible flowers like hibiscus, rose, calendula, and dandelion bring extra vitamins and foraging fun.
🦜 Bentonite clay helps bind and flush toxins from the body (just a tiny pinch once a week is enough).
🦜 Fruit should be an occasional addition, not the focus, berries, pomegranate, apple, mango, and kiwi are all great in moderation. If you wish to offer daily fruit, choose low sugar options, like elderberries, blueberries and blackberries.
Feeding this way mimics the variety a macaw would experience in the wild, where they naturally seek out a wide range of textures, colours, and tastes.
Evening: Dry Food That Encourages Foraging
Evening is the time for a dry meal, and there are two good options: a high-quality cold-pressed pellet or a combination of dry mix and seed mix.
At The Aviary, our Soothing Dry Mix is designed to be completely seed-free, so you can pair it with the Soothing Seed Mix or your own choice of high-quality seeds without doubling up on ingredients. Both mixes are made from human-grade produce, with a wide variety of vegetables, herbs, flowers, and botanicals to give your macaw something different in every mouthful.
🦜 Always serve either pellets or seeds with dry mix - never both together - to keep the diet balanced and avoid overloading with any one ingredient.
🦜 Avoid cheap pet shop seed mixes, which are often full of sunflower seeds, peanuts, dried fruit and low-quality fillers.
Nuts: Special, Not Standard
Macaws love nuts, and they do need the healthy fats they contain, but they should never form the main part of a meal or diet. In the wild, macaws work hard to find high-fat foods, burning off the calories through flight and foraging. In captivity, it’s easy for those calories to pile up, leading to weight gain and liver problems.
Nuts are best used as training rewards, hidden inside foraging toys, or given as occasional treats. Rotate between pine nuts, almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, pistachios, and macadamias to keep things exciting.
Variety is Vital
The perfect diet for a macaw isn’t about one “magic” food, it’s about variety. A diet full of different textures, flavours, and colours doesn’t just keep your bird healthy, it keeps them engaged and happy.
A bored parrot is a destructive parrot. A well-fed parrot with an interesting diet is a joy to live with. By feeding fresh in the morning, dry in the evening, and making high-fat foods a fun challenge, you’re giving your macaw the best chance at a long, healthy, and fulfilled life.
If you’d like to explore our full range of macaw-friendly foods, including our Soothing Seed Mix, Soothing Dry Mix, and pure Bentonite Clay, you can find them in our shop. Every purchase helps support Macaw Mountain in Honduras, so your parrot eats well, and wild parrots get a better future too.