About pellet diet

The common misconception is that seed-based diet is often perceived as something TOTALLY different than pellet diet. Well, newsflash - pellets are made out of seeds. I know it's shocking (I'm being sarcastic), but it's not that we are giving our parrots fish and chips all of a sudden. The problem with seed-based diet, or, we should call it whole seed-based diet, is that birds pick what they like, which might result - and if often does - in an imbalanced nutrition in terms of proteins, fats, and micronutrients. Whole-seed based diet is often too low in protein, too high in fat, and lacks micronutrients such as precursors for vitamin A, iodine, iron and it contains wrong calcium-phosphorus balance.

Supplementing for these is really tricky - everyone who tried pipetting exactly one drop of multivitamins in the drinking water will know that. Each time drop size is different, and it smells so terrible that birds refuse to drink the water! Well, that's efficient. NOT. So that was why pellets were developed. And don't get me wrong, pellets are not your answer to everything - there are some really bad pellets out there, so you really have to read the labels and do your research.

If you are considering converting your bird to pellets and think that you won't need to give the bird anything else, again, you are wrong. Birds need a variety in their food as well - seeds, sprouts, greens, fruit, vegetables. Don't leave them out. Try to settle about 50-50% in food routine, where half of the amount is pellets, and another half is the rest - fresh vegetables, fruit, sprouts and some seeds. If you end up slightly above or below below this ratio, it is fine, don't beat up yourself for that. Sometimes we all have busy days and forget to sprout some seeds or forget to order pellets for our spoiled birds. You can read here what my food routine is.

First of all, avoid all pellets that have artificial colouring and preservatives. Read the labels and toss them away. By only looking at these two factors you will reject more than a half of pellets that are on the market. I avoid GMO too. The brands that I particularly like are Harrison's, Totally Organic Pellets and Roudybush. Both Harrison's and TOP are organic. My birds rejected TOP, but love Harrison's, although Harrison's is the pellet that is known as difficult to be converted to.
Update (2015/05/16) - I just found out that Roudybush is not GMO-free.

You want an end diet that results in about 10-14% of crude protein for adult birds, 15-20% for birds in special conditions (geriatric, young up to 9 months old, weaning, raising chicks, molting, recovering from illness or if your vet recommends you for any other reason). Watch out with giving them sunflower seeds - lovebirds love them, but they contain 50% fat. Don't leave them out completely, because fat is what makes their feathers shine. Use sunflower seeds as treats for tricks.

Supplements

If you are following the above described diet, you don't need to give any supplements to your bird. Throw away the grit, lovebirds don't need anyway - even if they are on whole seed-based diet. Sepia, or fish bone, can go too - it's too high in salt. I use it as a perch, I just push it in between the horizontal cage bars - it's does a good job for trimming their nails.