Pet birds maintained on these nutritionally incomplete diets frequently show signs of deficiencies particularly in iodine, vitamin A and calcium. Supplemented seed based diets and manufactured diets are both formulated to be nutritionally complete. Calcium and phosphorus are essential for pet birds for the formulation and maintenance of the skeleton and an imbalance of these results in a variety of disease conditions including rickets. The balance of these two nutrients is very important and most seeds do not contain calcium at the ideal levels.
Manufacturers ensure that the correct balance is achieved by supplementing seed diets with calcium.
Softbills are popular pets with more experienced birdkeepers.