The best treats for cockatoos are nutritious, appropriately sized foods that add variety without replacing a balanced daily diet, including nuts, seeds, dried or fresh fruit, vegetables and specially formulated parrot treats.

Cockatoos rarely need much encouragement when a favourite treat appears. Whether you share your home with a Galah, Goffin's, Umbrella, Moluccan or another cockatoo species, food can be a powerful source of enrichment and an excellent training tool.

However, not every food your cockatoo eagerly accepts deserves to become a regular treat. Cockatoos can be enthusiastic eaters, and many particularly enjoy foods that are high in fat. Choosing the best treats for cockatoos means looking beyond what your bird likes most and considering nutrition, portion size, variety and how the treat fits into their overall diet.

The good news is that healthy treats do not have to be boring. With the right choices, treat time can support training, encourage natural foraging behaviour and introduce your cockatoo to new tastes and textures.

What Makes a Good Cockatoo Treat?

A good treat should complement your cockatoo's normal diet rather than compete with it.

Your bird's main food should provide balanced everyday nutrition appropriate for their species and individual needs. If you want to look at the wider diet alongside treats, our guide to healthy food for cockatoos covers pellets, seeds, fresh foods and feeding balance in more detail. Treats are extras. They can provide additional variety and enrichment, but giving too many can make it easier for a cockatoo to fill up on favourite foods while leaving nutritionally important foods behind.

This is particularly important with calorie-dense treats such as nuts and sunflower seeds.

Think about treats in terms of value as well as flavour. A small piece of food your cockatoo finds irresistible can be much more useful than handing over a large portion. Breaking treats into smaller pieces also allows you to reward your bird several times during training without giving them a substantial amount of additional food.

Best Treats for Cockatoos to Try

There is no single treat that is perfect for every cockatoo. Individual preferences vary enormously, which is part of the fun of discovering what motivates your bird.

A varied selection can include:

• Nuts: Almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts and other suitable unsalted nuts can make exciting high-value rewards. Their fat content means portions should generally be kept small. You can read more about choosing and serving them in our guide to the best nuts for cockatoos.
• Seeds: Pumpkin seeds, safflower seeds and other suitable seeds can be offered as occasional rewards, particularly if your cockatoo already enjoys them.
• Fresh vegetables: Peppers, carrots, broccoli and leafy greens can add different colours, flavours and textures to treat time.
• Fresh fruit: Berries, mango, melon, banana and other bird-safe fruits can provide an appealing occasional treat. Fruit should still be offered sensibly because of its natural sugar content. Our guide to the best fruits for cockatoos looks at suitable choices in more detail.
• Dried fruit: Small pieces can be convenient for training and foraging. Choose suitable products without unnecessary added sugar, salt or unsuitable additives.
• Specialist parrot treats: Treat sticks, baked treats, natural snacks and other products designed specifically for parrots can provide convenient ways to add variety. You can browse our full range of parrot treats.
• Sprouted seeds: Properly prepared sprouts offer a different texture from dry seed and can be a useful way to broaden your cockatoo's feeding experience. If you have never prepared them before, see our four-step guide to sprouting seeds for parrots.

Rather than searching for one perfect food, experiment with safe options and learn which ones your bird values most.

Cockatoo Treats to Try

If you want ready-made options alongside fresh foods, there are plenty of cockatoo treats designed to add variety, support training and make foraging more interesting. The best choice depends on what motivates your bird, so it can be useful to keep several different types available rather than relying on one favourite.

Here are some options available from Parrot Essentials:

• PUUR Twin Pack Cockatoo Parrot Treat Sticks Kiwi & Eucalyptus - made specifically with cockatoos in mind, these hanging treat sticks give your bird something tasty to pick apart and work at rather than simply eating from a bowl.
• Human Grade Almond Healthy Parrot Treat - 100% human-grade almonds that can be broken into smaller pieces for training or hidden inside foraging toys. Almonds are naturally energy dense, so a little goes a long way.
• Tidymix Mixed Nut Parrot Treat - a useful choice for cockatoos that enjoy nuts, particularly when you want small high-value rewards for training or foraging activities.
• Pumpkin Seeds Parrot Treat - easy to portion into individual rewards, making pumpkin seeds particularly useful during short training sessions or when filling suitable foraging toys.
• PUUR Snack Nut Muesli Natural Mixed Nuts Treat for Parrots 750g - a mixed nut treat that gives you plenty of variety in one bag and can be useful for offering different textures and identifying which nuts your cockatoo values most.
• Brown's Baked Fruit and Veggie Bites Parrot Treats - bite-sized treats made with real fruits and vegetables, including apple, strawberry, sweet potato and carrot. Their small size makes them particularly convenient for training and hiding inside foraging toys.
• Vitapol Maxi Parrot Treat Sticks Twinpack Mixed Fruit 450g - larger mixed-fruit treat sticks suited to bigger parrots, giving cockatoos the chance to pick, chew and work at their food over a longer period.
• Vitapol Vita Line Vegetable Mix Parrot Treat 80g - a vegetable-based option that adds a different type of treato the mix and helps provide variety beyond the nuts, seeds and sweeter fruit-based choices.

You can also browse our wider range of parrot food and treats if you want to experiment with different nuts, fruit, vegetables, natural treats and treat sticks.

Remember that even nutritious treats are additions to the main diet. Nuts, seeds and richer treat sticks are especially useful as occasional rewards, rather than something your cockatoo can eat without restriction.

Treat Sticks and Baked Parrot Treats

Commercial parrot treats can be useful when you want something convenient that has been produced specifically with birds in mind.

Treat sticks, baked snacks and natural seed-based treats can introduce different textures and encourage chewing and food exploration. Some can also take your cockatoo longer to eat than a loose handful of food, extending the experience.

Check the ingredients rather than assuming that every product labelled as a parrot treat should be given freely.

Treats remain treats, even when they contain nutritious ingredients.

Larger products can sometimes be divided into smaller portions or offered periodically rather than remaining constantly available. Always follow the manufacturer's storage and feeding instructions.

How Many Treats Should You Give a Cockatoo?

There is no single portion that suits every cockatoo.

A small Goffin's Cockatoo and a large Moluccan Cockatoo have very different requirements, while activity level, body condition and the rest of the diet also matter.

Instead of thinking only about the number of treats, consider how much extra food you are providing throughout the entire day. Our guide to how many parrot treats and nuts to give per day explores the factors worth considering.

This is especially easy to overlook during training. Ten tiny rewards might be perfectly manageable, while ten whole nuts would represent something very different.

Treats should remain a relatively small part of the overall diet and should never encourage your cockatoo to ignore their nutritionally balanced food.

Watch What Your Cockatoo Actually Likes

Parrots have preferences, and cockatoos can make theirs particularly clear.

One bird may immediately grab a piece of almond while another drops it and searches for something better. Some adore berries, while others would rather dismantle a pepper. These preferences can even change over time.

Use that information.

Try offering several suitable foods and observe which ones your bird consistently chooses first. Reserve the favourites as high-value rewards and use other healthy options to provide everyday variety.

Do not permanently give up on a nutritious food simply because it was rejected once. Parrots can be cautious around unfamiliar foods, and repeated exposure may be necessary before something new is accepted.

Changing the presentation can help too. Try chopping, slicing, grating, hanging or hiding foods rather than always serving them in a bowl.

Finding the Best Treats for Your Cockatoo

The best treats for cockatoos combine enjoyment with sensible nutrition, appropriate portions and opportunities for enrichment.

Nuts, suitable seeds, fresh vegetables, small amounts of fruit, sprouts and specialist parrot treats can all have a place, depending on your bird's normal diet and individual needs. The important part is variety and moderation rather than relying on one favourite food.

Pay attention to what motivates your cockatoo, keep high-fat and high-sugar favourites appropriately portioned, and make treats work harder by incorporating them into training and foraging.

Your cockatoo gets something they genuinely enjoy, while you gain another way to encourage activity, build positive routines and bring greater variety to their day.

For more feeding advice, product guides and parrot care information, visit the Parrot Essentials Blog.