WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PARROT DIETS- The diet of the captive Parrot is very much disputed & has been since aviculture began. With articles spread across the internet you would have thought that it would be easier than ever to find out the best Parrot diet, sadly this isnt the case. Sadly the internet is full of conflicting opinion & misinformation that is taken as fact & spread accross the internet within months. This article will bring you the truth & what is the best diet for the Bird, how they feed in the wild. I think that the term Parrot diet is where a lot of issues lie, there are about 372 types of Parrot who all have a unique diet & come from different parts of the world, to generalise a species & their dietary needs can be very dangerous. Now we need to get the boring bit out of the way first, but dont worry it wont take long. All of the food that enters the beak of the Parrot you are caring for should be 100% Organic, yes I mean everything, even seeds & nuts! The biggest cause of death to wild Birds today is agriculture, but the main reason in agriculture is the use of herbicides, pesticides, weed killers, insect killers & rodenticides. These things are poisons & they can kill your Parrot as well as wild Birds, the problem is that you wont see the harm in feeding non- Organic, but the damage is happening slowly inside whilst they appear happy & playful. Just washing & peeling the food is not enough to remove these toxins. If you cant afford to buy Organic then home grow fresh foods in Organic conditions, even if you life in a flat you can still grow Organic foods, there really is no excuse but laziness. Parrots, the evil carnivore Birds, I am sorry to disappoint you but this is a myth. No Parrot except the ground Kea consumes carrion at all & this myth stemmed from a group of tourists with no Parrot knowledge, from a distance claiming that they witnessed wild Congo African grey Parrots feeding on snails in Africa, the claim escalated & now it is believed that Parrots are full blown omnivores gnawing on the bones of carrion. People who work closely with wild Parrots & study them have never ever seen them feed on snails, let alone carrion. All you need to do is look at the digestive system & beak shape of the Parrot to know that they would never gnaw on the bones of carrion & their body is not designed to eat meat. I will use the African grey Parrot as an example here, everything thought to be gained from consuming carrion is a nutrient present in palm nuts, something which make up a massive 80% of the wild diet of the grey, yet people still fall for this myth despite there being no solid & clear evidence at all in favour of carrion feeding. Carrion feeding vultures from the same part of Africa have to have stomach acid that can dissolve metal, little or no feathers on the face, a small crop & short digestive tract just to be able to survive the deadly bacteria on the carrion that builds up in the high African temperatures, Parrots have a famously poor resistance to bacteria, a large crop to digest leafy matter & a long digestive tract to absorb the most nutrients from fibrous foods. It is common knowledge among the worlds leading avian vets & avian nutritionists that the consumption of meat & fish leads to liver disease, kidney disease, diabetes & gout as well as a higher risk of arthritis & other diseases, but these issues normally occur in the Parrots senior years after a life of damage from harmful things in meat & fish. Seed or pellets? Well both of course! You may think that pellets are not natural, but you tell me where a wild Parrot would find any of the old dry junk in a Parrot seed mix, that is not natural either. A seed mix diet lacks at least 37 essential nutrients from the Parrots diet, supplementation is rarely effective & to supplement the diet shows that they are not getting all they need. Seeds in their sprouted form are so low in fat, but unlike months old Parrot seed it is packed with nutrients. You can buy Organic sprouting seeds & a sprouter for a reasonable price & the Parrot will be so much better for it. The main thing against pellet feeding is the lack of moisture from the diet, but seed mixes are not fresh & have no moisture also. A 100% Organic pelleted diet such as Harrisons Bird food is just perfect & does them so much good. With a constant supply of filtered water & lots of fresh foods, the moisture in their diet will be at an adequate level. Dairy products for calcium & friendly bacteria, Parrots are not mammals & have existed far longer than humans, if they needed milk for calcium then that would have been an evolution process long ago. Parrots have been able to gain adequate ammounts of calcium from plant based sources & maintain a healthy gut in the process since long before humans walked the earth. Birds are lactose intolerant & the acidic form of calcium designed to help a calf grow a lot in a short space of time actually strips calcium from the bones of a Bird. As their gut is not designed to deal with any sort of milk, dairy can lead to all sorts of gut isues because it actually removes friendly bacteria & irritates the gut. Sometimes dairy products are fortified with vitamin D, which is appealing to the Parrot owner as some species of Parrot such as the African grey are prone to vitamin D deficiency in captivity. The vitamin D in dairy products will not give them adequate levels & feeding toxic food to the Bird is wrong. Acces to direct sunlight outside will provide correct vitamin D levels & full spectrum UV lighting above their cage or aviary will help too. Your Parrot may like having some of your human food but it is toxic to them, the damage being done is not able to be seen before it is too late. You may think feeding them human food has never done them any harm but you cant see their internal organs, Birds hide illness well & can play as normal right up to death. Human food is not a good way to provide a varied diet, it is doing them damage wether you accept that or not. The only thing your Parrot should drink is filtered water, not even a tiny sip of your drink & only eat fruits, vegetables, pulses, grains, legumes, blossoms, buds, grasses, leaves, palm & other safe tree nuts, flowers, pellets & sprouted seeds. Your Parrot may enjoy eating human food but that is only because they know no better, show them that there is a better way & it will keep them healthy, strong & disease free for life, feed them as nature intended. There are some things in the wild Parrots diet that isnt available to buy for your captive Parrot, but you would be amazed just what you can get, from palm nuts to sugar cane there are so many wild foods available. If you make their diet as close to a natural diet as possible in a domestic setting, your Parrot will feel so mugh healthier inside & be free of most diseases, with their risk of senior & premature arthritis dramatically reduced. Your Parrot could be more alert than ever, live longer & have far less risk of developing disease & illness. Who are you to deny them their right to that? See pictures of Ollie the orange wing Amazon below. He came to me after being fed seed mix, tap water & human food for 9 years. When Ollie came to us he was snappy, had such bad arthritis that he couldnt walk or move quickly & did everything with a stiff shake, his feathers were awful, his nares were swollen & he had been suffering from a bad tummy for 9 years. He wouldnt touch any healthy foods & when given palm nuts which make up about 20% of their wild diet, he growled at them & wouldnt come near. Slowly he tried Harrisons Bird foods & once he tried it he wouldnt touch the seed. Ollie then began to try Organic fresh foods & couldnt get enough of it. Ollie now shows no interest in human food & adores everything in his 100% Organic diet. After just 3 weeks his nares were not swollen & he stopped being grumpy slightly, his tummy was a bit better too. Now Ollies arthritis has reversed, you can see his nobbly joints but they are less swollen & he strides about strongly, hi tummy is not bad very often & he is a soft gentleman who is not ever grumpy. We tried him on palm nuts again the other day & he adores them, the eye pinning & happy squeels coming out of him said it all. This is not an isolated case, my rescue has over 100 residents from Parrots & lories to finches & canaries, species wide this happens every time a sick or weak one comes in, they all transform & end up living in large outdoor flights or being able to fly out of the cage for hours at a time when they would fall straight to sleep at first. You will be amazed at the change in them. (C) Birds- live as nature intended.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 19:05:50 +0000
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