Food To Avoid

I know see adverts for clay and it would cost me some American dollars to get it here
 
This is all very intresting, I'm just socking it all up. I am vegiterian but my other family members are not. I read chicken is OK from time to time but not sure. I heard the marrow in the bones is what they like?
 
Yes cooked chicken bones they do enjoy. They crunch down the bones to get to the marrow.
 
This is all very intresting, I'm just socking it all up. I am vegiterian but my other family members are not. I read chicken is OK from time to time but not sure. I heard the marrow in the bones is what they like?



I am a vegetarian too but Alfie likes chicken. People have been known to bring him a 'chicken treat' as obviously I don't but any.
 
NEVER FEED ANY FOODS CONTAINING SALT OR SWEETNERS (Xylitol). - Salt toxicity in parrots can be fatal. For this reason do NOT feed table foods unless you cook without it.

NEVER EVER FEED AVOCADO OR CHOCOLATE OR LEEKS OR MUSHROOMS OR ONIONS
- These are poisonous to ALL PARROTS

DO NOT FEED ANY RED MEAT PRODUCTS
- Its high in protein and fat and they would never eat it in the wild. It could be harmful

Although Parrots can eat eggs, it should ONLY ever be fed in small amounts and ONLY once every 2 weeks. Please MAKE SURE its cooked properly, eggs can be a source of Salmonella.

NEVER OFFER
- Milk / Black coffee or Tea. These are very detrimental to parrots. No caffeine.

High Fat Foods - like cIThips, butter , high fat cheese are very harmful too. Parrots can suffer from high-cholesterol, heart attacks, clogged up arteries and enlarged liver.

DON’T FORGET that DIET is one of the most vital elements of your parrots well being. Everything starting from healthy skin to mental state and ease of training/taming and even ability to talk largely depends on the diet. SO DO PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT YOUR FEEDING YOUR PARROT.
HI I JUST READ YOUR POST AND IT WAS A GREAT HELP AS I AM GETTING AN AFRICAN GREY IN APRIL SO I AM A COMPLETE NOVICE AND NEED ALL THE ADVICE I CAN GET! WHAT IS THE BEST FOOD APART FROM FRESH VEG TO GIVE TO IT? ALSO CAN YOU RECOMMEND ANY GOOD USED USED CAGES I CAN BUY, I AM GRATEFUL FOR ANY HELP ANYONE CAN GIVE ME AS I NEED ALOT OF GUIDANCE.
 
HI I JUST READ YOUR POST AND IT WAS A GREAT HELP AS I AM GETTING AN AFRICAN GREY IN APRIL SO I AM A COMPLETE NOVICE AND NEED ALL THE ADVICE I CAN GET! WHAT IS THE BEST FOOD APART FROM FRESH VEG TO GIVE TO IT? ALSO CAN YOU RECOMMEND ANY GOOD USED USED CAGES I CAN BUY, I AM GRATEFUL FOR ANY HELP ANYONE CAN GIVE ME AS I NEED ALOT OF GUIDANCE.
I'm not sure what it's like where you are, but I purchased two very nice wrought iron cages off of ebay a couple of years ago for $99 U.S. each. Search for large parrot cage, though it may take a while to search through all the options you get. Just be careful of the shipping charges. Also, some Chinese merchants there are offering large cages for very cheap, perhaps to get sales starting again after they had trouble with their epidemic problem. Any disease worries can be dispatched by just washing down the cage with bleach or ammonia.
You can also use what are called 'cat homes', or 'small animal homes': basically they are a 48" high, 24"deep, 32" wide cage on a platform, which are usually relatively cheap for their size as well (there are many with two doors, I got ones with the doors that open downward like a drawbridge, which my birds use as a porch of sorts when I leave the cages open). But you may have to fashion a tray and bottom grate on your own out of something (I used sheet metal aluminum for the tray, and the sides of a junked and then sandblasted shopping trolley/cart as my grates. That's what I used when I wanted to give my birds a larger cage. Just remember, your bird probably isn't picky about what his 'house' will be made of, as long as it has good food and toys inside.
Foods I can't really say; there is so much opinion of what you can feed birds and what you can't. Before I bought my CAG, I read a lot of books and articles about them, and decided that my birds would eat people food. So that's what they have been eating for the past 30 years. So far, no adverse health issues. Just avoid anything in the onion family, anything with caffeine, chocolate, avocado, and you can find other food warnings elsewhere in this forum. However, FWIW, my birds have eaten little bits of all those things without any evidence of being harmed, so I'm guessing that like anything else, a tiny bit would be tolerated. But I wouldn't make any of that stuff a routine food.
What do they eat? Hamburger. Hot dogs. Chicken. Eggs like people eat for breakfast. Pancakes. Waffles. Bacon. Sausage. Orange juice. Grape juice. and of course, oranges, grapes (though my birds will only eat the green ones, and won't touch the red or purple ones!), pears, apples, pineapple, peach, banana, watermelon, lemons. They love pasta and pizza. meatballs. Soup. Bits of my sandwiches. Tuna salad. Broiled fish filet. Roast turkey and chicken. Raisins, peanuts, pistachios, walnuts, almonds, peanut butter cookies, mashed/fried/baked potatoes, cucumber, carrots, tomato, and general salad. Steamed veggies, also stir fried ones. I don't give them steak, because they don't have the teeth to chew it. Though, I have shredded roast beef into tiny bits and they seemed to enjoy that.
Oh, and get rid of your non stick cookware; when the non stick coatings get too hot, they give off fumes which can kill your bird. I use cast iron frying pans, and Visions brand clear ceramic pans and pots.
Moderation in all things.
30 years in, they're both healthy, as were the cockatiels and lovebirds that I had that passed away after a normal lifespan (20 to 25 years), having eaten people food as their primary diet.
Just don't give them a primarily seed diet! It's not complete nutritionally.
For non meal times, I leave some of Lafeber's 'nutriberries' in their bowls daytime and overnight, so they can munch whenever they're hungry if I'm not cooking. Supposedly, they are a complete nutritional diet, and they come in a half dozen different flavors.
JMHO.
Good luck with your new bird!
 
Hi first of all I will say I hope the Covid-19 virus is not affecting you too much, in answer to you birds diet that you are giving them it will be wrong for me to agree that human foods will not affect them in non positive ways, we all can look back to when birds diets was not known or understood and most of the birds alive now that had been born before the seventies had been fed on some very bad diets and still lived for a long life. most parrots in the wild are opportunities feeders, they eat what ever they can get and yes at times this can be meat. the problem with our foods is the additives and the preservative used even down to the way you cook your foods, in oils or added salts ect. ok your birds may live to there expectant age of around 66 years but can I ask do you weigh them? too much fatty foods can lead to problems, I will tag @DizzyBlue and @Roz on this subject, please do not try this diet with a eclectus it will defiantly dye young. you can have your own findings on the subject but I am certain most professional in parrots will not agree and I do not think it is something we should be advising our members to the way of a good diet.
 
I only have a CAG and a WC pionus at the moment, with no plans to acquire more birds, as they would probably out live me. The grey has maintained about 450 grams since first reaching adulthood, and the pionus about 240 grams. Both are quite physically active. The pionus has always been healthy, and the CAG, other than bronchitis at around age one, has been healthy ever since. While we continually search for what is a 'good diet' and a 'bad diet', even the most researched, human diets, are constantly being revised as we learn new things. For example, the great cholesterol and saturated fat scare that went on for 50 years, was finally debunked back in 1999 with the conclusions of the huge Framingham study, but we are only now starting to revise the dietary recommendations because of that (though, most doctors are still recommending a 'low fat, high carb' diet because that's how they were taught).
If certain diets have been proven to be detrimental to the health of a species, I certainly understand why those foods should be eliminated. But other than that, it's hard to insist that a particular diet is necessarily harmful if those who eat it, are enjoying a long and active life. My avian experience is limited to CAGs, WC pionus, cockatiels and lovebirds, so I cannot comment on what eclectus might eat. Unless we have controlled studies showing exactly what in the diet is killing them, it will remain uncertain. Remember, too, that different vets will also have different opinions on bird diets, though many, I'm sure, will just go along with whatever is being touted in current literature. However, as above, there is precious little controlled studies to rely on. So I stand by my 'moderation in all things', unless something in particular is proven to be very harmful.
Just because lots of lay persons believe something, doesn't automatically make it true.
 
Many human foods can be given to our flying friends natural foods in most cases are fine, like your birds mine are very active and cane have a little of the fatty side and will go mad on chicken, cooking wise boiled and microwaved or grilled is the safest ways to prepare foods, but we get a ot of people whom have no idea on what is good or not or even balancing there diet, so as a site they look at we have to be careful just how we advice as to be honest each bird may have different needs to keep them strong, yes the eclectus has to be kept on a mainly veg diet vey little fruit or seed. as they have a very low metabolism
 
@nightfly .
Over here in the UK you can be prosecuted for not feeding a suitable diet so feeding human foods all the time is a big no-no most especially a lot of the items on your list.
The government increased the fines for people breaking the law on animal welfare to £20,000, 51 weeks in prison and a lifetime ban on keeping any pets.

Obviously depending on what country you live in depends on country law
 
@nightfly .
Over here in the UK you can be prosecuted for not feeding a suitable diet so feeding human foods all the time is a big no-no most especially a lot of the items on your list. <snip>
Any idea what gov't statute defines what is a 'suitable diet'? I'm curious as to what they decided upon for specific species, and how they came about deciding on only those foods. I didn't know that there were any comprehensive studies done, well, anywhere, to figure out what each species is allowed to eat. I understand that it would be a poor idea to feed animals spoiled or contaminated food, but otherwise edible things that pretty much every other animal can eat safely? Over here in the U.S., the only study done was on poultry, to determine the minimal requirements to keep them healthy enough to grow so they can slaughter them for food. That, unfortunately, is the American priority for not only chickens, but cattle and pigs that will be used as food.
My google search didn't show up any studies on limitations on what to feed parrots other than the already known items which are toxic in excess (caffeine containing items, avocado, onion family veggies, etc.), only the nutritional deficiencies that can result from inadequate diet, known to exist in some species. Even worse, are the sites that still recommend mainly seed diets! Any ideas on where to find this information? Because if indeed there were studies done to determine which things are truly bad for my birds, I want to know.
Even such articles such as https://www.researchgate.net/public...acids_Veterinarian_and_ethological_approaches
which is already over 7 years old, only offer what is already known, and not anything specific other than 'when fed human foods', not listing what tha actually refers to, as actually good or bad, and is filled with 'might be', 'suggests', 'may cause', etc., giving reason to doubt that they were actually able to come to conclusions based on fact based research. Plus, an obvious giveaway, is the suggestive mention of dietary fat intake being causative for avian cardiovascular disease as was suspected in humans (which was disproven years ago), so it appears that the lipid myth has been spread among not just humans medical societies, but for other species as well, all without any science to prove it. ( I plead guilty to forcing that dietary restriction on my patients for many years, and felt quite bad when the results came out that reported that there was no corellation between human cardiovascular disease and saturated fat dietary intake. I was a nurse, now semi-retired).
In short, I have had the diet discussion with lots of other bird owners and vets over the years, and none were ever able to come up with more than 'everybody knows' anecdotal references to support their suggestion that I should follow their recommendations for my parrot's diet. Other than known dietary nutritional deficiencies, there seems to be little to suggest that a balanced human diet (other than the known toxic compounds) would be detrimental to a bird's health.
 
I'm no expert but Dora eats quite a lot of human foods......or maybe it's the other way around as we tend to eat a lot of veggies and fruits, pasta, noodles and seeded bread, but little in the way of cheeses, eggs and no meat or fish here. 😁
 
I make sure there's no added salt in anything they get mine do get a little finger of toast once a week with fruit puree on it so they can have their vitamin and mineral supplement and also use it to give medication to those that need it. Defo no things like pizza sharing going on over here ….. that's one thing they would have to fight me for!
Think the government left the suitable diet bit definition to the vets to decide @nightfly
I know that they have said that anybody putting cats on a vegan diet over here will be prosecuted
 
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