Conure diet myths vs. facts

Tarislar

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Oct 31, 2010
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Trying to find reliable information on bird care seems to be a minefield. Just about every person you run into is ready to jump up on a soap box and tell you that what you're doing is wrong and that you should instead be doing something else "OR YOU WILL KILL YOUR BIRD!!!!"

Almost none of this advice is backed up by any facts or even logic. So in an effort to find out the truth, for the sake of my beloved bird, I'd like to ask for some information, this time hopefully supported by facts.

Stuff I'm fairly sure of:
Chocolate is toxic: This one makes sense, and I also came across an article that listed the actual chemical in it that makes it so. Humans have the ability to filter it out and process it, but most animals don't. Makes sense, I don't expect to see a flock of parrots in the wild popping into the corner store for a mars bar. I'm good here. Chocolate = bad for birdy. No problem. Moving on.

Fruit seeds/pips, e.g. apple seeds and peach pits are toxic: I know they actually contain traces of cyanide. They're bad for humans too, but the trace amounts won't kill us outright. The feeding habits of most birds in the wild generally won't see them dig all the way to the core of a fruit to eat the seeds. They'll bite and nibble here and there and then move on to something else that catches their fancy. I'm good here. Don't feed birdie fruit pits. No problem.

Stuff I'm unsure of:
Avocado - WARNING: read the rest of this paragraph before commenting From what I can figure out, Avocado leaves, bark and the skin of the fruit contains a toxin which is also hazardous to humans. The fruit itself does not contain this toxin. I've even heard of some parrot breeders who swear by avocado in the diets of their parrots for healthy, shiny feathers.

Also, as a kid, my parents had various birds which we rehabilitated, two of which were Cape Parrots (since we actually lived in the Eastern Cape in South Africa). These parrots moved around the yard all day on their own and were brought in every evening by my mom. They spent a fair amount of time in our Avocado tree, where they wreaked unholy havoc on the thing and any avocados it bore. These parrots were perfectly fine. Now both the parrots and the tree were native to the area, and I know Cape Parrots often stop by in avo trees, yet I've never heard of them dropping dead in the wild around avo trees. Leads me to wonder a bit about this. Maybe the wild ones were just smart enough not to eat the bark, leaves and skin?

Regardless, I'm not going to start feeding my birds avo any time soon. For one I know it's fairly high fat. Still, I've always wondered about this whole thing. Anyone got anything to add?

Iceberg Lettuce This is the standard light green leafy stuff found in most salads. There are other types of lettuce, hence the distinction, but this one is most common. Now I cannot find a list anywhere of any actual TOXIN in this stuff that could be harmful to birds. All I can find is that it's not particularly nutritious to anyone. I'm sure it has its fair amount of vitamins and minerals, but there's just not enough nutrition there to live on.

The only harm I can see this stuff causing to a bird is if you expect it to live on it with nothing else to eat, in which case it would die of starvation/malnutrition. Giving your bird a leaf of fresh and clean lettuce to nibble on and play with in addition to its regular healthy diet should not in any way be bad. Can anyone offer any evidence to the contrary?

Cabbage This really makes no sense, but you can find people all over the net telling you that "IF U FEED UR BIRD CABBAGE U WILL KEEEEL EEET!!!!!!111" I've never yet found any scientific backup to this. In fact, one of the high quality, scientifically balanced parrot pellet makers (either Roudybush or Harrisons - I forget which) has a product containing cabbage.

So can anyone offer any scientific or logical evidence on why cabbage "WILL KEEL UR BIRD!!!11" or is this just another fallacy that keeps being repeated?

Parsley No idea why. Keep seeing it listed as toxic. Anyone got any idea what it contains that's toxic or any more evidence other than "somebody on the interwebs said so"?
 

Spiritbird

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Parsley is not toxic to birds. Lettuce is not toxic but it is not nutritious either. Stick to the dark green leafy vegies. Cabbage is not listed in my resourse as a food for birds (Phoenix Landing cook book). I give you the link to this cookbook should you be interested. It contains lots of educational information as well as receipes. I do not work for this organization just a believer in bird rescue and education.

http://www.phoenixlanding.org/books.html
 
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DaphDaph

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Nov 3, 2010
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I'm a new bird parent too...Green Cheeked Conure. I've found conflicting information all over the internet just like you did.
I how found out from my Bebe that she loves blueberries...which some said would stain clothes. So I will have to be careful with what I wear....but i will continue to add to hear veggie bowl because I love watching her eat them. She gets so excited she starts bobbing her head when she eats them. She also loves carrot (the shredded kind in a bag because it is simple for me) and spinach leaves.
I'm interested to hear the responses from the other Conure owners.
 
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Tarislar

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Oct 31, 2010
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Well my sun conure is weaning currently. I'm trying to drop the middle feeding. He eats like crazy, but he seems to take quite a long time to digest what he eats. I'm feeding him steamed sweetcorn, steamed broccoli and steamed carrot.

I give him some fruit, apple, banana and plum in the morning.

I also make Harrison's High Potency Fine pellets available.

He LOVES the corn. I have to break open each kernel and squeeze it out. He also goes nuts for apple. Not so keen on the broccoli. He barely regards the pellets as food. Usually toying with them and then spitting them out.

I've tried pressing the pellets into fruit to soak up the juice and that usually makes him more interested in eating them.

Today in an effort to get him to get something other than corn and apple in, I made a mash of different veggies and some harrison's pellets. Warmed it up for him and he munched it all down with relish. Took about 6 hours for his crop to clear though and I ended up lightly massaging a tight ball of food in his crop at about 9:30pm. (Crop was clear by 11 and I fed him his nightly formula.)

Can't get him to drink water though. He seems to get all his moisture from the fruit and veggies and his formula mixes in the morning and night.

He seems very healthy, active and playful.

Anyway, any tips or ideas, feel free to drop them in here if you have the experience.
 

sigaru

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Nov 16, 2010
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western massachusetts
Parrots
Freddie Mercury, cinnamon mutation green-cheek conure
i don't know if you've already found all of your answers, but i might be able to help just a little. i don't have super experience with birds, and have not had any for a little while [and getting one tomorrow though!!], but i have bunnies and had a guinea pig [he passed the beginning of this year..i was so sad], which are both very similar in diet requirements and no-no's. my answers are for the iceberg lettuce and the cabbage. as you said, iceberg lettuce has almost no nutritional value for anyone, it's mostly water and "roughage" [fiber]. in the same sense that celery isn't usually the best thing to feed to pets, neither is the iceberg lettuce. it just takes more out of the animal to digest than they take in, which turns out to be bad for them, not due to toxins or anything but that it is mostly sort of taking away nutrition. as spiritbird said, dark leafy greens are good. as for the cabbage, some animals [such as bunnies and guinea pigs] cannot release gas [fart or burp either, really], and so if they eat something such as cabbage [broccoli too, i believe], they can become bloated and most often will die if not seen by a vet to release the gas. i do not know if the same is true for birds, but this is my first bet. hope i helped a little!

edit: i have a guess for the parsley. it's not necessarily backed by anything and is probably wrong, and i don't necessarily think that it is super likely, as i don't know a whole lot about this, but it's a possiblity i guess. parsley is very high in vitamin C [i used to feed it to my guinea pig because they need foods high in vitamin C or else they can develop scurvy], and perhaps too much vitamin C is not so good for birds? so perhaps it's more of a "don't feed to much" than "don't feed at all", but i'd only feed it sparingly until you know for sure, just in the case that this is possibly true.. or someone may have just made it up based on some rumor they heard somewhere or something. it's amazing how much false information is out there..
 
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