Taste Buds

Taw5106 · Mar 11, 2017

Yesterday while at the vet, the tech told me that parrots do not have taste buds. This came up because they asked me how Venus is about taking her medicine and thankfully she's easy. I can put it in a spoon and she'll drink it. So I started searching online to see what I would find about parrots having taste buds and didn't find much, especially trustworthy sites. Thoughts on this topic? Venus gets possessive over pomegranate and all three of mine go nuts for popcorn.

Do parrots have taste buds? | Science Focus

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GaleriaGila · Mar 11, 2017

Thanks for that article.
I had always heard that parrots have such poor taste and smell that hot peppers really excite and stimulate them. And they're very healthy (lots of good green and great nutrents)! So I give the Rickeybird lots! The only downside... when he eats a pepper, then preens, then wants to cudddle, it's a very incendiary experience.
I buy several kinds...
Poblanos, to stuff the end between the bars tightly (above a perch) so the Rbird can nibble at his leisure.
Jalapenos and Serranos, to toss into the cage's snack-bowl, to trick him into entering so I can shut the door. There's no such thing as a chile that isn't good for them. If he absolutely does NOT want to go back into his cage, a big fat Anaheim will always do the trick.
I posted a video of the bird eating one in the thread about beak flavors, and you can hear me sneezing!

SailBoat · Mar 11, 2017

As part of the "I Love Amazons - ..." Thread, I provided a segment that touches on the subject of Taste Buds as part of the segment: Dry Tongue – Wet Tongue? See the lower part of page 5 for that segment.

As part of that segment, I had not gone into great deal regarding Taste Buds, but more to the fact that there is much more going on inside that Beak. The area of the Beak and inside have a number of nerve endings that have more abilities than just keeping them from chewing on their Tongue.

It will not likely answer all your questions, but it will Stop you from just accepting that there is nothing much going on in there!!!

Kentuckienne · Mar 11, 2017

I gained a parrot's good will through food, so I learned what he liked. He could absolutely taste sweet, salty, and oily things. He could absolutely taste bitter- which made giving him medicine hard. He love ice cream best of all. He loved mango and peach and tart juicy apples. He loved smoked salmon, ranch dressing, and pizza. I don't know if he could taste sour or hot. In fact, birds seem NOT to taste hot pepper. I've put it in wild bird seed to discourage squirrels. The squirrels hate pepper but the birds don't seem to know it's there. So I maintain that birds most certainly do taste things. We can't know how things taste to them, but he liked everything that I did, just about. Birds have more structures in their eyes than we do, and they can see ultraviolet light - so the world must look very different to them, much richer. Maybe taste is the same way, or maybe ours is richer because of the varied diet humans have evolved to eat. As SailBoat says - they have so many nerve endings in their beaks and tongues that perhaps they have alternate ways of distinguishing tastes. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

RavensGryf · Mar 11, 2017

I have heard that parrots have a poor sense of taste, and that "flavors" in packaged bird foods is more for marketing and to appeal to the humans. Maybe it's more mouth feel and texture, or looks of it that appeal to certain parrots one way or another?

If parrots had a great sense of taste... Raven wouldn't literally run to his (Harrison's) pellet dish when I fill it, and eat super fast like he's starving lol. If anyone has tasted Harrison's out of curiosity, you know what I mean!

GaleriaGila · Mar 12, 2017

Harrison's definitely needs some hot-sauce or something...

Taw5106 · Mar 12, 2017

RavensGryf said:
I have heard that parrots have a poor sense of taste, and that "flavors" in packaged bird foods is more for marketing and to appeal to the humans. Maybe it's more mouth feel and texture, or looks of it that appeal to certain parrots one way or another?

If parrots had a great sense of taste... Raven wouldn't literally run to his (Harrison's) pellet dish when I fill it, and eat super fast like he's starving lol. If anyone has tasted Harrison's out of curiosity, you know what I mean!

(Raising my hand) I have and they definitely need hot sauce or something. Mine won't eat Harrison's but will eat Rowdy Bush.

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plumsmum2005 · Mar 12, 2017

Harrisons makes excellent flinging missiles though.

wrench13 · Mar 12, 2017

I wont give anything to Salty that I have not tried first. Used to be the same way with my horse. That delicious molasses grain mix that smells go good tastes like, well lets say once was enough - you horse people know what I am talking about. Salty eats roudybush, which def could use some hot sauce, Gail.

Me personally think the nerve endings in parrots beaks are more for texture then tastes, which is why they like stuff with certain texture, like popcorn, or raw corn. But they def do taste oils, I think, hence the love of nuts, the oilyer the better, at least for Salty. To me, pine nuts taste like grease, but he love them. As they say. there is not accounting for taste.

I do have one story about peppers and parrots. My YNA, Winston, used to love hot dried chiles, just love them. One time I was hand feeding them to him, by HAND. And then had to relieve myself, badly, and did so without first thoroughly washing my hands. YIKES, is all I can say in mixed company, and I never forget again.

texsize · Mar 12, 2017

wrench13 said:
I wont give anything to Salty that I have not tried first. Used to be the same way with my horse. That delicious molasses grain mix that smells go good tastes like, well lets say once was enough - you horse people know what I am talking about. Salty eats roudybush, which def could use some hot sauce, Gail.

Me personally think the nerve endings in parrots beaks are more for texture then tastes, which is why they like stuff with certain texture, like popcorn, or raw corn. But they def do taste oils, I think, hence the love of nuts, the oilyer the better, at least for Salty. To me, pine nuts taste like grease, but he love them. As they say. there is not accounting for taste.

I do have one story about peppers and parrots. My YNA, Winston, used to love hot dried chiles, just love them. One time I was hand feeding them to him, by HAND. And then had to relieve myself, badly, and did so without first thoroughly washing my hands. YIKES, is all I can say in mixed company, and I never forget again.

I have not thought about that oat mix for horses since I was a little kid. It did smell soooo good. The feed room always had that smell when you went in. Never thought to try it myselfe.

Kentuckienne said:
I gained a parrot's good will through food, so I learned what he liked. He could absolutely taste sweet, salty, and oily things. He could absolutely taste bitter- which made giving him medicine hard. He love ice cream best of all. He loved mango and peach and tart juicy apples. He loved smoked salmon, ranch dressing, and pizza. I don't know if he could taste sour or hot. In fact, birds seem NOT to taste hot pepper. I've put it in wild bird seed to discourage squirrels. The squirrels hate pepper but the birds don't seem to know it's there. So I maintain that birds most certainly do taste things. We can't know how things taste to them, but he liked everything that I did, just about. Birds have more structures in their eyes than we do, and they can see ultraviolet light - so the world must look very different to them, much richer. Maybe taste is the same way, or maybe ours is richer because of the varied diet humans have evolved to eat. As SailBoat says - they have so many nerve endings in their beaks and tongues that perhaps they have alternate ways of distinguishing tastes. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I to think people under-rate the ability of parrots to taste food.
In the wild having the ability to taste subtle differences would be life and death to them.
As a side note the ability to see in ultraviolet is probably a major factor in there poor night vision. They would have to give up some number of rods and or cones in the retina in order to have receptors for ultraviolet.

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