Question about nuts

I have a very close friend who comes over to my house almost daily. She is however very allergic any type of nut. Can't even been in the same room as them. Unfortunately this means nuts are not an option for my GCC Lizzy as a treat/food. She gets a large variety of other foods though. Some mixed as a mash together some just straight depending on the day and her mood.

Pellets, peas, carrots, apples, bananas, brown rice, sweet potato, some pasta, red chili peppers, red/green bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, grapes and a whole bunch of other stuff that would take too long to list lol. Plus some of whatever I'm eating so long as it's bird safe.

Getting to the point however, is Lizzy missing out because I have to cut nuts from her diet? I have a list of bird safe foods attached to my fridge (it has what feels like 100 or so items on it lol) so I can make sure she is getting variety. And I know what ever I miss will probably be made up in the pellets she eats. I'm just worried I'm not doing right by her without nuts. Is there another food that would be a good subsitute? Or am I just over thinking this and she'll be fine without them?

Nuts are important to birds, but understand the problem... I would lean to more seeds - pumpkin, flax, hemp.

Lentils are another great food source, you can sprout or cook them, mix them in with fresh foods.

I have lentils just haven't gotten around to trying them yet (shame on me I know I know). I would love to try and sprout some. And my fiancée is a vegetarian so I'm sure she'd love them too lol. I just need to find a place for them where the cats can't get to them :/ Lizzy gets a golden feast seed mix every so often, but I know her old owners fed her strictly seeds. Once I got her switched to healthier foods I was wary of reintroducing it as a main staple for fear she'd stop eating the good stuff. It was such a fight to get her switched in the first place. But maybe if I mix the seeds with a birdy bread I won't have to worry about that so much?

Thanks for the quick reply

I am a huge fan of Goldenfeast, but not so much the seed mixes, but they have some awesome mixes for birds, but most have nuts, so they may not be good options. When most of us say seeds for birds, we usually mean flax, hemp, pumpkin, sunflower, safflower, etc., not the seed mix like a parakeet would eat.

Lentils are sooooo good sprouted, we love to eat them too! I just tried sprouting whole peas, but they have a bit of a bitter taste to them, not sure how much the birds will like them, I just tried them a day in, no real tails showing yet.

You can just cook the lentils up for maybe 10 minutes so they are still firm, but not hard. I cook them less for the birds then when I use it for soup or such.

You can mix some seeds into birdie bread for treats, no harm there

Yeah the golden feast mix she's getting is one my local pet store has is bulk bins. It says it's for cockatiel sized birds and doesn't look like it has nuts.

I'll talk to my fiancée about sprouting she has more of the green thumb than I do lol.

I'm cooking her new batch of food as I type this. Turns out my fiancée used the last of the lentils last night for burgers guess it'll have to wait til I go grocery shopping again. Also forgot that I had just crushed up chilli peppers, went to go itch my eye and well.... Owwwwwwwww

I'm excited for my next batch of birdy bread though I think she'll appreciate the seeds addition. I've got new packs of safflower as pumpkins seeds that have yet to be opened.

I don't really feed nuts to my flock at all. I'm not a fan of peanuts, so I typically avoid anything with peanuts in it unless it's pellets, in which case I don't care!

(raw peanuts may have mold spores on them which can make birds sick - especially peanuts in shell... peanuts aren't really nuts either, coming from the legume family instead)


If I end up with a new flock member this year (a cockatoo - not that I was looking for a new member! lol), then I may very well be feeding the occasional nuts here and there.

Our cockatoos would mutiny if there were no nuts... and by nuts, I mean walnut, pistachios, almonds, cashews, pecans, etc... Nuts for a too are important, the essential fatty acids (omega 3 and 6) are extremely important.

If anyone gives you too many nuts are too fatty, its like anything else in life, its moderation and if your bird flies, the nuts won't hurt a bit.

I'm not sure that Thomas has the capability for flight. He might, since he appears to have the required feathers for flight... but I don't know that he *can* fly. The rescue he's with also prefers clipped birds (although I'm against birds with FDB issues being clipped... not my place to say!).

I agree though about foods in moderation.

You could give her some when your friend leaves for the evening, just store them in an airtight container. Nuts in moderation have alot of virtues (I will exclude the peanut ). They are also a great motivational/training treat when they're small and shelled (like pine nuts). My birds burn off everything in flight and rough play so they're lean even though they eat like pigs. So a perch potato should get less fatty stuff.
Now in the warm months especially you could give them to her outside, lessening the chance of crushed particles in the room. There's so many ways around it without getting your friend sick.