How much salt is too much?

[kozykitty]

So Gloria (BFA) loves nachos. Basically it's the chips. I happen to get really good chips (Way Better snacks) which are made with sprouted seeds and whole grains. I love them and so does she. They are salted however and that concerns me. I typically just give her a couple of small pieces about the size of a nickel. Is this a bad thing? If I really want to get her excited, I'll put a tiny shred of cheese on the pieces and microwave them for a couple of seconds. That turns her into one happy bird!

 

[wrench13]

Cut it by 3 quarters, once a week and it shouldnt be too bad for her. Processed foods generally are not good for birds, amazons in particular are prone to fatty liver disease and salt... well not good in general.
those are not things that I would be feeding my parrot. he would love to have a cup of coffee in the morning along with and piece of buttered toast and marmalade but he's not getting those either.

 

[Kiwibird]

A nickel sized bite of a chip every once in a while won't harm him at all. Even we give Kiwi the occasional nibble off a chip or piece of a pizza crust, bite off a cookie ext... All good things in moderation though. Junk food should NEVER be part of a parrots daily diet, not even a couple times a week is really ok. Things like that should truly be rare treats.

The biggest issue isn't that the corner off a chip would do them any harm, it's that parrots can start refusing healthy food and only eating junk. And if your parrot refuses to eat anything but potato chips, french fries and pizza, do you let him starve or feed him junk food because it's all he will touch? Therein lies the issue. Amazons are *particularly* prone to this kind of behavior (also notoriously hard to break of it), and have a higher risk of obesity and subsequent health concerns from it than other species.

 

[Mimsy01]

If she loves chips, you could make your own unsalted sweet potato chips. Our health food store sells them as well, just baked, no added salt or fat. Our birds love those.

You could make your baked crackers too with way less salt and fat as well.

 

[plumsmum2005]

If she loves chips, you could make your own unsalted sweet potato chips. Our health food store sells them as well, just baked, no added salt or fat. Our birds love those.

You could make your baked crackers too with way less salt and fat as well.

Definitely go with the make your own and know what's in them - the thing with shop bought per se is that often there are additional and unwanted ingredients in them. Make a batch and share with Fid friends, take in turns? Believe it is also possible to buy parrot crackers??

 

[kozykitty]

I'll see if our organic store has salt free baked ones. I'm fanatic about reading ingredients. The ones I eat have some oil and salt but everything else is very good: sprouted broccoli and radish seeds, flax, chia, etc. along with the corn.

 

[Mimsy01]

I wouldn't over worry about a little. Human foods just tend to have a ton of salt..cause we like it. The rest of those ingredients sounds great. Mine all love sprouted radish by itself.

Look at sodium percents and compare it to some of the pellets and that can help you get an idea of what way high is. i like to share with my birds and it's the best way I can get them to try new foods. I'm always hunting for healthy foods that I would like and they can eat. I make a almond milk/frozen berries/walnut smoothie that everyone loves here..humans and birds.

 

[plumsmum2005]

I wouldn't over worry about a little. Human foods just tend to have a ton of salt..cause we like it. The rest of those ingredients sounds great. Mine all love sprouted radish by itself.

Look at sodium percents and compare it to some of the pellets and that can help you get an idea of what way high is. i like to share with my birds and it's the best way I can get them to try new foods. I'm always hunting for healthy foods that I would like and they can eat. I make a almond milk/frozen berries/walnut smoothie that everyone loves here..humans and birds.

Well you planted the seed so I had to look LOL.
Just checked some Harrisons pellets and the only sodium mentioned is Sodium Selenite @ a quantity of 0.08mg per Kg. So really low, right? The other I have doesn't mention Sodium at all.
Your smoothie sounds really yummy BTW.

 

[Mimsy01]

Ya it's hard to figure out how much is too much salt or added fats. It seems easier most of the time to get either single ingredient foods, or very limited ingredient foods. Making simple smoothies, hot cereals that you can add your own goodies too, ect.

Foo was my food baddy when I got her. She was on a seed diet and it seemed all she did was fling everything and eat the sunflowers. It took about 3 years to completely get her on pellets. Discovering nutriberries was like the best thing. She took to those right away. From there I got her on roudybush and she is finally eating some harrisons as well.

Veggies are still really hit and miss. She won't eat chop, she only likes veggies and fruits she can pick up and they need to be fresh and crisp, and she is very picky about what ones are good and she is prone to change her mind. She does like sprouts and peppers a lot though so that helps. She loves almost all fruit. I'll take finally done chop or just blend it and I can stick things she loves in it so at least some of the mush that clings to her tastys.

Ellie is much easier and I just got her even though she was also on a seed diet. She is at least willing to try everything. She's already eating the pellets and she loves mushed up veggies and fruit, so I can sneak all kinds of things into her diet. If I hold the bowl she will eat anything with enthusiasm. Though she is opposite of Foo and doesn't want bigger hunks.

Everyone loves crackers and pasta though. Gotta love those carbs.

 

[plumsmum2005]

Ya it's hard to figure out how much is too much salt or added fats. It seems easier most of the time to get either single ingredient foods, or very limited ingredient foods. Making simple smoothies, hot cereals that you can add your own goodies too, ect.

Foo was my food baddy when I got her. She was on a seed diet and it seemed all she did was fling everything and eat the sunflowers. It took about 3 years to completely get her on pellets. Discovering nutriberries was like the best thing. She took to those right away. From there I got her on roudybush and she is finally eating some harrisons as well.

Veggies are still really hit and miss. She won't eat chop, she only likes veggies and fruits she can pick up and they need to be fresh and crisp, and she is very picky about what ones are good and she is prone to change her mind. She does like sprouts and peppers a lot though so that helps. She loves almost all fruit. I'll take finally done chop or just blend it and I can stick things she loves in it so at least some of the mush that clings to her tastys.

Ellie is much easier and I just got her even though she was also on a seed diet. She is at least willing to try everything. She's already eating the pellets and she loves mushed up veggies and fruit, so I can sneak all kinds of things into her diet. If I hold the bowl she will eat anything with enthusiasm. Though she is opposite of Foo and doesn't want bigger hunks.

Everyone loves crackers and pasta though. Gotta love those carbs.

Nutriberries are a godsend. Conures in my expereince do prefer totally diff types of fresh stuff to my Plum. Success with sweetcorn, peas, carrots. You have your hands full.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Have to chime in here. :54:

I WANT to say that the birds in the wild don't worry about sodium content, but that would be kind of stupid because our birds are not in the wild, and are dependent on what we feed them (+ what they will eat out of the varieties we offer :54

As far as I know certain raw fruits and veggies DO contain salt. But 'salt' in a more natural kind of way. So we can't really compare that to the salt us (humans) add to processed foods. (Green celery....as an example )

All my fids get the occasional 'human' treat. I don't EVER cook or prepare any kind of food using 'salt'. I DO use various spices, however, and I am aware that some of them still contain 'salt'.

So, as for your original question "how much salt is too much salt", my answer would be: "ANY" amount of artificially added salt would be too much.

Does that make any sense? (And my deepest apologies if that rubbed anyone the wrong way)

 

[Flboy]

he would love to have a cup of coffee in the morning along with and piece of buttered toast and marmalade but he's not getting those either.

Am I missing something? That is the three basic food groups!

 

[Mimsy01]

Well you planted the seed so I had to look LOL.
Just checked some Harrisons pellets and the only sodium mentioned is Sodium Selenite @ a quantity of 0.08mg per Kg. So really low, right? The other I have doesn't mention Sodium at all.
Your smoothie sounds really yummy BTW.

I have some harrisons and it lists sea salt as an added ingredient. But ya, the point would be, the needed amount of salt is going to extremely low. We humans over use it on our own foods typically.

If we use some common sense, I'd imagine wild birds get salt by foods they eat and maybe some of the mineral type clays. Not counting any sea birds who actually have ways to rid salt from their bodies. The only study shown was silly...they put parrots on a 10% salt diet and needless to say they did poorly. But uhm...what the hell is that about...10% is just crazy amounts. They hardly needed a study to tell us that. Pretty much all animals and humans do need salt. But they don't need a ton of added salt, like we humans like to use. I mean do we keep shakers of Vit A around and shake it all over everything. You know how it goes with an excess of pretty much anything. Needed amounts of salt are probably what we naturally find in foods and perhaps a tad extra depending on where that food is grown and what exactly they are eating.

I'd also imagine any preexisting health conditions may contribute to need. Like I have low blood pressure and a thyroid condition and my docs always encourage me to eat more salt. Whereas my mother has hypertension and she is always encouraged to eliminate it from her diet.

I would think a healthy parrot would probably get all he needs from a normal healthy diet. But a little extra salt from some human crackers or chips given as a once in a while treat will not hurt them. Just like a human, though it's certaintly not healthy...if a healthy bird got a hold of a bag of dorito's and ate a bunch behind your back they are probably not going to need a rushing into the vets. Just make sure you put your junk food away next time. :31:

Anyways I'm kinda babbling, but diet interests me, so I can't help myself.

 

[kozykitty]

Foo was my food baddy when I got her. She was on a seed diet and it seemed all she did was fling everything and eat the sunflowers. It took about 3 years to completely get her on pellets. Discovering nutriberries was like the best thing. She took to those right away. From there I got her on roudybush and she is finally eating some harrisons as well.

This is my problem. We adopted Gloria 2 months ago. She's a 30 year old BFA who had been on a seed diet most of her life. The shop that had her for a month before we got her gave her the Kaytee blend and Zupreem fruity pellets. I've been giving her those --more pellets than the blend--plus a couple of nutriberries in her seed dish. The rest is just experimenting. She loves a piece of corn cob on her skewer though I think she just uses that more for tearing up than actual eating. There are some veggies she seems to like and she loves pomegranate. The other thing she loves is plain scrambled eggs. I wonder how often is safe to give her those?

 

[Birdman666]

Yeah, as long as it's in moderation, it's okay.

It's when they eat too much of the stuff that it becomes a health concern.

A chip or two now and then as a treat isn't gonna kill them.

Just realize it's not the best thing for them, and don't give them very much...

 

[dhraiden]

I try to avoid introducing it inadvertently as much as possible. I'm sure it's proportionately available in what they already eat.