Seasoning food for CAG's

[Navygal]

Hello Family:

Is it okay to season your bird's food with - ground pepper, dried sweet basil or dried Italian seasoning?
Does anyone know a list of toxic seasonings?

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Hello Family:

Is it okay to season your bird's food with - ground pepper, dried sweet basil or dried Italian seasoning?
Does anyone know a list of toxic seasonings?

For a start, no onions, garlic, or salt (not toxic, but not good).
I would skip the Italian seasoning because it may contain dried onion or garlic.
To be safe, mix your own seasoning blends. The commercial ones may have added "anti-caking" ingredients or other preservatives that you won't get if you use separate, high quality dried seasonings. Again read the labels for hidden additives. For each her you are considering using I would look on a "bird-safe" list published by an avian vet or organization before adding it. Many are very safe and healthy for our birds, but several are not, or it may be unknown.
I'm not sure how much parrots actually taste seasonings like humans do, but even if they don't taste them, they may have health benefits for birds.

 

[onamom]

As Donna said, I would avoid any commercial seasoning mix from the grocery store. I also would not use pepper (or salt). If you are looking for a dry mix to add in you could try something like this: https://www.chinaprairie.com/fresh-additiontrade-supplements.html

Otherwise, if you are just looking for ways to make their food more interesting, try sprouts and chop if you aren't already. You can add in all kinds of things like flax seed or chia seed, dill herb, fresh thyme or parsley. In general if you are adding a herb, use fresh.

 

[wrench13]

So parrots have 1 tastebud to 100 of ours. That means what is hot as heck to us is merely tangy to them. My basic chop item is lots and lots of the hottest peppers I can find - habenero, jalapeno, ghost, hot red chilles. Salty LOVES his chop and these veggies are very good for them. As long as its nice and spicy, he will eat anything I mix in there. As far as spices - I would not. You'd need to use so much that all sorts of not good things could happen.

 

[LeaKP]

The greys are a picky lot. Chop with all sorts of fresh flavors and spices is all they need really. Strangely, my grey doesn’t like hot peppers. She likes bell peppers and fresh parsley but hot peppers summarily get thrown away.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

The greys are a picky lot. Chop with all sorts of fresh flavors and spices is all they need really. Strangely, my grey doesn’t like hot peppers. She likes bell peppers and fresh parsley but hot peppers summarily get thrown away.

Smart bird- I would toss the hot ones, too!