Are too many hemp hearts bad?

[walterbyrd]

Our lovebird loves hemp hearts. We give her human quality shelled organic hemp hearts. See link below.



She loves them as much as sunflower seeds, which has me worried. Do these have as much oil as sunflower seeds? Do I have to worry about fatty liver?





https://www.amazon.com/Approved-Man..._3?keywords=hemp+hearts&qid=1577629857&sr=8-3

 

[noodles123]

I think they can mess with hormones if given in bulk but I'm not positive.

 

[Kiwibird]

Too much of any one food in a parrots diet is bad. With very few exceptions who have more specialized dietary needs (such as hyacinth macaws), the overwhelming amount of parrot species are opportunistic omnivores who eat a wide variety of fruit, nuts and seeds in nature. They need a wide variety of foods in our homes too. Hemp hearts are fine to feed, but only as part of an otherwise varied diet.

 

[chris-md]

Yes to all the above.

With eclectus parrots, they induce hormonal behavior. I caught a snippet (didn’t fact check, to be clear) that they help parrots in general with egg production.

We have an Indian ring neck breeder on this forum, Dani/SilverSage, who has said she would only feed them to breeding birds. Based on what I have seen with my own ekkie, I agree. I’ve long since removed them from my birds diet.

Tiny doses? Sure. Regularly giving a teaspoon with every mean? Absolutely not.

 

[walterbyrd]

Too much of any one food in a parrots diet is bad. With very few exceptions who have more specialized dietary needs (such as hyacinth macaws), the overwhelming amount of parrot species are opportunistic omnivores who eat a wide variety of fruit, nuts and seeds in nature. They need a wide variety of foods in our homes too. Hemp hearts are fine to feed, but only as part of an otherwise varied diet.

She eats other foods, such as millet, Rowdy Bush, and quinoa. But she won't eat fruits or vegetables.


She might eat a little corn.

 

[walterbyrd]

Yes to all the above.

With eclectus parrots, they induce hormonal behavior. I caught a snippet (didn’t fact check, to be clear) that they help parrots in general with egg production.

We have an Indian ring neck breeder on this forum, Dani/SilverSage, who has said she would only feed them to breeding birds. Based on what I have seen with my own ekkie, I agree. I’ve long since removed them from my birds diet.

Tiny doses? Sure. Regularly giving a teaspoon with every mean? Absolutely not.

She gets much less than a teaspoon. In an entire day, in fact less than 1/4 teaspoon, usually more like 1/8th teaspoon. But she is just a 60 gram lovebird.