Bird Safe Fresh Foods & Toxic Food Lists + Sprouts

[clark_conure]

ok thanks, the milk was more like every two weeks or so...the string cheese maybe three to five bites once a week. I feel better now, but I'll make sure to not make it habit.

 

[Tami2]

The list for the grains, legumes, veggies, and fruits are mostly from the Feeding Feathers YH-group. The list of foods to avoid is from Buffalo Parrots. List of seeds, well I just looked at a few packages of bird food to get the ingredients off of. I did add a few things to the lists but didn't remove anything.

FF recommends feeding 1 part legumes to 2 part grains, and for this to consist of 45% of the fresh diet. Another 45% would be a variety of veggies, and the last 10% fruits. All of this can be mixed together as a 'mash' diet. Fresh foods should take up a minimum of 25% of the diet, but can take up as much as 90% with treats, pellets, nuts, and seeds taking up the rest. Sprouted seeds are healthier than dry seeds. *Some pellet companies may only recommend no more than 10% fresh foods as having any more may "unbalance" their 'balanced' diets*

Cooked grains - can also be sprouted

• Millet
• Quinoa
• Amaranth
• Whole Oats
• Hulless Barley
• Spelt or Kamut
• Teff
• Brown Rice
• Wild Rice
• Buckwheat

Cooked legumes - or sprouted with 1/4" tails

• Adzuki
• Mung
• Sprouting Peas
• Lentils
• Chickpeas/Garbanzo

Vegetables - Fed fresh, lightly steamed, or even frozen (thawed) out of the frozen section in grocery store

• Pumpkin
• Carrots
• Acorn or Butternut Squash
• Red or Green Pepper
• Kale
• Dandelion Greens
• Mustard Greens
• Collard Greens
• Turnip Greens
• Broccoli
• Celery
• Cucumber
• Romaine or other dark leafy lettuce
• Jicama
• Peas
• Zucchini
• Green Beans
• Tomatoes
• Cabbage
• Chinese Cabbage
• Bokchoy
• Carrot Tops
• Cactus Leaf
• Okra
• Kohlrabi
• Spaghetti Squash
• Cauliflower
• Radish
• Chayote Squash
• Brussel Sprouts
• Escarole
• Endive
• Corn
• Beet Root

Fruits

• Papaya
• Mango
• Any type of berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc)
• Pomegranate
• Kiwi
• Oranges
• Melons
• Nectarines
• Cherries
• Apricot
• Grapefruit
• Banana
• Pears
• Apples
• Figs
• Pineapple
• Lemons
• Limes

Other Foods

• Whole Wheat Pasta
• Whole Grain Breads
• Corn Bread
• Cooked Eggs
• Sprouted Seeds

Avoid the following foods
-Avocados

-Dairy Products(Except Yogurt)

-Fruit Rinds

-Rhubarb

-Raw Meats

-Onions

-Garlic

-Chocolate

-Salty/Sugary Foods

-Alcohol

-Fruit Pits

-Peanuts

-Uncooked Rice

-Uncooked Beans

-Seeds of: Pears, Oranges, Papaya, Grapefruit, Grapes, Apples & some Melons

-Mayonnaise products

-Caffeine


And here's an imcomplete list of seeds you could feed: safflower seed, white millet, oat groats, buckwheat, canary grass seed, sunflower seeds, hemp seed (human grade), whole wheat, rolled barley, pumpkin seeds, shelled peanuts, almonds, pine nuts, pistachios, red millet, nyger

This is an awesome list!!
Thank you

 

[Notdumasilook]

Please add Sweet potatoes to the menu... its VERY high in beta keratin... the precursor to vitamin A... probably one of the highest natural sources you can find..

 

[Tami2]

My Levi loves Arugula, Spinach & Sweet potatoes.

 

[Tami2]

This will end up what I’ve got for now Monica.....

Plants, Branches & Eats – Page 3


Peas
Pecan tree
Pecans - salt free
Pellaea
peperomia
Pepper face plant
Peppers
Persimmons
Petunia
Photinia
Phoenix palm
Piggyback plant
Pine
Pine nuts
Pineapple
Pink polka-dot plant
Pinto beans - cooked
Pistachios – plain (not colored) & salt free
Pitcher plant
Pittosporum
Platinum pepper
Pleomele
Plums
Polka-dot plant
Polypody
Pomegranates - fruit is OK
Ponytail palm
Poplar
Potatoes - cooked only
Pothos
Prayer plant
Prostrate coleus
Prune
Puffed oats
Pumpkin
Purple nettle
Purple passion
Purple velvet plant
Pygmy date palm
Pyracantha
Rabbit’s foot fern
Radiator plant
Rainbow star
Radishes
Raphiolepsis
Raspberries
Red-creeping Charlie
Red grapefruit
Red-margined draceana
Red peppers
Ribbon and bows
Ribbon fern
Ribbon wood
Rice, cooked or crisped
Roebelin palm
Roof houseleek
Rolled oats
Rose
Rose-of-China
Rosy madenhair
Roundleaf fern
Royal velvet plant
Rubber plant
Russian olive
Saffron spike
Salmon
Sassafras
Scabiosa
Schefflera
Screw pine
Seaweed
Sedum
Sensitive plant
Sentry palm
Shame plant
Shredded carrots
Shredded wheat
Silk tree
Silver dollar maidenhair
Silver fittonia
Silver net plant
Silver threads
Slender lady palm
Small-leaved rubber plant
Snake plant
Snapdragon
Snowberry
Southern maidenhair fern
Southern sword fern
Sow thistle
Spanish bayonet
Sprenger asparagus
Sprengerl fern
Spider fern
Spider ivy
Spider plant
Spinach
Spineless yucca
Spiraea
Spotted gasteria
Spruce
Spur flower
Squash
Squirrel’s foot fern
Staghorn fern
Starfish plant
Star fruit
Strawberries – homegrown are best
Strawberry tree
Summer squash
Sunflower seeds, sparingly
Swedish begonia
Swedish ivy
Sweet bay
Sweet gum
Sweet potato, cooked
Swiss chard
Sword fern
Sycamore
Table fern
Tang drink mix
Tangerines
Thanksgiving cactus
Thatch-leaf palm
Thistle
Thousand mothers
Thurlow
Thyme
Ti log
Ti plant
Tillandsia
Tom thumb
Tomatoes – fruit only
Touch-me-not
Trailing watermellon begonia
Tree-of-kings
Tree fern
Tropical hibiscus
Tuna (water packed)
Turnip greens
Turnips
Umbrella tree
Urn plant
Variegated wandering jew
Vase plant
Velvet nettle
Velvet plant
Venezuela treebine
Venus’s hair
Viburnum
Vine maple
Vinegar
Volcano plant
Vriesea
Walking anthericum
Walnuts
Warneckii dracaena
Wandering Jew
Watercress
Watermelon
Watermelon begonia
Watermelon peperomia
Watermelon pilea
Wax plant
Wax flower
Weeping Chinese banyon
Weeping fig
Weeping willow
Western maidenhair fern
White clover
White-leaf fittonia
White Mexican rose
White poplar
Whole rye
Wiegela
Willow
Windmill palm
Wine palm
Winter squash
Yams
Yellow bamboo
Yellow squash
Yogurt
Youth-on-age
Youth and old age
Yucca
Zebra plant
Zinnia
Zucchini

Quick question- Oats in the earlier post it states 'cooked', this post does not. Hmmm ... I have offered Levi oatmeal on several occasions as I've read it's great for beautiful feathers. However, he won't eat it. I just made up
a quinoa vegetable mix (chop? I think as you all refer to it.) I sprinkled dry organic oats in. I was thinking maybe he'd eat them this way. Than I thought oh no, maybe he shouldn't have it raw?
Does anyone know if it's harmful? I can't imagine why it would be? But, I'm not sure.

Your input is greatly appreciated.
Tami

 

[Tami2]

Never mind, I found this
https://www.justanswer.com/pet-bird/41g5y-okay-wild-birds-eat-raw-uncooked-rolled-oats.html

I did add the water that I steamed the broccoli in.

Thanks anyway.

 

[plumsmum2005]

I have put rolled oats in Plums chop and sometimes give him a pinch of dry/raw oats, he likes them.

 

[MonicaMc]

Guava is safe to feed.

Unable to edit post.


Also, cheese can be a dangerous thing to feed. It can sometimes get "stuck" in the crop and become a ball of gooey mess that parrots can't digest. This can then potentially lead to their deaths. I've heard of at least a couple of cases where this has happened... much like birds who decide to chew on rope perches or toys, ingesting the string, then it getting stuck in the crop.

If you are going to feed cheese, it's better to feed hard cheese with the least amount of lactose in it, or just avoid it completely. (I don't feed it, period)

 

[plumsmum2005]

Guava is safe to feed.

Unable to edit post.


Also, cheese can be a dangerous thing to feed. It can sometimes get "stuck" in the crop and become a ball of gooey mess that parrots can't digest. This can then potentially lead to their deaths. I've heard of at least a couple of cases where this has happened... much like birds who decide to chew on rope perches or toys, ingesting the string, then it getting stuck in the crop.

If you are going to feed cheese, it's better to feed hard cheese with the least amount of lactose in it, or just avoid it completely. (I don't feed it, period)

@MonicaMc Just to say thanks for the valuable resource you provided, much appreciated and used lots.
Ps a MOD would be able to edit for you? Thanks re the cheese info.

 

[Tami2]

I have put rolled oats in Plums chop and sometimes give him a pinch of dry/raw oats, he likes them.

Thank you Plumsmum .

I have never given Levi any cheese products.

 

[Tami2]

Hello,

Does anyone know if Chia Seeds are okay?

Thanks.

 

[Tami2]

Never mind, I found this -

I may be setting myself up for a lashing but here goes...

I won't put the name brand but this is the ingredient list for a well known pellet diet.

Ingredients: *Ground Hulled White Millet (Proso), *Ground Shelled Sunflower Seeds, *Ground Hulless Barley, *Ground Yellow Corn, *Ground Soybeans, *Ground Shelled Peanuts, *Ground Rice, *Ground Green Peas, *Ground Lentils, *Ground Toasted Oat Groats, Chia Seed, *Ground Alfalfa, Calcium Carbonate, Montmorillonite Clay, Spirulina, Ground Dried Sea Kelp, Vitamin E Supplement, Sea Salt, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, d-Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate and Sodium Selenite.
*CERTIFIED ORGANIC INGREDIENT

Let's start from the top, Millet is a seed, not a great one, sunflower yep another seed, barley is a grain seed (seeing a pattern here?) Yellow corn, not great and frankly even if they say it's organic and not GMO in this country that is going to be rare the cross contamination has become very wide spread. Soybeans same as corn and even less nutritious and more health related issues imo.

Peanuts are not a nut they are a bean and often harbor fungus, Ground rice (not even brown rice) just filler, peas are good, chia seeds are great, sea kelp...well that depends a whole lot on where it is harvested from. The rest is mostly just artificial supplemented vitamins and minerals that cannot be made in the same pure digestible form that they come from in real living foods.

My point you might wonder? Why is it better to take most things that are found in a bag of seed and heat them to extreme temps, and then extrude them into compact neat shapes? Some companies even dye them with fake colors thinking that improves them somehow. Mostly it is for the convenience of people...who wants beets and carrots and blueberries staining their walls or carpets or mold or bugs if they aren't fastidious cleaners? Better for the health of your bird...I don't think so.

I feed VERY small amounts of the highest quality seed, no peanuts ever and if the seed won't sprout it is not fresh good seed. Along with that they get nuts, dried veggies and fruits (without sulfur, that is important) as the dry portion of their diet, as well as sprouted living seed too.

MOSTLY they get fresh, real foods. I cringe at the threads that tote pellets as the bulk of a parrots diet which in my opinion is no better than the bulk seed diets of days gone past.

If you spend some time reading labels you will see what I mean. The standard pellet you can pick up at Petsmart...even worse, first three ingredients are corn, wheat and soy all garbage fillers imo mostly gmo and more pesticides than you can imagine.

Thanks anyway.

 

[gibson2503]

So where is the list?

 

[Flboy]

So where is the list?

Not sure how you missed this.
http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-...afe-fresh-foods-toxic-food-lists-sprouts.html

The list for the grains, legumes, veggies, and fruits are mostly from the Feeding Feathers YH-group. The list of foods to avoid is from Buffalo Parrots. List of seeds, well I just looked at a few packages of bird food to get the ingredients off of. I did add a few things to the lists but didn't remove anything.

FF recommends feeding 1 part legumes to 2 part grains, and for this to consist of 45% of the fresh diet. Another 45% would be a variety of veggies, and the last 10% fruits. All of this can be mixed together as a 'mash' diet. Fresh foods should take up a minimum of 25% of the diet, but can take up as much as 90% with treats, pellets, nuts, and seeds taking up the rest. Sprouted seeds are healthier than dry seeds. *Some pellet companies may only recommend no more than 10% fresh foods as having any more may "unbalance" their 'balanced' diets*

Cooked grains - can also be sprouted

• Millet
• Quinoa
• Amaranth
• Whole Oats
• Hulless Barley
• Spelt or Kamut
• Teff
• Brown Rice
• Wild Rice
• Buckwheat

Cooked legumes - or sprouted with 1/4" tails

• Adzuki
• Mung
• Sprouting Peas
• Lentils
• Chickpeas/Garbanzo

Vegetables - Fed fresh, lightly steamed, or even frozen (thawed) out of the frozen section in grocery store

• Pumpkin
• Carrots
• Acorn or Butternut Squash
• Red or Green Pepper
• Kale
• Dandelion Greens
• Mustard Greens
• Collard Greens
• Turnip Greens
• Broccoli
• Celery
• Cucumber
• Romaine or other dark leafy lettuce
• Jicama
• Peas
• Zucchini
• Green Beans
• Tomatoes
• Cabbage
• Chinese Cabbage
• Bokchoy
• Carrot Tops
• Cactus Leaf
• Okra
• Kohlrabi
• Spaghetti Squash
• Cauliflower
• Radish
• Chayote Squash
• Brussel Sprouts
• Escarole
• Endive
• Corn
• Beet Root

Fruits

• Papaya
• Mango
• Any type of berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, etc)
• Pomegranate
• Kiwi
• Oranges
• Melons
• Nectarines
• Cherries
• Apricot
• Grapefruit
• Banana
• Pears
• Apples
• Figs
• Pineapple
• Lemons
• Limes

Other Foods

• Whole Wheat Pasta
• Whole Grain Breads
• Corn Bread
• Cooked Eggs
• Sprouted Seeds

Avoid the following foods
-Avocados

-Dairy Products(Except Yogurt)

-Fruit Rinds

-Rhubarb

-Raw Meats

-Onions

-Garlic

-Chocolate

-Salty/Sugary Foods

-Alcohol

-Fruit Pits

-Peanuts

-Uncooked Rice

-Uncooked Beans

-Seeds of: Pears, Oranges, Papaya, Grapefruit, Grapes, Apples & some Melons

-Mayonnaise products

-Caffeine


And here's an imcomplete list of seeds you could feed: safflower seed, white millet, oat groats, buckwheat, canary grass seed, sunflower seeds, hemp seed (human grade), whole wheat, rolled barley, pumpkin seeds, shelled peanuts, almonds, pine nuts, pistachios, red millet, nyger

 

[LeslieA]

Another consideration is phyto toxins.

Guess what!?! I'm not from "OZ, Hobbit land, the Asian Rim or the other lands of our forefathers." I chose not to PM you because this is a topic all members including you should consider.

Some vegetables, including among others, broccoli and kale, need to be steamed or cooked first. Certain seeds/grains, including millet and sunflower like most seeds, contain high fat levels that may be acceptable but not recommended as more than treats. Whole, rolled, steel-cut oats are acceptable either cooked or in chop. Chia seeds are considered safe if soaked not dry. Additionally, they can be added to chop. Do not feed tomatoes and their relatives. This can be confusing as some are named ___berry, I.E. Golden Berries.

All these are suggestions only and the intelligences of members should be credited rather than insulted. Certain birds and species should not follow these very basic lists. Your avian vet is a good source as to the specific needs of individual birds.

 

[LeslieA]

Please know this list does not fully explain the necessary limitations or preparations. Neither does it address the purposes, needs or preparation of herbs and spices. Please note this is only a partial and possibly misleading list.

Please, please, please make an effort to research items including mixes rather than blindly following others.

 

[MonicaMc]

Leslie, you're right. It's not meant to be a complete list by any means, only something as a guidance. Some of the things on that list I don't feed at all. As an example, although tomatoes are on that list, I don't feed tomatoes nor really recommend them. As mentioned the main part of that list is from the Feeding Feathers group. If a bird were to consume tomato, I wouldn't freak out, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it to be a habit of any sorts.

If people are willing to add to that list with their own knowledge, then that's great!

 

[LeslieA]

Again, I suggest you consult your AV in regards to your specific bird or bird species. I.E. In some instances, eggs may actually hurt your bird regarding calcium and protein levels or the bird may need it daily or may need she'll added. To blindly follow a SAFE food list can actually be deadly. Again, one of my birds needs additional fruit while others need mostly vegetables.

Vitamin and mineral needs vary not only between varieties but between individual birds.
These lists can easily and sometimes are misleading. Please know these lists are only a generalization and not realistic in many cases. As well, many branches and houseplants and cut flowers can be contaminated by chemical additives or tainted by traffic emissions. There are many safe options that aren't actually safe. Even ORGANIC foods are not necessarily chemical-free as we assume. They may only be chemically-acceptable. Also know that organics can be treated with things from inorganic sources. Organic is a legal, business description with limitations obviously.

 

[LeslieA]

Regarding the question about chia seeds, they are safe once soaked otherwise they will pull moisture from organs as they pass through causing kidney damage. Cooked or steamed chia seeds lose many of the nutrients. Most AV's recommend adding chia to chop or fruit juice prior to serving.

 

[C3mommy]

So I have a question about rice.. Would I be able to buy the boxed rices that are intended for dinners like the long grain wild rice mixture etc and just not add the seasoning?