How much is too much?

[juhason]

By recommendation, I have been giving my Green Cheek Conure a small piece of mango and broccoli everyday. About every other day, sometimes more, I give him 2 small cuts of green beans (he only likes the actual beans inside though, so each piece has about 1-3 beans inside), and occasionally I have given him blueberry, raspberry, and carrots. These are the only fresh foods I found him to enjoy so far.

Now, he does seem much healthier and more vibrant than when I first got him so I'm not too worried. But I decided today to look up what exactly I was giving him nutrient and mineral wise. The website I was looking at gave these percentages based off human diets, and I noticed that every single veggie and fruit I have been giving has Manganese, Vitamin A and Vitamin K. Both of these are vitamins fat soluble so can reach toxic levels, and manganese can reach toxic levels as well. Mango and broccoli both had over 30% vitamin A and K, green beans had around 20% or so and carrots had a whopping 400% of vitamin A!! Now I know there has to be a catch to the 400% cause that would be toxic to humans too, and it would take tons and tons of carrots to kill a person. Point is though that it has a lot.

On top of that his pellets also give him vitamin A and K and minerals (I didn't check if it had manganese but I wouldn't be surprised), so my question is how much is too much??? Should I be giving him these things everyday?

 

[Flboy]

I hear your question, but does he give kisses?

*******
Sorry, dumb reply! Thought I was being cute!
Wine induced!

 

[Aquila]

The majority of your bird's diet should be fresh foods, yes, and those daily percentages are for human standards, percent of our daily requirement, not necessarily for your conure.

Now, most of these are water soluble nutrients, meaning what isn't needed, is excreted in urine or feces. Fat soluble nutrients are the ones to be careful with, but again, it's very difficult to reach these amounts unless you're using artificial supplements. This can happen (rarely) with pelleted diets or fortified seed diets, it's more common in birds like Eclectus who have a longer digestive tract and move food through slower, thus absorbing more vitamin and mineral content.

Food moving through your conure's stomach moves at a fairly quick rate, so there's very little chance of them absorbing too much of anything on a regular diet unless there's some medical disorder going on. Again, unless you're using artificial supplements.

 

[friendcaique]

is that all youfeed him? yo should have some more variation. i am not an expert but that is my opinion.look for the thread "Probably a dumb question but important", and it talks abouta good diet. i dont know if this works for your bird but it looks like a great diet. You need to read all the replies.

 

[Skittys_Daddy]

I feed my birds organic pellets for the majority of their diet. About 60%. Then 20% is power treats and 20% is fresh fruits, veggies and grains.

 

[Mekaisto]

What do you mean 400% vitamin A? 400% of the recommended daily amount? What amount of carrots gives this number?

Vegetables like carrots do NOT contain vitamin A! They contain the precursor, beta-carotene, which the body turns into vitamin A! Your bird will turn that beta-carotene into however much vitamin A he needs, and excrete the rest.

Same with Vitamin K, which is stored in plants as K1.

Manganese is excreted if excess is available.


Unless you are directly giving synthesised vitamins to your bird, he is very unlikely to overdose. Even though the pellets you give him contain vitamins, they will not be found in high enough amounts to cause any detrimental effects.

 

[juhason]

I hear your question, but does he give kisses?

Yes, he does :4_wink:

The majority of your bird's diet should be fresh foods, yes, and those daily percentages are for human standards, percent of our daily requirement, not necessarily for your conure.

Now, most of these are water soluble nutrients, meaning what isn't needed, is excreted in urine or feces. Fat soluble nutrients are the ones to be careful with, but again, it's very difficult to reach these amounts unless you're using artificial supplements. This can happen (rarely) with pelleted diets or fortified seed diets, it's more common in birds like Eclectus who have a longer digestive tract and move food through slower, thus absorbing more vitamin and mineral content.

Food moving through your conure's stomach moves at a fairly quick rate, so there's very little chance of them absorbing too much of anything on a regular diet unless there's some medical disorder going on. Again, unless you're using artificial supplements.

Oh ok thank you! I figured he was fine cause I've seen anything about downsides to fresh foods, but I wanted to be sure.

is that all youfeed him? yo should have some more variation. i am not an expert but that is my opinion.look for the thread "Probably a dumb question but important", and it talks abouta good diet. i dont know if this works for your bird but it looks like a great diet. You need to read all the replies.

Yes this is all he eats for now, as he is a very picky bird and I haven't had him for a long time. I'm working on getting him to eat more veggies and rice/beans, but again he's picky and stubborn..... that wasn't exactly my question anyways.

I feed my birds organic pellets for the majority of their diet. About 60%. Then 20% is power treats and 20% is fresh fruits, veggies and grains.

By power treats do you mean things like Nutriberries? I also give im some of those and pellet berries

What do you mean 400% vitamin A? 400% of the recommended daily amount? What amount of carrots gives this number?

Vegetables like carrots do NOT contain vitamin A! They contain the precursor, beta-carotene, which the body turns into vitamin A! Your bird will turn that beta-carotene into however much vitamin A he needs, and excrete the rest.

Same with Vitamin K, which is stored in plants as K1.

Manganese is excreted if excess is available.


Unless you are directly giving synthesised vitamins to your bird, he is very unlikely to overdose. Even though the pellets you give him contain vitamins, they will not be found in high enough amounts to cause any detrimental effects.

Yes I did say there has to be a catch to the 400%. This was all taken off a nutrition website meant for humans. Now I know I can't directly compare them to my birds diet but I just wanted an idea. And I didn't know that about carrots, the website did not explain it it just said carrots have 400% Vitamin A.
Thank you for your explanation!