Monday, July 23, 2012

Nutrition- Does Your Parrot Have a Sweet "Tooth?"


Does Your Parrot Have a Sweet "Tooth?"

 What about fats and salt?
      Years ago an Indian man named Shailesh had a vegetarian restaurant here in town in which you got a serving of nutrition philosophy along with your food, both on the menu and when Shailesh would stop by your table to chat.  He said something to me once that I have found to be very true from what I observe of people's eating habits and I think it would apply to our parrots, too.  
     Shailesh said that we evolved to crave sweet foods as well as those with high fat and salt content. That was because our ancient ancestors rarely got foods like that so when they did find some fruit (which was much less sweet than today's fruit), killed an animal or found some nuts for fat, or found some mineral deposits with salt, they ate a lot of it because they didn't get it very often.  
     Now foods that are high in sugars of various kinds, fats of various kinds and salt are abundant.  In fact, unless you never buy any prepared or packaged foods, it's hard to buy food without them.  The industry around these foods is huge.  If you are interested in a scary article about the lobbying power of Monsanto, read this article on how they have renamed aspartame and got labeling requirements removed, despite the studies that show it has numerous health risks. 
     So what about our parrots? Well, first of all, if  you really must feed your parrots junk food, be very careful about how much you give them.  Having your parrots at the table with you or eating in front of the TV, may feel like good companionship, but it's an unhealthy habit for your birds.  The less the better of human foods unless it is something fresh that you know is good for parrots.  Watch the prepared foods.  As the article above shows, lots of things can be hidden in labeling.
     It makes sense that parrots probably crave sweet, salty and high fat foods, too.  Some of the larger parrots are designed to eat high quanitites of nuts. But learn about your particular species because many species should not be having lots of nuts and seeds.  What about salt and sugar. If you feed pellets or other prepared treats, even if they are natural and organic, read the labels.  Many of the natural, organic foods say they have no sugar but then they have blackstrap molasses (or sometimes other sweeteners) in them.  Molasses is made from cane sugar, but it has other minerals in it and the sugar content is lower (Read Wikipedia article here.) So this probably makes it more appealing to the birds, but is it good for them?  We don't really know how much sugar they would have in a natural diet in the wild.  Just watch what you give them and try not to feed too much with any added ingredients like this.  Another reason, is that often sweeteners, salt, and fats/oils are added to make foods more appealing that really don't have much flavor otherwise. So if you feed your parrot a healthy natural diet, they will not be used to having these sorts of additives.  If they have been eating a lot of it, you may have to gradually wean them off of them.  

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