Feeding People Food to Birds

Parrots are fun and interesting pets. Like most pet owners you may want to give them a treat, and offer them some of the foods off your plate as you eat. Believe it or not, that can be a very good idea. Parrots were once thought to be very short lived. That was because people fed captive birds the wrong types of foods, and it shortened their life-span considerably.
What we once thought was an average life-span of about 10 years, we now know in many cases can be as much as 100 years for larger parrots. However, if your bird is getting a diet consisting almost, or entirely of seeds from a bag in a supermarket aisle—chances are his lifespan is going to be closer to the 10 year mark than 100.
Seeds can be a small part of a bird’s diet, but they were not meant to eat a diet completely made up of them. In the wild, birds eat a large amount of fruit, nuts, vegetables and even grasses. Bugs (protein) also make up a part of the wild parrot’s diet, and while it’s not likely you’ll be serving up any ants, spiders or worms on a plate, other protein sources are a great addition to your bird’s daily meal plan.
Some of the foods your birds will love to share with you include:
• Apples
• Bananas
• Oranges
• Grapes
• Peas
• Green beans
• Cucumbers
• Tomatoes
• Eggs (okay, that sounds macabre, but they like them)
• Oatmeal (really)
• Squash
• Low fat meats
• Potatoes
• Unsalted nuts of any kind
• Unsalted and unbuttered popcorn
The list can go on for quite awhile, but you get the idea. Healthy food choices for you are usually good choices for them.
Foods That You Should Not Feed Your Parrots
Avoid foods that are high in fat. High fat contents are one of the reasons a diet that consists mostly of store bought seeds are not a good choice for your birds. Most birds don’t get “fat” the way people do. That’s because the fat builds up around their organs and kills them before they can get obese. Bird bodies are much smaller than human bodies, and everything that impacts us badly, does the same to them faster.
Other foods to avoid are those high in salt. Not only the obvious foods that have salt on top of them such as potato chips and salted nuts, but don’t feed your bird frozen or canned fruits or vegetables since salt is used to preserve them.
Never feed your bird chocolate. Avocados, even though it is a fruit, are dangerous to them as well. Apples are great for your birds, but core them and discard the seeds. Apple seeds are high in tannin and are toxic. Do not feed your birds milk and alcohol is a definite no-no.
Surprisingly, onions are on the list of things you should never give your parrots. They are highly toxic to birds. This does not include peppers, which many parrots enjoy, but anything in the onion family including garlic is off-limits. The birds cannot process onion the way human’s do through the liver. The most common foods not to feed your parrots include:
• Onions
• Avocados
• Chocolate
• Salt
• Mushrooms
• Apple seeds
The bottom line is this: if it’s not healthy for you, even if you eat or drink those things, do not feed them to your bird. That will eliminate most of the seriously dangerous items from the list automatically and you just have to remember avocados and onions.
Raw or Cooked
Raw is always better when possible. However, it’s okay to give your bird some of the foods you have with dinner, so long as they are safe foods. Just be sure you cool it off so they don’t burn their tongues.
Why Won’t My Bird Accept People Foods?
If you got your bird from a store, or adopted an older bird that was used to a diet of seeds alone, it may take them a while to accept new foods. Even once they take one; it may take them just as long to accept the next. They aren’t used to variety, different textures and flavors. Once they get the idea, however, they should learn to really enjoy trying new things.