What food can't an African grey parrot eat?

Answer 1

Here is a list of food you should avoid feeding your African Grey Parrot:

• Avocado. This is highly toxic to birds.

• Chocolate. This is highly toxic to all animals (humans can eat it because of our complex digestive systems, but too much is still toxic to us as well).

• Tomato leaves, tomato stems and tomato vines. The tomato itself is fine, but the green parts are toxic.

• Coffee, coffee beans, tea and caffeinated drinks. Caffeine causes heart attacks in small animals such as birds. It is not natural for any living thing to consume caffeine, including humans.

• Alcohol. This poisons their blood and kills them as birds lack the ability to digest or break down alcohol.

• Dry and uncooked beans. Beans contain a toxin called hemaglutin which can poison birds. When cooked, the hemaglutin is eradicated. Make sure any beans you feed your bird are thoroughly cooked. Giving uncooked beans to a bird is like feeding raw chicken to a human.

• Pits and seeds of any fruit. Pits and seeds contain small amounts of cyanide. There is a reason why humans avoid eating them, but since the amount is small, it doesn't affect us, however since birds are smaller, they will be affected greater than humans are. Fruit is fine, as long as you remove the seeds first.

• Rhubarb. This is full of oxalic acid, which is a digestive irritant. This can be fatal in the diet of a bird as it can dehydrate them to death.

• High fat food, salty food and sugary food. These types of food are unnatural, even the human body has difficulty digesting them sometimes. In birds they can cause dehydration, kidney failure, lipomas (tumours), lipemia (fat leaking into the bloodstream) and hepatic lipidosis (liver disease). If a vet finds that a sick pet bird is being fed these foods, you could be arrested by the law enforcement prosecuted for animal cruelty, because this is a painful life for the bird, who may have to be euthanised.

• Mushrooms. This fungi, although healthy to humans and insects, can cause liver malfunctioning in birds

• Onions. These cause vomiting and diarrhoea in birds, which can dehydrate them to death. They can also cause hemolytic anemia in birds, which is a blood condition that causes respiratory arrest.

• Nutmeg. Believe it or not, nutmeg contains a narcotic drug called myristicin, which is why the lesser-educated humans try smoking it (and only achieve being sent into a coughing fit). Because the amounts are so small, they don't have any affect on humans. But birds, because they are smaller, will become intoxicated, dizzy, nauseous and will vomit excessively, which can lead to death.

• Peanuts. Despite the name, peanuts are not nuts, they are actually legumes, so they fall under the same category as "dry and uncooked beans", above. Peanuts can contain a fungi called aflatoxin, which causes liver complications in birds. However, specially produced bird peanuts which have been roasted and sterilised can be bought for birds. But make sure they are specifically for birds before buying.

• Out of date food. Moulds, fungi and some bacteria on out of date foods can cause digestive complications in birds.

• Human food. Any food that is produced specifically for humans should not be fed to birds. Bread for example, believe it or not, has massively high amounts of salt and sugar. Yes, there is sugar in bread. In recent years, scientists studying birds have found that some of them are dying from consuming bread fed to them by human children.