{"id":2754,"date":"2021-08-01T07:00:33","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T07:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fearfree.com\/2021\/08\/are-your-clients-raising-avian-junk-food-junkies-what-they-should-know-about-feeding-birds\/"},"modified":"2024-09-04T19:58:19","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T19:58:19","slug":"are-your-clients-raising-avian-junk-food-junkies-what-they-should-know-about-feeding-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fearfree.com\/2021\/08\/are-your-clients-raising-avian-junk-food-junkies-what-they-should-know-about-feeding-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Your Clients Raising Avian Junk-Food Junkies? What They Should Know About Feeding Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The idea that birds should eat all-seed diets likely has its roots in two facts:<\/p>\n
    \n
  1. Many birds are uniquely adapted to eat seeds and nuts, able to effortlessly crack even the hardest shells and extract the tender insides.<\/li>\n
  2. Birds love<\/em> seeds.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    If birds love seeds and are engineered to eat them, doesn\u2019t it follow that the bulk of a pet bird\u2019s diet should be seeds? Absolutely not.<\/p>\n

    The nutritional needs of our birds\u2019 counterparts in the wild may well be quite different from those of our pet birds, living in luxury in our homes. Also, the nutritional makeup of what they eat in the wild may be quite different from what we feed them in our homes. They\u2019re living very different lives!<\/p>\n

    All-seed diets make most pet birds sick over time, because seeds deny them the nutrients they need for longer-term survival, add nutritional components that are excessive and unhealthy, and ultimately weaken them to the point where other diseases find it easy to take hold. The fact that pet birds can survive at all<\/em> on such diets is a testament to the toughness of birds.<\/p>\n

    An all-seed diet contributes both directly (through malnutrition) and indirectly (by weakening the bird, making it easier for infectious disease to take hold) to a serious reduction in the possible life span of any pet bird \u2013 by half or more in many cases.<\/p>\n

    But birds know what\u2019s good for themselves, right? After all, parrots are very intelligent. Well, so are you, but we bet that fact hasn\u2019t stopped you from enjoying tasty treats that you know aren\u2019t good for you. For birds, seeds are the equivalent of a greasy burger: junk food. And it\u2019s that high-fat component that tends to get them in trouble. Too many pet birds (and people) are junk-food junkies.<\/p>\n

    Pelleted foods are a solid basis for a bird\u2019s diet, but even pellets, wonderful as they are, probably need to be supplemented with vegetables, fruits, and other such \u201cpeople food\u201d as bread and pasta. Giving different foods in addition to pellets is a way to replicate the way most psittacines eat in the wild, consuming a wide variety of foods that vary seasonally.<\/p>\n

    This article was reviewed\/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and\/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.<\/em><\/p>\n

    Excerpted from Birds For Dummies, 2nd<\/sup> ed., by Brian L. Speer, DVM, Kim Campbell Thornton and Gina Spadafori, Wiley, 2021.<\/em><\/p>\n

    <\/h6>\n
    \u00a0<\/em><\/h6>\n
    \u00a0<\/strong><\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The nutritional makeup of what birds eat in the wild may be quite different from what we feed them in our homes. They\u2019re living very different lives!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[163,256,272],"content-type":[47],"duration":[53],"membership-type":[],"profession":[40,37,36],"species":[30],"topic":[15],"class_list":["post-2754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-birds","tag-diet","tag-parrots","content-type-blog","duration-5-minutes-or-less","profession-support-staff","profession-technician-nurse","profession-veterinarian","species-avian","topic-communicating-with-clients"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAre Your Clients Raising Avian Junk-Food Junkies? 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