by Laurel A Rockefeller

Created on: October 25, 2008   Last Updated: October 29, 2008

Companion birds are not mammals. Their bodies are not designed by Nature like ours and they are adapted to a wholly different set of circumstances. Since companion birds, aka "pet" birds (for true aviculturists like myself, "pets" are domesticated creatures, which most companion bird species are not), number in the hundred of species, what is toxic will vary. For example, a lorikeet is a nectarvore and must consume a wholly different diet than a society finch or a macaw. What is healthy for a lorikeet is not healthy for a macaw and vice versa. So I place a huge caveat whenever anyone wishes to lump all companion birds together when it comes to what is toxic and not toxic or what you may feed and not feed or sustain a bird.

Certainly, many of the examples given in other articles on this topic, I will across the board agree with. The dairy one is a little off because, while parrots ARE lactose intolerant, cheese has 95% less lactose than whole milk (source: http://www.milkpail.com/lactose.htm) and therefore, cannot meet nearly the same standard as "deadly" for birds.

On the other hand, I do agree with the other writers on this topic that, household chemicals are going to be deadly to any and every species of bird. But they are deadly to any and every form of life I can think of. In most cases, that is the intended result. Rat poison is, well, POISON FOR RATS. It should surprise no one that if a parrot, dove, or finch were to get into it, the same mortal result would be equally likely. That's logical. Likewise, any rotten food is likely to have risks attached to it. In fact, any food that is not carefully prepared may be dangerous. There was one gentle who spoke of dangers in peanuts and how we should not feed our parrots peanuts.

Yet I will remind those who will look at this that the parrots who favor peanuts, a New World food, are also New World parrots and that they are adapted to eat peanuts-as certainly as cockatoos are adapted to eat the kenari that grow in their range. Even cockatoos who don't have kenari in their range, like cockatiels, will eat shelled kenari when offered them (I'm speaking of my Mithril and Aragorn's passion for kenari) whereas I've noticed that when my friends offer their New World parrots kenari, their birds won't eat them-and go straight for the New World peanuts.

This is just one example of how our birds are hard-wired to recognize food sources that are native to their ancestral part of the world and are adapted to them.

Meat is not poisonous

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