Basic Parrot Nutrition
Gut Flora Building Smoothie!
A nationally known and recognized bird magazine shared a smoothie recipe for our companion birds recently. It was a good recipe I have to admit. But I came up with one that would do what, well smoothies are supposed to do, rehabilitate the natural digestive enzymes. So I thought I may as well share it [...]
Dietary Fiber and The Exotic Bird: The Right Kind of Fiber
We often hear that getting enough fiber into our human diet is vital to the prevention of colon cancer as well as just good overall health. Recent research indicates that the right kind of fiber in our human diet probably has an effect on lowering blood cholesterol levels as well, and may even prevent or [...]
Fatty Liver Disease: Starch and Glycogen
Foods such as potatoes, yams, rice, corn, wheat and other grains as well as legumes such as peas, lentils and beans contain multi-unit carbohydrate polysaccharides known as starch and glycogen. These are termed “storage polysaccharides” because they are stored in the liver and slowly metabolize into the blood as useable sugars as the body needs [...]
Carbohydrates: Choosing the Right Carbs for Our Companion Birds
Carbohydrates play an important role in the health and nutrition of our companion birds, but unfortunately they are grossly misunderstood. What is a “carbohydrate”? How are carbohydrates utilized by the body? What are the right kinds of carbohydrates? What is the difference between “simple” and “complex” carbohydrates? First of all we need to understand that [...]
Amino Acids: The Building Blocks of “Complete Protein” – Malnutrition
If I were forced to name only one of the main causes of “The Mutilation Syndrome”, even though I believe there are many causes, I would probably have to list malnutrition at the top of my list. The reason I would feel safe in listing malnutrition as the main cause of this insidious syndrome is [...]
Dietary Oils: A Multi-Part Series – Flax Seed Oil
Flax seed oil is touted as one of the best, if not the best dietary oil to consume to fight cardiovascular disease by raising the healthy HDL cholesterol levels over the lousy LDL cholesterol levels. I totally agree with this fact and here is why, flax seed oil is extremely high in Omega 3 fatty [...]
Dietary Fat: An Overview for Companion Birds – Part 2
In part 1 of “Dietary Fat: An Overview for Companion Birds”, we discussed the two classifications of fats, the “saturation” and the way fats are “structured”, by molecular carbon chains. We discovered that polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats are basically healthy fats more so than saturated fats, except in the case of saturated plant fats that [...]
Dietary Fat: An Overview for Companion Birds – Part 1
Pre-Classification and Purpose of Fats Fats fall under a wider category known as “lipids”. Lipids Lipids are natural organic compounds and are not water soluble; they are fat, lipid and oil soluble. Lipids include fats, phospholipids and steroids. Fats are necessary for energy, to store energy, insulate the body, and cushion and protect the organs. [...]
Amino Acids: The Building Blocks of “Complete Protein” – Part 2
Until fairly recently it was believed that all captive parrots required about the same protein levels in their diet, about 12%-15%, based on poultry protein requirements. Gradually we are beginning to realize that each species may, in fact, require very different protein requirements based not only on their own species and body types, but also [...]
Hide and Cecum – Your Parrot’s Digestive Tract, Finally Understood!
Many avian species have “cecum” (plural). But you don’t see many parrot books speak of the “ceca” (singular). My question is “Why?” Well, it’s because it is virtually non-existent in Psittaciformes so there isn’t any reason to bring up the subject. Or is there? After studying the function of the ceca I have come [...]
Amino Acids: The Building Blocks of “Complete Protein” – Part 1
We don’t often think of amino acids in relationship to the protein requirements of our companion birds when we pick up a package of food for them at our local pet shop, we simply may look at the protein percentage on the back of the package and think, “Hmmm…okay, this looks good enough” and be [...]
Digestive Enzymes: The Beginning of Good Health
Digestive enzymes are something your bird’s digestive tract naturally contains if your bird is basically healthy. Birds have a slightly acidic digestive tract, on the lower side of the Ph level, suitable for digesting plants, seeds, nuts and insects. The digestive tracts birds have don’t contain enough acid to breakdown meat thoroughly. For this reason [...]
Dietary Oils: A Multi-Part Series – Coconut Oil
Coconut Oil is a dense oil because it is a saturated oil. Although it is not a saturated oil in the sense it comes from an animal source, it is still considered saturated because of the kind of saturated “fat” the coconut oil contains, medium chain triglycerides. These are actually good triglycerides, they assimilate well [...]
Dietary Oils: A Multi-Part Series – Hemp Seed Oil
Hemp seed oil is a very important oil to include in our parrots healthy food regimen for so many reasons that will be mentioned here. It’s one of those great fatty acids that offer benefits that are so amazing one has to wonder if Nature had it all planned out from the very beginning! This [...]
Dietary Oils: A Multi-Part Series – Palm Fruit Oil
There are many kinds of oils our birds should have in their weekly diet. And each of the oils we will be discussing has their own special and unique health benefit to add to a living body. Let’s begin with the more commonly known oil to the parrot community, palm oil or palm fruit oil. [...]
Organic VS Conventional
I find in speaking with individuals abut organic foods that most people just don’t really understand the difference between truly organically produced foods and conventionally produced foods, and that’s why people don’t think it’s all that important to buy organic foods. Once a person really understands the difference, they almost always choose organically produced foods. [...]
Whole Food Nutrition VS Processed Foods
We often hear from various sources that we should be eating whole, fresh foods, not highly processed foods. Do we really know what that means? Do we know the difference between whole foods and processed foods? Ask our children where meat comes from and many of them will answer, “The grocery store”. I find this [...]
Parrot Nutrition 101
It would only make sense to begin with the basics of parrot nutrition as it applies to all parrots. Any of us who have parrots in our lives already know that parrots who live in the Wild, the great outdoors from where they came consume all sorts of natural foodstuffs that we, as humans, would [...]
Machelle
