The Wonderful “Green” Banana!

So it’s circulating social media again about green banana…is it really advantageous to feed to our exotic birds? Does it really contain any beneficial digestive enzymes such as “pro-biotics?”

Well, the short answer is “no”, it does not contain “pro-biotics” – I really wish the person spreading this misinformation would get their information correct – green banana contains “PRE-BIOTICS!” A completely different set of digestive enzymes!

Resistant starch is the constituent green bananas have to offer our exotic birds, in its “living form.” They offer the production of butyric acid, the precursor to hydrochloric acid (HCL), the main digestive acid necessary for our birds’, digestive systems to begin breaking down dietary proteins and other nutrients in their proventriculus (first stomach). Also, studies strongly indicate this kind of soluble fiber, aid in the absorption of dietary minerals while insoluble fiber such as cellulose impedes the absorption of dietary minerals.

When we feed ripe or over-ripe bananas to our birds we are feeding fruit that has gone passed its prime and now contains high, dead starch now containing lots of sugar they just don’t need – both in the form of starch and fructose. I’m not saying you can’t or shouldn’t feed a perfectly ripe banana to your bird every once in awhile as a “sweet treat.” However, green banana is much more healthy as a nutritional food.

Parrots in the wild typically don’t consume high-fructose fruit; most of the fruit parrots consume are not high in fructose. Domestic fruit, not exotic fruit is high in fructose. This is why we should be feeding more tropical fruit to our parrots rather than domestic fruit. Also, tropical fruit is typically higher in the amino acid “Lysine” and lower in “Arginine.” We have had the parrot diet wrong for decades; most of the foods we have been feeding such as grains and legumes are typically higher in Arginine leaving our parrots at a loss for Lysine.

Back to the awesome “green banana.” We often discuss parrots consuming unripe fruit in the wild, but then hypocritically you will run across the same people poo-poo green banana as though it has no benefit to our parrots. So what is it? Ripe or unripe fruit that is beneficial to our parrots? Find a platform and stick with it or keep your mouth shut.

–The fact of the matter both ripe and unripe fruit each have beneficial and non-beneficial properties, and parrots know exactly what they need from both and when to consume them depending the stasis of their current health. Unripe fruit contains high amounts of salic acid, commonly known as aspirin which relieves pain. Ripe fruit, perfectly ripe fruit is what parrots prefer for all of the digestive enzymes, plant proteins, fatty acids, unique carbohydrates a parrot’s digestive tract requires to thrive, vitamins and minerals as well as all of the antioxidants they offer. Overly ripe fruit really don’t have much to offer and are very high in histamines. These are what parrots leave behind and only consume in lean times when there is little food available from which to choose. As creatures of survival, they will eat these overly-ripe foods for the survival of the species.

It comes down to “instinct” for parrots in the wild; they know exactly when to pick foods for the purpose of treating whatever ails them or to complement their own good health and maintain thriving homeostasis. Regarding those who make unqualified statements, using nom de plume pen names (maybe they are afraid to cause injury to their professional degrees), lacking citations about different, individual foods in an attempt to “throw off” the avian community; they really need to just SHUT UP! Then they dothrow in citations about “other” information that doesn’t even pertain to the subject at hand trying to take member’s attention away from the fact they really don’t know what they are talking about! When someone who will not even use their real name operating outside of their professional area of expertise, has no "skin in the game", and hasn't laboratory tested any of the foods or recipes they are going off at the mouth about how can they be taken seriously, believed, and be taken for anything other than simple entertainment? Folks, don’t be lead astray by those who want to distract you from feeding your feathered friends pure, fresh, raw and wholesome diets!