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Home > Birds > Can Parrots Eat Honey? Here’s What You Need to Know

Can Parrots Eat Honey? Here’s What You Need to Know

PetKeen_Can Parrots Eat_honey

We all love to share a little bit of our food-related happiness with our pets, but it’s essential that we assess whether it’s appropriate to feed our pets these treats. Parrots are incredibly hardy and intelligent creatures who have a very varied wild diet. There aren’t too many toxic foods for parrots, but knowing which foods are parrot-friendly can be a literal lifesaver.

Parrots should not be eating honey. In its raw form, honey can contain a large amount of Clostridium botulinum. This bacterium is responsible for the respiratory illness known as “botulism,” which can be highly deadly to birds. While pasteurized honey is okay for parrots to eat, since the pasteurization process kills any bacteria in the honey, it’s far safer to forego honey altogether. Why risk your parrot’s health over honey when your parrot could have any number of other delicious foods?

If your parrot consumes honey, it’s essential to get in contact with their veterinarian right away. They’ll be able to counsel you on whether your parrot needs medical attention. Even if the honey they ate was pasteurized, it’s better safe than sorry.

divider-multiprintParrot Nutrition: The Basics

Parrots in the wild eat a varied diet made up of plant and animal matter. As omnivores, they’ll eat pretty much anything offered in captivity, even things that aren’t necessarily good for them.

Veterinarians recommend that parrot parents feed their birds a high-quality pellet diet. While pellet diets may seem boring to a human, they ensure that our parrots get the optimal nutrition they need to stay healthy and strong.

Pelleted mixes are intended to provide the correct nutrition for parrots so that their parents don’t have to stress out about whether their parrots are getting proper nutrition.

Some parrot parents may be drawn to commercially made seed mixes to combat the perceived boringness of pelleted diets, but these seed mixes usually lack essential nutrients that the parrot needs. Seed mixes also tend to be very high in fat content and can be dusty.

Some commercial seed mixes now included pellets in their blends. When providing your parrot with a pellet and seed mix, it’s essential to watch what they’re eating. Some parrots will eat around the pellets. So, making sure that your parrot eats all their food is critical to getting the correct nutrition.

Mealy Amazon parrot eating_Rosa Jay, Shutterstock
Image By: Rosa Jay, Shutterstock

What Other Human Foods Can I Feed My Parrot?

Parrots can eat various human-grade food, and many human-grade foods make great treats and supplements to their normal nutrition. In the wild, parrots are foragers and opportunistic omnivores. Fruits, vegetables, and even meat products can all be great additions to your parrot’s diet.

Vegetables can provide essential nutrients and antioxidants to a parrot’s diet. A parrot fed pelleted food will likely be getting these nutrients already, but vegetables can be a more appetizing supplement that parrot parents can give to their parrots.

Suppose you want to add some vegetables to your parrot’s diet. In that case, parrot parents can safely feed their parrots asparagus, beets, leafy greens, bell peppers, winter squash, okra, leeks, broccoli, butternut squash, tomatoes, and courgettes, among other vegetables.

Adding fruits to a parrot’s diet can be a tasty and healthy treat but be careful how much fruit you feed them; fruits can be very high in sugars in addition to vitamins and antioxidants. Too much of a good thing can have your parrot becoming malnourished.

Parrots can safely consume grapes, citrus fruits, mangoes, pomegranates, bananas, and papayas. They can consume apples and pears, but only if the seeds are removed because they contain a harmful cyanide compound.

In addition to fruits and vegetables, parrots tend to go crazy for nuts. Parrot parents should be careful when feeding their parrots nuts. All nuts given to parrots should be unsalted as high quantities of salt can be dangerous or even deadly to parrots.

So long as they’re unsalted, cashews, almonds, macadamia nuts, pecans, and walnuts are all safe for parrots to eat. Many parrots adore peanuts, but peanuts can carry mold. The mold can give your parrot a respiratory infection. If peanuts are given at all, they should be shelled.

Parrot eating food
Image By: Luckvikas2, Shutterstock

Foraged Parrot Diets

Parrots in the wild are foragers. So, it’s no wonder that many parrot parents have started to consider how they can better replicate a wild diet. Any foraged foods given to your parrots should be thoroughly washed to ensure that no pathogens make their way into your parrot’s diet.

Parrots can eat various foraged foods, including chickweed, blackberries, hawthorn berries, sloes, sow thistle, and dandelion greens. Dandelion greens are an excellent nutritional source for parrots. Every single part of the dandelion plant contains essential nutrients that they can benefit from.

What Foods Are Dangerous for Parrots?

Anything containing avocado, chocolate, caffeine, or alcohol should be strictly avoided. These substances are dangerously toxic to birds and could cause a rapid decline and death if ingested. Foods that are fried, salted, or high in fats should be avoided as well. These can cause poor long-term health and even death.

Parrots are brilliant and will learn which foods they can and cannot have from their parents in the wild, but in captivity, it is up to their human parents to monitor their food intake and ensure they don’t eat anything toxic.

Avocado
Image By: Asiya Kiev, Unsplash

divider-multiprintIn Conclusion

There are so many great options for supplementing your parrot’s diet. Unfortunately, honey isn’t one of those options, but we hope you’ve found some tasty alternatives to serve to your parrot. Make sure you check with your vet if your parrot consumes anything that you don’t know is safe for them. Have fun and enjoy some delicious snacks with your parrot!

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Featured Image Credit: Pixabay

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