Apples

[GreenWing]

I enjoy hearing that slicing sound she makes as she eats them.

That is one of the funniest sounds! Like a chipmunk! When we give Emmi a bit of apple, she just sits there with it in her mouth looking at us like, what are you laughing at?

Ikr? I love that sound! For some reason I find it relaxing, but yeah, it is cute to watch them eat the apple slices and see the apple bits on their beaks

Now, as to the sugar and other stuff that apples have. Apples are high in fiber and water (two VERY good things for parrots) and they also have quite a bit of vit C and a tad of calcium but this is not what makes them so good, it's the phytonutrients. Apples have quercetin, a powerful antioxidant which does not only enhance the benefits of vit C but also acts as an anti-inflammatory, inhibitor of histamine (think allergic reactions) as well as improving the integrity of connective tissues (think veins, arteries and capillaries). They also have pectin (lowers bad cholesterol and inhibits fat absorption), malic and tartaric acids (slow down fermentation and aids in digestion) and phlorizin (reduces glucose in blood and is believed to be linked to lung health).

As you can see, they are not just fiber, water and sugar! Now, as to the sugar... not all sugars are created equal and not all animals metabolize them in the same manner. There is the crappy white sugar we buy at the supermarket and which is bad for every living creature, there are the man-made high fructose syrups which I don't like at all, and then there is the plain fructose which is the natural and highly digestible form of sugar we find in fruits. Parrots are fruit eaters and they are able to metabolize this sugar without a problem and without getting a 'sugar high'.

Awesome info, thanks Pajarita. And it's true what you say: parrots are natural fruit eaters and so eating fruit often cannot be bad for them. I don't have an apple tree but I have a pear tree, and I am so excited for when the pears will be ripened on our tree, fresh, unsprayed, and available for my bird's consumption.

[Pajarita]

[quote="cml"Ive found a way around the picking and choosing, and it's to combine the fruits and veggies that they like as much (so they dont choose the one they like the best) on a given day. Also, food management helps, I know how much my parrots eat and should weigh so they always eat up . Well, save from cauliflower, thats not a hit with Leroy ...[/quote]

Yes, but you have two parrots which, most likely, eat in their cages or stands from their own individual bowls but I have A LOT of them and they eat from communal plates so I have no way of telling who ate what at the end of the day. Plus, having a selection of items in front of them is not part of their natural feeding ecology. When you observe parrots in the wild, you see that the entire flock falls on a stand of trees that bear the same fruit, nut or blossom and they eat and eat of the same thing until they are full and then they leave so I think that giving them one thing at a time is closer to the way they would feed in the wild -although, actually, I give them three: one fruit, one veggie and one leafy green but I admit to doing this more for my benefit than theirs.