Coconut oil

[GreenWing]

I haven noticed the subject discussed on other parrot sites, and I am of the opinion that virgin coconut oil is good to give to our parrots. I also like that the cultivation of coconuts is one of the most sustainable.

Doctor Oz, among many other doctors, have discussed the benefits of virgin coconut oil. Pacific Islanders consume it and they show non-existent rates of cardiovascular disease. Coconut oil is rich in Beta Carotene and when consumed, it is converted into Vitamin A. I have read that it also has other health benefits.

See this article as it's a good one.

I know not everyone agrees with feeding coconut oil to their parrots, so comments/opinions are welcome. Do YOU give your parrot coconut oil?

[Pajarita]

No, I don't. As I said on my answer to the other poster, I have no problem with fresh coconuts for parrots, mine get it regularly, they enjoy it and I think it's healthy for them. I also think that more research is needed on coconut oil and that it might be beneficial to people but parrots are not people and they don't have the same dietary needs so you can't use a study in human nutrition and simply extrapolate it to parrots'. Now, the benefit of coconut oil seems to be mainly in the large amount of lauric acid it contains but, if you think about it, the only other sources of lauric acid are palm kernel oil and breast, cow and goat's milk and birds not been mammals, I think we can safely discard the milk sources as well as question how something meant for mammals infants could possibly benefit birds. As to the palm oil, well, some macaw species as well as African species feed on palm nuts but they eat the whole fruit, not concentrated oil and there's a big difference between the two - aside from the fact that the palm oil used for birds is for the vit A benefit, I also don't feed Red Palm or Dende oil - I agree with this article: http://www.birdtricks.com/blog/is-red-p ... ur-parrot/).

Maybe, in the future, there will be studies that tell us that certain types of saturated fats are not bad for herbivores (which consume no cholesterol in their natural diet and have no inbuilt mechanisms to get rid of it like we do -nature does not waste time working millions of years in evolving something in an organism that won't be used) but my motto is: "When in doubt, don't do it" and, for now, I am not convinced at all that any type of saturated fat is good for parrots. Besides, it's not as if my parrots need any vit A supplementation because they eat carrots and sweet potatoes every day as well as lots of other sources (dark leafy greens, calabaza, pumpkin, mangoes, papayas, etc) regularly.