OK to Give Birds Vegetables, Fruit, and Protein Only?

[Cockatude]

My citron-crested cockatoo started picking, so I took him to the vet. I just found out he has a staph problem, which will be treated with antibiotics. The vet also said he was fat (550g, compared to 375 for a normal bird). I was told to put him on vegetables and fruit, and that he did not need anything else. His liver is okay, and his thyroid runs a little fast, so he should be able to rebound.

In two or three weeks, he went from 550 to 475, and the weight is still coming off. He looks much better, even though the drugs won't be available until tomorrow. The vet was very critical of seed, comparing it to living on potato chips. In the past, I had been told that quality seed mixes were okay, as long as they were supplemented with real food. I didn't know the bird was fat, because I had been taught to go by the keel, and he has to get up over 500g before it stops protruding.

I put my grey on the new diet, too, and he is starting to seem a little thin. They both love the new food, and they cram it in, but I'm not sure it's enough, even with boiled eggs thrown in a few times a week. They both seem healthier, but I know greys eat greasy nuts in the wild, and the grey was never fat, so I am concerned.

They are getting apples, carrots, sugar snap peas, fresh peppers, and a few other things. I give them scraps when I have chicken wings. They get whole wheat toast regularly.

Is the vet right, or should I give them a little seed along with this stuff? I am thinking I might give them a couple of tablespoons of it at night. They used to get half a cup per day, each.

[Pajarita]

OK, for one thing, your citron lost too much weight too soon and that's not healthy at all. For another, eggs and chicken are not good for parrots. You can give them some scrambled egg whites every now and then (I only do it about three times during the breeding season) but the yolk and the chicken are absolute NO NOs (too much cholesterol and, unless we are talking about organic, 100% vegetarian diet with no hormones or antibiotics AND pastured, we are talking crap). The problem here is the amount of seed you were giving and could also be the kind of mix (grays mixes are hugely high in protein and have all kinds of bad things like raw peanuts). For a citron and a gray, dinner should be a bit less than 1/4 cup when on a diet and a level 1/4 cup when in good weight of a good quality mix (that means VERY little sunflower seeds and ONLY the striped ones, never the black oil - you usually find these mixes labeled as 'small psittacine') and a nut (one almond or one pistachio or half a walnut, like that) three times a week plus cooked whole grains and pulses (I use lentils and small white beans, nothing else) mixed with veggies accompanied by raw produce for breakfast.

Avian vets don't study avian nutrition, they don't even go to school to become avian vets, they just intern with one for 6 years and take an exam so, unless this particular avian vet has had multiple parrots for many years and has done research on its own on their diet, he doesn't know much more than anybody else. Another thing, average weights for a specific species are just that: average. Citrons have been bred to Lesser and Greater Sulfur Crested resulting in larger and heavier birds - and that's not even taking into consideration individual sizes (just like people, some are big and some are small) so saying that your bird should weight 175 grams less than he does when his keel bone is still protruding seems a bit extreme to me (that's a loss of more than 30% of his weight!).

[Cockatude]

Thanks for the reply. The cockatoo really was fat. He had blubber around his upper legs. I just figured that was from age.

The vet is very highly regarded in the avian field. I'm not making any claims about his knowledge of nutrition, but he isn't some guy who only knows cats and dogs.

I am going to feed them twice a day and see what happens, and I plan to put a little seed back in the grey's diet, since he was never fat to begin with. I think part of their problem is that they were throwing most of their food away in the morning, so there wasn't much available later in the day.

The vet has the cockatoo on .5 cc of cipro syrup twice a day. It's a real pain getting it into him. They thought he would like it, but he is not happy about it. I have to squirt about .05 cc into him at a time and wait for him to be ready for another squirt.

[Pajarita]

Parrots always throw food, it's an instinctual behavior part of their ecological niche. But it doesn't really matter because you need to feed twice a day (birds in the wild eat two main meals). Breakfast should always consist of the 'healthy' food like cooked grains, pulses, vegetables, fruits, leafy greens and the amount should be such that, in the evening, there is still just a tiny little bit left over. When the sun is setting, you take away this food and give them dinner which should consist of the higher protein food (seeds, pellets, nuts, nutriberries, etc) and just enough to fill their crop so there shouldn't be any or very little leftover after they are done.

I guess the too has some kind of a bacterial infection and that's why he was prescribed antibiotics and, no, no matter how well compounded the quinolone antibiotics are with the flavoring, the taste is so awful that it never disappears (I know because I've tried them myself and they are NASTY). I just towel them and do the whole thing as fast as I can because even when they are used to a syringe, once they taste the antibiotic, they wisen up and would not take it no matter how much you try to cajole them into it.

If the too was so fat, he definitely needs to lose weight but it cannot be done so quickly, it's not healthy. You are much better off eliminating all simple carbs (sugar, white flour, white rice, etc), reducing the amount of protein, fat and complex carbs and increasing fiber and exercise which, for birds, it's flying and nothing else as no other exercise has any effect on them.