Frequency of certain foods?

[shiraartain]

Hello! I realized there are a few foods which Fajr receives pretty often without variation and I wanted to know how frequently they should be allowed?

He gets walnuts and sunflower seeds as treats only, receives about 2-3 of each daily.

Dates are fed relatively frequently, maybe 2-3 a week? He doesn't eat the whole thing, I know a lot of chunks drop through his cage grate and are lost to him.

and I just pulled out a bag of completely organic dried figs, which he seems to be enjoying. (To be clear, I attached one fig to his play stand and he is nibbling away at it.)

How frequently should he be given each of these? And how frequently can he have almonds?

[Wolf]

Not positive but I think that almonds would be a better treat than walnuts as I think that they are lower in fat content than walnuts.

[Pajarita]

But not 3 sunflowers and 3 almonds daily! That's way too much! GCCs are little things! 3 sunflowers are fine, 3 PIECES of an almond are fine but not 3 whole almonds PLUS 3 sunflowers! And this only if his dinner seed mix is a budgie one without sunflowers or nuts.

As to fruits, he should be getting a large portion every day - like a quarter apple, pear or orange, 3 medium size grapes, 2 blackberries, 1 fig, 1 date, a 2 in x 1 in piece of mango, papaya, cantaloupe, sweet potato, pumpkin, 15-20 seeds of pomegranate, a 1.5 inch slice of corn on the cob, about 1/6 of a medium size pepper, 2-3 grape tomatoes, etc

[shiraartain]

Thank you!

@Wolf I will tell my family so we can switch over smoothly

@Parjarita, he does receive a mishmash of fruits and veggies, but I just wanted to confirm that dates and figs are fine.

Are cherry tomatoes really alright? I've read that tomatoes are bad for birds bc they're part of the nightshade family. Are cherry tomatoes fine?

[Wolf]

The tomato is fine but the green parts of the tomato plant are not.

[Pajarita]

I don't know who was the idiot that started this stupidity about tomatoes in bird forums! Yes, some plants in the nightshade family are poisonous even when taken in relatively small dosages (datura, belladonna) but the nightshade family is HUGE (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, tobacco, chili peppers, pimentos, etc) and, with some of them, you need to be careful about the 'green' parts (tomatoes, potatoes) but do you know anybody who has died from eating a tomato? No, you haven't, right?

My birds have been eating tomatoes forever (parrots for more than 22 years and canaries for more than 50) and none of any of my birds has died of poisoning of any kind.