Probiotics questions

[Hookturn]

As many of you know, my bird, JJ, has been very sick for a couple of weeks. Thankfully he is on the mend! A couple people here suggested that I start giving him probiotics. So I did some research and apparently this is a supplement that many avian vets recommend for daily use.

I also read an article stating that species-specific probiotics provide the most benefits. Based on that I ordered some avian probiotics but they won't get here for at least a week. In the meantime I bought a human probiotic but have some concerns with the ingredients. The package indicates the following per capsule: vitamin c 60 mg; vitamin b6 10 mg; vitamin b12 60 mcg. It also indicates the following as "natural energy": coffee bean extract (caffeine); guarana seed extract; Yerba mate extract; rhodiola rosea extract; gotu kola extract; coenzyme q10; panax ginseng extract; cocoa seed extract. It lists as "other ingredients" hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, rice flour powder, magnesium stearate, silicon dioxide.

I am in the process of looking up each of these to see if they are safe for my little guy. I was just wondering if anyone was familiar enough with any of these ingredients to know if they are harmful to birds.

Also, after reading several articles on the subject it seems that probiotics should be a part of a birds daily diet. I was wondering how many people are using them daily and if anyone has any opinion as to be benefits of daily use.

[marie83]

I'm very wary about the vitamin content, plus there's a few things in the ingredients that I don't know what they are. You could Google each thing individualy but that may take a while to get enough info....

[Hookturn]

That's my concern too.

[Wolf]

Well it wouldn't hurt to look up all of the ingredients although since some of them are only used as herbals there may not be much information about them as relates to parrots or even birds in general. I do know however that caffeine is listed as being bad for parrots, which would stop me from using it.

[Hookturn]

Those are my concerns too. I might just wait until I get the real thing next week. I just want to make sure I'm doing right by our little guy.

[Wolf]

You could add a few drops of raw apple cider vinegar to his food. But it must be the raw apple cider vinegar. It would help at least until your probiotics arrive.

[Pajarita]

It has to be organic, unfiltered and unpasteurized apple cider vinegar (the one with the 'mother') and yes, it helps, but probiotics help more.

Now, not all probiotics have vitamins or any other kind of stuff in them, there are probiotics that are just that and that's the kind that I use.

If you want avian specific get this one: http://nationalbirddesigns.com/shop.html but, if you check the list of strains in it, you will find that you can find the same strains in the human probiotic found to be best on the link I gave you on my other posting. There is no such thing as different probiotics for different avian species, it would most definitely be the ideal but there aren't any for the simple reason that it would require trapping wild birds and using the bacteria found in their gut to start cultures that would grow to commercial levels.

As to why do avian vets recommend giving them daily, well, this is because avian vets recommend feeding parrots pellets which are dead food so you have to feed the bird the bacteria that would normally grow in their gut out of the live food they eat (also the reason why pellets have B12 in them even though herbivores produce it themselves -we don't, we ingest it when we eat the meat of herbivores and that's why vegans need to supplement it). And this brings us to your other question: who uses it and how often. If you feed your bird a large range of fresh,organic food, you only need to do it every now and then and, in truth, this is more for your peace of mind than anything else because the bird will have healthy gut flora.