Natural Diet for Parrots danger of cooked grains

[Bird woman]

This little grey Sammy , only had head feathers ,wing tips although most we're chewed and down in some places. I am fortunate to be able to spent most of my time with all of them and keep them extremely busy. I really think with the greys it a lot about diet and health at first , then the habit sets in . This is why I don't let them have to much veg. Time , keep em busy busy busy !!!!! B.W.

[Bird woman]

[quote="Pajarita"]Yes, the advertisement part of it makes it highly questionable in my opinion, too. She also mentions the liver and kidneys as part of the endocrine system (?!). But, aside from that, I don't actually disagree with the premise that a diet based on highly processed commercial food is not good for parrots as that is one of the reasons why I don't feed pellets. I also agree with the statement that an acidic diet all the time is not good but I won't go as far as to say that we should strive for high alkaline. I think that a more neutral PH is the answer. The only people (we don't know anything about parrots) that should always eat an alkaline diet are the ones that produce too much acid on their own (like people who suffer from chronic heartburn, for example).

The truth is that, although grains are acidic, their levels of PH are actually quite close to neutral (for what I have been able to find -oat, barley and wheat, they are all over 6 -neutral been a 7) and you can, actually, decrease the acidity by soaking them first and only cooking them through simmering and not all the way through (which is also what I do and recommend for the gloop). Then you add the frozen (which means they are, basically, raw) veggies to it and you end up with a pretty balanced PH slightly alkaline.

[Bird woman]

I wasn't sure how to specifically reply to pajs. Post so I quoted first? Im going to do a little testing on some grains before and after cooking an let everyone know the findings. I think these high dollar testers might work that my husband has for his garden ,we'll find out. BW.

[seagoatdeb]

I wasn't sure how to specifically reply to pajs. Post so I quoted first? Im going to do a little testing on some grains before and after cooking an let everyone know the findings. I think these high dollar testers might work that my husband has for his garden ,we'll find out. BW.

I am really interested in your findings Bird Woman.

[Pajarita]

I wasn't sure how to specifically reply to pajs. Post so I quoted first? Im going to do a little testing on some grains before and after cooking an let everyone know the findings. I think these high dollar testers might work that my husband has for his garden ,we'll find out. BW.

Thank you so much! That would be very useful information because, as I said, I could only find the ph of three grains - period. But take into consideration that the 'final' ph of the diet has to include the veggies in the gloop (which I don't know how you can test with the little strips -is that what you are using and, if so, aren't they only for liquids?)

[seagoatdeb]

The strips read ph level, and some information can be gained from how things start out.....I have studied this a lot and I always welcome new information to study.

When I changed my diet to raw whole food i tested my skins ph with the appropriate strips until it was the right balance, which is for the skin slightly acid, but for the inner body slighty alkaline. It took 5 months of eating a high raw alkaline diet to reach that ph level. Also it takes time on a raw diet to see which food groups are the best for you and that period is when many quit as you can become ill if you arent eating the foods that you need in the raw group. Citrus fruits are acidic but in the human body they become alkaline in the tissues. Grain is used very sparing on a raw human diet as it is acid forming in the human body and thus it has always given me pause when fed to parrots. Parrots have a different system though so although i have found my perfect way of eating, the parrots cant tell me if i have the perfect way for them. Also different parrot species need different feeding since their natural diets were different. i want to look at all available info.


We need to know what is the best ph for the parrots and the food that goes into their body, may have a differnt ph inside their body and so perhaps testing their poop would be the best option, but we would need to know the ph that is optimal for their health and i dont think there are any studies on it.

[Pajarita]

I also don't think there are any... I doubt they even know the ph of most things they eat in the wild, either.

[seagoatdeb]

The ph of almost anything in the wild is on the alkaline side of the ph scale.

[Pajarita]

Well, with the exception of peanuts and walnuts which are considered high acid while white beans, pecans, cashews and pistachios are medium acid.

But, I was thinking about this last night and reached the conclusion that, if I have to be 100% honest about the subject, I don't think it is that important. I mean, of course that I am interested in the results that Birdwoman could give us but this is mostly because I like to know everything there is to know about any given subject... And, needless to say, I would not want to give them a steadily acid diet but I am pretty convinced the gloop is not because of all the veggies in it and the fact that the grains I use are all considered mildly acid (like I said, the ones for which I found the actual PH were almost neutral) and most of the fruits and veggies they eat are either high, medium or low alkaline so it balances out. It's the white flours, the animal products, the canned fruits, etc that are all too acidic but my birds don't eat any of them...

[seagoatdeb]

The thing is you are speaking about which foods are acid before eating. Almost all raw nuts are alkaline forming in the human body. The important thing for humans is the forming in the body, not what the ph started out as.

There isnt a study or much information on Parrots ph and what happens in their body on a ph level so we have to only do our best with limited information and studies. I serve very limited cooked grains because parrots never eat cooked grains in the wild and because there are no studies to suport feeding cooked grains, this is the choice I have made. We all will make our choices on whats best and we can get vets to do the tests on our parrots to make sure they are healthy and thats what makes us responsible parrot owners.