Safe Lettuce & Veg/Fruits with Oxalic Acid & Phytates

[colorado4bjh]

Hello,

I am just wondering if there are any lettuces that aren't considered safe for our fids? (i.e. Lolla rosa, red or green oak leaf lettuce, tatsoi, etc.)

Also there is a great website that shows oxalic acid content for various veggies and fruits I thought could be useful. Helps us understand why rhubarb parsley, etc aren't good for our fids. http://oxalicacidinfo.com/

I am curious, I was reading about phytates also binding to calcium too. Such as broccoli, carrots, blackberries. Any knowledge out there on this one?

[entrancedbymyGCC]

It's raw rhubarb, particularly the leaves, that have a very high amount of oxalic acid. Cooking the stalks changes the chemistry and cooked rhubarb appears on some good-to-feed lists for birds. Humans generally don't eat them raw either, although it is more unpleasant than dangerous to do so. That website appears to have some credibility issues and is a little waffly on getting to the point, but the author appears to conclude that the concentrations in leafy greens are not worth stressing over.

I'm not a nutritionist, but I believe broccoli is actually a fairly good source of dietary calcium. Those foods -- broccoli, carrots and blackberries -- all have a lot of positive nutritional properties aside from that. My approach to this, for both my birds and myself, is that presenting a variety of foods allows for checks and balances in the nutritional profiles. As a consumer I'm not sure it pays to try to ride the whiplash of the good food/bad food propaganda. Usually there is some truth to whatever is driving the latest fluctuation, but it is rarely in perspective, and last year's superfood is this week's bad food. With the birds you need to be a little more careful, but mostly it doesn't seem to be rocket science, more common sense.

I have to confess that this would work better if Scotty would eat something besides grapes. This is a case in point -- grapes are quite OK as a food, but if his diet truly were grapes and grapes alone he'd have all kinds of nutritional issues. Fortunately he does eat pellets and sprouts.

[colorado4bjh]

That's why I ask about various lettuces. Particularly ones I have never heard of. My ultimate goal is to provide a large variety of food. I know of reliable sources from "human" health journals that speak of high concentrations of oxalic acid that isn't even good for us and therefore conclude that it isn't good for my birds. I personally try and stay away from anything 0.50 (g/100g) or higher as a precaution. I provided another website of oxalic content that certainly is from a more reliable source. http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/D ... xalic.html

I guess that I am a little anxious about food because I lost a cockatiel in the last year who was only with me a short time but I came to love him so very much. He was obviously in serious amounts of pain right before he passed. I still can't think of it without crying. Based on his test results, he died of fatter liver disease (very common I guess) but he was also deficient in calcium when I first got him. He was a rescue from the Gabriel Foundation when I adopted him.

Of course my tiels have a mineral block with them and they do get fresh veg/fruits/sprouts plus a cooked bean/grain mix everyday and I use pellets when they forage. I just want to do the very best that I can to prevent complications for my other 2 'tiels and my senegal.

Any leafy lettuces that aren't safe that anyone might know of?

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I don't think lettuces vary that much in nutritional content, and they tend to be pretty nutritionally neutral -- mostly water. Loose lettuces might be candidates to go organic with, though, as those leaves provide a lot of surface area for exposure to pesticides. In general darker colored greens tend to have more nutritional value. Spinach is one to feed in moderation I've been told, because too much can cause imbalances (too much iron, sodium). But my guess is that that is a problem only if that's the main thing you feed.

I don't really feed lettuce, except a a sort of edible foraging confetti. I do feed chard, kale and other dark leafy greens (although they aren't big favorites with my flock).

I signed up for a local CSA which gets me a basket of locally grown organic produce each week, and that gets shared with the birds. It has caused me to look up bird food safety on several occasions, and I've yet to find something that is safe for people that isn't safe for birds in the same form it is safe for people with the exception of avocado, chocolate, caffeine and alcohol. My most recent test case was persimmons, and it does turn out to be a little tricky. Parrots eat them in the wild, so you'd think it would be a slam dunk, but it turns out you really want them to be ripe before feeding them to your bird. Unripe, they are very pucker-y to us and we probably wouldn't eat a lot -- this is caused by tannins that alter as the fruit ripens. They aren't great for birds in high concentrations, so persimmons should only be fed when they are ripe enough to be pleasant for us to eat.

[colorado4bjh]

Thank you. I really appreciate the feedback. Based on your photo, you and your birds look very happy! I have found sprouting to make a huge difference for my geriatric cockatiel (now 17 years old) so I guess I'm doing something right.... Once again, thanks!