Tomatos..... good? bad? indifferent?

[Morgiana]

I love tomatos and it seems they're also a favorite item for my senegal, Bijou. My sun conure would never touch the things, so I never bothered to look them up regarding feeding them to birds. I figured I should, to be on the safe side, but I've been finding a LOT of conflicting information out there..... Everything from "OMG never feed tomatos to a bird", to "tomatos are fine in small amounts", to "tomatos are good for birds". So I wanted to hear from people here. What do you all think and/or what have you heard about offering tomatos in a bird's diet?

(If it makes a difference, the tomatos Bijou seems to have grown fond of are the "grape" variety of tomatos. Not the smallest ones, but the more oval, second to smallest kind commonly available in the US.)


--Morgi and Bijou, good bird!

[kaylayuh]

I occasionally give my birds tomatoes, but not very often and not in very large amounts. I think people are a bit wary because tomatoes are acidity of tomatoes. As long as it's not an every day thing, you should be fine.

I also give my birds things like oranges, limes and pineapple. The nibble it, but they're not too interested. Some people avoid these things just like tomatoes, but as long as you're not gorging them full of it, you should be okay.

[birdvet]

In moderation tomotoes are fine. I even give my birds (shock...horror ) some corn occasionally as a treat.

[coral]

i give marty tomatos sometimes but hes not interested in them lol, corn is bad for birds birdvet??? i give it to marty a lot its his favorite o.o

[Morgiana]

I was also about to ask that..... Corn is bad? I keep corn offerings small because I know corn doesn't have the nutrition punch of other veggies, but I always keep a bag in the freezer and thawed frozen corn has been a hit with both my fids, past and present.

-- Morgi and Bijou, good bird!

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Tomatoes I don't really feed raw, mostly in the form of sauce with pasta, but as Kaylayah said, it is said to be the acid content that is an issue in quantity. Cooking tends to neutralize it a bit. But I mostly save the tomatoes for me! That said, they are a good source of vitamins and I have no idea how much a bird has to eat to upset the acidity of the crop or stomach. I guess there are cases on record of tomatoes causing ulcers in birds. Also

I feed corn to Scooter fairly regularly. It stands in for some of the grain he'd otherwise get from his dry mix or pellets. It's starchy and it's high in sugars for a veggie, but it's still basically a starchy vegetable not a candy cane. Blackberries have MUCH more sugar than corn. "A nutritional powerhouse, corn provides a range of nutrients, among them essential vitamins, including vitamin C, thiamine, folic acid and pantothenic acid" says an article on the Livestrong site. Corn has developed a bad reputation for reasons that aren't entirely clear to me. I'm not a fan of it for horses because of the way horses digest food -- they are better off with more longstem fiber -- but birds digestive systems are almost the opposite of horses. The phrases "eat like a horse" and "eat like a bird" are used the wrong way around! But I digress.

I guess I take the same approach to bird nutrition that I do to human nutrition: if it's edible, eat it in moderation, go for variety, don't hop on popular bandwagons.

[patdbunny]

Gotta get off the "bad" and "good" bus. Unless something is determined to actually be detrimental to the animal, let's not call it "bad". Like anything else variety, balance and moderation.

Corn is not "bad" for birds. Most of the pelleted diets out there have ground corn as the first ingredient. Just like else, if corn's the favorite the bird can't eat only corn. But as a treat or a part of an overall balanced diet, there's nothing wrong with corn or any other safe food item.

I had been feeding my horses minced garlic for years. Then it was all over the internet "DON'T FEED GARLIC TO HORSES! IT CAUSES ANEMIA!" I looked up the study. Yeah, garlic can cause anemia in horses. But there is just no way you can get a horse to voluntarily eat the quantity of garlic necessary to induce anemia.

Just saying. . . don't get extreme in either direction.

Ha ha - Entranced and I hit the reply button at the same time. Yeah, what she said!

[BudgieSansWings]

Tomatoes are part of the nightshade family... Which has a tendency to give them a bad rap. I wouldn't feed tomato greens as they contain some nicotine(which isn't really healthy for anyone).

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Roz, great minds..... LOL!

[birdvet]

Corn is high in fat and the calcium:phosphorus ratio is out of whack so if you feed too much your bird could develop metabolic bone disease and/or become obese. Its fine in moderation but I wouldn't be keen to feed it too much...I've seen birds fed diets high in corn with both metabolic bone disease and fatty liver...

So its only bad if given in excess, and the problem is that birds LOVE it so will preferentially choose corn over other food items...