by Pajarita » Tue Mar 28, 2017 11:18 am
I am all and 100% for avian vets BUT they don't study parrot nutrition or behavior so, in reality, unless your avian vet has had multiple parrots for a long time and has done in-depth research on his own, his opinion on these two subjects is as uninformed as anybody else's could be (please, don't take my word for it, buy yourself an avian medicine book and you'll see that the avian nutrition chapter is the shortest in the entire book and covers only vague generalities for the simple reason that there are birds that eat nectar, birds that eat seeds, birds that eat meat/fish, birds that eat insects, birds that eat fruit, etc -the range of different dietary ecologies is way too large to be covered in any one book). I'll tell you something else, on his last avian medicine text book, Dr. Harrison mentions finding a number of birds suffering from omega toxicity and it was caused by avian vets recommending omega supplements. Why? Because omega supplements are made for mammal consumption and they did not take into consideration (because they do NOT study parrot nutrition) that parrots should never get any omega 6 or 9. Birds don't need as much omega 3 as mammals do and they don't need any supplements on it, either, just a good vegetarian diet as they evolved to thrive on. Man, in his infinite arrogance, thinks he knows more than nature but he doesn't and, if a bird did not evolve to eat fish, you can take it to the bank that it doesn't need to. Think about it...