Do you share with your birds?

[Mygala]

Do you share your table food with your birds?
I do.

Here is an abstract I ran across:

Quote: Abstract: The owners of 135 pet birds were surveyed by questionnaire to determine their birds' weekly food consumption. The birds were divided into six food groups on the basis of the amounts of seeds, formulated products and human food they consumed. The formulated products and seeds were analysed for their nutrient content by two independent laboratories, the nutrient content of the human foods was obtained from a standard nutrition reference, and each bird's nutrient intake was estimated. The dietary content of individual nutrients was then compared with the estimated maintenance requirements for pet birds. Birds consuming less than approximately 50 per cent of their diets as formulated products had inadequate intakes of vitamins A and D3, and calcium. Diets high in human food were low in protein, energy, vitamins and minerals. Diets high in seed were excessive in fat and deficient in vitamins A and D3, and calcium.

This is just something to keep in mind as we share our food with our birds.

I know I'll think more about WHAT I feed them.

Up til now, it's mostly cooked veggies, breads, pasta, rice, potatos, ..lots of "starchy" stuff. Although they do like chicken and turkey bones.

What do you share, and how nutritious is it do you think?

Bob

[CTChin]

I try to share mostly healthy food but I'm sure on occasion I overdue it. Good reminder!
Where do birdy muffins fit in? LOL I take a muffin mix (the healthiest I can find but that is hard) and overload it with a variety of vegetables and greens. My bird gets one of these small muffins in the morning, pellets soaked in some sort of healthy baby food such as sweet potatoes or mango etc. in the afternoon (the only way he'll eat pellets), and a small amount of seed at night. In between he might get a little pasta, egg, raw veggies, fruit etc.

[Jodi]

Tob eats a good bit of *human* food. I give him a huge variety of veggies. I feed him pasta, sweet taters, beans, fruit, etc too but the majority of his human food is veggies. I think I have all my bases covered as far as what he needs but it's hard to say. And I highly doubt that any of us would be able to provide everything perfectly. Even though some pellet companies claim to have the *perfect* avian diet... I'm doubtful. But if I was trying to sell a product, I would claim it was perfect too. LOL!

We do give him pellets but in all honesty, I wouldn't want my bird on an all pellet diet. I know that's not what the article is suggesting but.... Toby loves food and loves to eat. He gets so excited at dinner time. The thought of just offering him all pellets makes me sad. I would be taking away a major enjoyment for him. He does get pellets, a fairly decent amount (in the last month or so I've increased his pellets to about 1/3 - 1/2 of his diet).