To Peel or Not To Peel
Parrots & Natural Living Foods
by Monica Gonzalez

There could be many reasons why a parrot does not eat a particular fruit or vegetable. Birds, when on a proper diet, instinctively know which vitamins and minerals their body requires. A good example is a bird eating the stem of Kale and then ripping apart the leaves. Kale, Broccoli, Mustard Greens are just a few of the vegetables having increased nutritional values in the stem. Some root vegetables have combined nutrition. An example would be Dandelions. The Dandelion Greens and Root as a whole plant have more complete nutritional benefits. [Read on...]

I find myself peeling and cubing most fruits and dicing veggies for my two . They very seldom hold food in their talons to eat.

How do your birds like their veggie's and fruits served?

Depends on what it is, but for the most part they like things peeled and cubed too, although they still hold it. Some things they will eat peel on, but they are pretty picky.

I mostly cube and leave the peel. The article has some good suggestions with somewhat of a concern for the suggestion of soy milk vs. regular milk with oatmeal. There has been controversy with that as indicated in this article.

my kids' allergies: The soy controversy

Thank you for that link JR. I have been reading several articles lately that recommend not offering soy.

Soy is not only high in protein, but also a natural dietary source of isoflavones, a class of chemical compounds which affect the body in some ways similar to estrogen. Too much soy may nudge a bird into a hormonal state.

I cube everything with the peel, the conures need it to be the right foot size to eat or they throw it. The IRN can eat off the floor so they don't care what size it is.

For the budgies I give either very big bits for the fence or finely chopped for the dish. New foods have to be hung up or it is considered not edible.

Edit to add: I feed soya included in the ingredient list of the soft food, but remember most of my birds are breeders so not quite the same as pet bird feeding.

I don't trust peels - organic doesn't mean pesticide free! So I peel and cube.

SOY - I've provided articles in other discussions on this matter. Soy is bad, IMO for humans and for birdies. Bottom line, fermented soys (miso soup, soy sauce) from Asian cultures don't contain the plant estrogens that the american culture now promotes (endamame, tofu, soy oil, protine powders). Those estrogens (isoflavins) mess with thyroid and can cause a whole slew of other issues.

I hear you Dana, our cultures have not yet gone the way of American cultures as there is a lot of resistance to any GM foods. Although a lot of the soy worldwide has already been modified that nut allergic reaction is the result of eating soy. It is only a tiny amount in the parrot mix so not a concern yet for the breeders. If my pets start getting attitudes I will have to look at diet for sure. Sometimes living in a less developed country has is benefits.

Pesticides could be a problem for me in the future but at present they are so expensive they are only used as a very last resort, there are also laws in place about the time between spray and harvest. All fruits are washed on the farms before packing, this is law. I do wash and scrub everything very well before cutting up. Also we take fruit from our own trees that has never had pesticide, although most fruit is purchased.

Unfortunately, one of the best pellets on the market, Harrison's, contains soy. TOP organic bird pellet is soy free and excellent. Unfortunately, I haven't figured out a way to get the birds to eat it. I have tried it with the homemade hot sauce, sprinkling spices on it so it stays dry, and with apple sauce, and still they leave it behind. They don't even toss it...it just stays in the dish. So they do get Harrison's as part of their diet, soy and all.

Regarding fruits and veggies, I also peel, but with greens like kale and such I spray with veggie wash or vinegar and rinse it off. I offer it to them in a variety of ways...one way is I clip the big leaves like a toy so they enjoy shredding them and hopefully ingest a bit in the process.