I would like to preface this post by extending my gratitude to Beatriz Cazeneuve who brought this to my attention which then started me on my search for more information which I would like to share.

Dried Fruits

Many seed mixes, soak mixes and birdie bread mixes include dried fruits in them. This can be a nice occasional healthy treat for your parrots if you know what you’re buying. An example of this would be dried blueberries which can be as much as four times higher in antioxidants than their fresh counterparts.

There are two fruit drying processes that may have a detrimental health effect for our Parrots. We are already aware that added sugar is not a good choice for our Parrots. I was unable to find information about the health effects of Sulfur Dioxide in our Parrot’s diet but for people who have Sulfite sensitivities there are many.

Let’s talk about the fruit that is dried using Sulfur Dioxide first. Why are chemically treated dried fruits in some Parrot foods? Why aren’t we aware of this? There are a few reasons.

Manufacturers are not required by law to list ingredients that are already in the ingredients they purchase to add to their mixes. So if a manufacturer purchases dried fruit that has been treated with Sulfur Dioxide from another source they do not have to list that on the ingredients. Unless the label states that the fruits are unsulfured you can rest assured that they are sulfured. The fruits cost less, so they are used.

A person can visually see if dried fruit has been treated with sulfur dioxide on some fruits by noting the vibrant colors of the naturally yellow and orange fruits. If the dried Pineapple is bright yellow it has been treated with Sulfur Dioxide. If the dried Papaya is bright orange it has been treated with Sulfur Dioxide. If that dried Apricot is bright orange, you guessed it; it’s been treated with Sulfur Dioxide.

This is a picture I took of dried Papaya. You can note the color differences. The fruit on the left has been treated with Sulfur Dioxide; the fruit on the right has not.



This is an explanation of a typical Sulfur Dioxide process;
Problem number two for our Parrots is dried fruit with added sugar. Once again if that dried fruit with the added sugar has been added by another manufacturer and purchased for addition to a seed, soak or bread mix, the manufacturers label is not required to tell you it has added sugar. We do see labels on dried fruit packages that state sugar has been added to the fruits.

Maybe you thought that it’s alright that it has a little extra sugar. I know I used to think that until I learned about the actual process of sugaring fruits for drying. Fruits are naturally sweet to begin with and they get sweeter as their sugar content is concentrated during the drying process. Extra sugar isn’t necessary and you certainly will think twice about adding this much sugar in your Parrot’s diet after reading a typical Infused Sugar process that is commonly used.

This is an explanation of a typical Infused Sugar process;
Good choices for dried fruits are unsulfured fruits, fruits with no added sugar, sun dried, air dried and naturally dried fruits.

Unsulfured Dried Fruits
Fruits that generally have no sulfur added are Brown Apricots, Blueberries, Cherries, Cranberries, Currants, Dates, Black Mission Figs, Turkish Figs, Prunes, and Black Raisins.

Sun Dried Fruits
The fruits are laid out in the sunshine to dry. Larger fruits being cut in half so they will dry faster. Fruits typically dried this way are apricots, currants, figs, peaches, pears, prunes and raisins.

Air Dried or Tunnel Dried Fruits
The fruit has warm air blown over it to dry it. Fruits typically dried in this way are apples, coconut, raisins and tomatoes. Fruit dried this way typically does not oxidize as much as fruit that is sun dried.

Naturally dried fruits
Fruits naturally dry on the trees before they are harvested. Dates are technically considered a fresh fruit rather than a dried fruit as they dry on the trees before harvesting.

Thank you Karen for this wonderful article! This is scary to me, especially since my fids love dried fruits. Thank you so much for the picture, that really makes it easy to see the difference.

I contacted the people we buy our mix from and they told me their fruits are sulfer free. However, there are also dried vegetables in the mix. Do you know if these are treated similarly?

All of Ollie's dried fruits and veggies are from justtomatoes.com. They say on the site "absolutely nothing added. All we do is take the water out, leaving intense flavors." The dried fruits are more crunchy than chewy though, unlike other dried stuff. I don't know what that means...

Camille I believe JustTomatoes uses a freeze dried method for their fruits and veggies. My birds don't care for their fruits so I've been using what I purchased in birdie bread. I do like to use their veggies though. I buy the hot veggie mix for snacking.

i've avoided sulfated/sugar added fruits from day one! ivy LOVES banana chips. i get unsweetened and unsulfated ones from barry farms. i tried making my own, but that didn't work so well. anyways though, banana chips are the only dried fruit ivy seems to go for. i think because they are crunchy!

Here's a link about Sulfites in foods you may find interesting;

Factsulphites

Interesting, I have been feeding fresh but dried fruits have attraction. I think I have to get a dehydrator and dry my own.

Thanks Karen. You are the best. Ruby doesn't really like the dried stuff anyway. Little missy prefers fresh! It is good to know.

I dehydrate my own...for the fids and, me.

That's our plan too actually...we are just looking for a dehydrator at the moment.