Anyone feed their birds Celery

[robert]

Does anyone feed their birds Celery? alsq.org.au/articles/063_412.html from Robert and Precious

[vankarhi]

my birds do get celery from time to time.

[robert]

Thanks Tracey. from Robert and Precious

[avinet]

This is a very misleading article - sodium is important to all animals but it is impossible for a bird fed virtually any diet to be defficient in sodium. It is ubiquitous in all diets in sufficient amounts to provide for the needs of any bird. In addition the figures for sodium levels quoted for various fruit and vegetables are meaningless and in fact highly inaccurate. Meaningless since no units are quoted - are they ppm., or mg per serve or just guesses?

It gives sodium figures of:- Carrots 112, Silverbeet 273, Celery 788, and Broccoli 47.

In fact the amounts of sodium in these various vegetables are (taken from and with values in milligrams per 100 grams: - Carrots 69, Silverbeet 213, Celery 80 and Broccoli 33. Totally different from the figures in the article.

That is not to say that celery is not a good food - I regard it as one of the best - especially the leaves. The only problem is I don't like celery so we don't buy it very often, but I always include it on my list of reccommended vegies to our customers, since it has a good level of many nutrients, and seems to be very palatable to many birds.

So the un-named author of the article linked has the right reccomendation for totally the wrong reason, and sodium is one of the last minerals to worry about in a bird's diet (see article by Adrian Gallagher in Parrot Society magazine Nove/Dec 1995).

cheers,

Mike

[trueloveaviary]

Tamara and I participate in parrot seminars monthly. These seminars are carried out by board certified avian vets, researchers, animal behaviorists, and bird adoption facilitators such as Phoenix Landing. One seminar that we went to was Phoenix Landing's "Nourish to Flourish" talking about bird nutrition. The speaker mention the possible addition of celery seed in the diet to aid in digestion, liver problems, and arthritis. She talked of one Blue and Gold Macaw who was almost crippled with arthritis because of age and years in an inappropriate cage. After the macaw was fed celery seed for several months, the arthritis has virtually disappeared and he was moving around and playing like a parrot in their prime. This was enough to convince us to at least try it on our male budgie Pigwidgeon who is dieing of tumors and fatty liver disease. After weeks of him ingestion the seed, his energy levels have jumped. Normally he eats and then sleeps all day, but he has been flying with the other birds, exploring, and destroying his toys again. Pigwidgeon was giving only 3 to 6 months to live, but that was well over a year ago. During his time with us, we changed his diet, gave him the opportunity to fly again, and gave him his girlfriend Hedwig. So is the celery seed the miracle drug? I can not say for sure, but with the addition of the product and his new lifestyle it has made a positive difference in his well-being. Here is some more information from the Medial Center of the University of Maryland.
www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/celery-seed-000231.htm
~Rodney

[Laraine]

I feed all my birds celery leaves and the stalks. They love it and it hasn't done them any harm.

[angelicvampyre]

My Budgies go nuts over Celery leaves and I find that the local fruit guy cuts the top off his celery plants before wrapping them to sell so now I ask him for the tops and he gives me a big bag for free! (I do wash them well before using them) I also find the older birds love the stalks as it gives them extra water and also helps if you have a bird that is not drinking.