Raw Food Diet

[Branden Cohen]

Our two greys (CAG), Jyoti and Prem, are 1 year old, eat totally raw. Their staple is raw organic soy-free egg and organic ground beef. They also eat a variety of fruits, and veggies and all varieties of raw nuts. We also feed our two cats and dog, raw meat and eggs.

 

We look to nature and ask, what do parrots eat in the wild? lizards (meat), bugs, grubs, some fruit and vegetation. They also eat dead carcasses. Certainly not corn or sunflower seeds and definitely not pellets - which are processed.

 

Just look to the meat of farm raised salmon, that eat processed food versus, raw food in the wild and this will shed light upon the negative health effects of cooked and processed food. When farm raised salmon are fed processed food, their meat is grey and lifeless, thus the need to add salmon coloring.

 

Our birds are very happy and very healthy on a totally raw food diet.

[Talon]

Raw organic ground beef......hmmm not sure that is in their natural habitat, but I look forward to this discussion. This is a very different diet than most members here feed their greys. I expect this to be quite the debate, you will get all kinds of opinions, soooo be prepared. You do what you feel is best, but this will open up lots of advice, opinions and reactions.

 

Remember not to take anything personal....so keep the dander down...

[Timbersmom]

I am interested too. Meat is one of Timber's favorite things. I've always limited the amount I feed him, but have often wondered if I should let him have more.

[Talon]

I do allow my birds to eat meat, mostly chicken and turkey, occasionally a bit of hamburg. But always cooked and never raw due to my fear of ecoli, etc...

[Luvparrots]

I do feed my birds raw fresh veggies at least twice a week. I have tried cooked meat and my birdies are just not interested so I stick with nuts, grains, pastas and beans as well as veggies.

[Dave007]

Toxic bacteria that is sometimes present in meat, such as E. Coli and Salmonella. That's how people get those diseases.( raw, undercooked meat) Also, many people don't have access to organic meat.

In addition, some raw meat is often riddled with parasites that will take up residence in the intestines of a dog that eats the meat. These parasites can migrate about the body, often curling up in a little cocoon-like structure known as a cyst. They can live in the intestines for a long time without being noticed and then wreak havoc with normal digestion and causing diarrhea and vomiting.

Once you have looked at these worms, flukes and tiny parasites under a microscope, you hope that they never make their way into your own body.

Parrots may eat a carcass but only if it's absolutely necessary. Would you share the carcass of a dead rabbit while loads of maggots are also crawliing around eating the flesh? I heard that maggots taste just like chicken. I believe that feeding an animal things it wouldn't normally eat is unhealthy. In the wild, parrots don't search around eating eggs BUT they will feed some eggs to their birds. My birds will just have to be satisfied with their present diet.

Edited May 21, 2013 by Dave007

[Branden Cohen]

Thanks for your responses. I was hesitant to bring up this hot button topic but feel its so important. I grew up with severe food allergies which led me to study nutrition in high school and college and that eventually led me to a raw foods diet for the last twelve years. I had lots of allergy shots as a child, and stayed away from all allergens, no Dr. ever recommended raw foods. While I am allergic to most cooked food, which leave me feeling lethargic and cloudy of mind, when I eat raw, I experience no allergies and feel energized and clear of mind.

 

What I've learned along the way:

 

1. Health and vitality come from eating unprocessed and raw foods that are closest to their natural form.

2. Bacteria isn't the demon it's been made out to be. In fact it's part of life, lives inside us and facilitates digestion in the small intestines after acid, bile, and enzymes do the heavy lifting in the stomach.

3. All animals except humans and our domesticated pets, eat raw and have since the beginning of time. Many human cultures in historic times ate raw, Eskimos being one.

4. All disease, in animals and humans, is on the rise, exponentially.

5. Most disease comes from poor nutrition and industrial toxins.

6. Animals used to die of old age and predation in the wild. in present times add to the list: habitat loss, human predation and industrial toxins. In the wild, animals eat raw and live in often harsher environments. In our homes, they are often less stressed by weather and predators but manifest human disease when eating a cooked and processed food diet.

7. Our two cats, two parrots and one dog, thrive on a totally raw foods diet. Their fur, feathers, teeth, beaks and eyes are vibrantly healthy. I'll post some pics and vids soon.

 

While the staple of our two CAGs is raw organic ground beef and raw soy-free eggs, they also eat fruit, veggies, and nuts. Consider what hey eat in the wild: worms, bugs, lizards, carcasses, nuts and vegetation - all raw. Mostly protein, fat and some carbs/sugars, certainly lots of bacteria as this is part of the web of life. While parrots don't eat ground beef in the wild, it is protein and fat, eggs are also protein and fat, both of which mimic the protein and fat they get from bugs, worms, and lizards. Instead of thinking this food or that, think protein, fat and carbs.

 

Parrots are only two generations from the wild. Their digestive systems have evolved over thousands of years eating raw foods. Yet we as humans feed our domesticated pets, cooked, processed foods. When we cook food, the heat denatures the amino acids in proteins and the enzymes, making digestion more difficult and requiring more energy. Therefore leaving less energy for living, growing, healing,...

 

Consider the oldest man to father a child, at 96, this man from India just had his second boy. His diet, primarily raw milk, butter and almonds. At 46, I am stronger, healthier and happier than at 25. For 12 years, I eat raw meat daily, including chicken and pork, raw dairy, fruits, nuts and veggies, no grains, and have never gotten food poisoning due to bacteria. E.coli is naturally occurring within us, now and forever more. We need a balance of pro-biotics(bacteria) in our gut to live and thrive.

 

When people get "food poisoning" the docs check for bacteria in he vomit or stool, rarely do they test for industrial toxins, which the body is trying to get rid off. Of course there is bacteria, its a huge and necessary part of digestion.

 

Many animals in the wild eat poop. Some for the bacteria, others like gorillas because they can more easily extract protein from per-digested vegetation.

 

I look forward to exploring more on this topic and welcome feedback. In closing, for now, consider what our feathered friends eat in the wild. I'd venture to guess they don't eat pellets and very few grains, if any.

 

Food for thought.

 

Thanks

Edited May 21, 2013 by Branden Cohen

[SRSeedBurners]

I am more interested in your (vs your birds) personal benefits and such would be interested to know:

- how much does it cost you to eat as you've mentioned?

- You mention no grains - why? I am on a mission to get away from the Frankenwheat that the food industry (Monsanto) is pawning on the herd, although finding a local source for Einkorn wheat is proving difficult.

 

The oldest people in the world seem to live on fish and rice, not red meats. Although the Mediterranean diet including red meat seems to have some benefit but most likely due to the olive oils they eat?!?

 

Not once do you mention exercise. I also feel better at 44 than I did at 30 and 35. It's 100% due to the fact I started exercising like a fiend. Ages 17-24 I was in the Marines where no one is fat or lazy, at least NCOs. Then I went to college and was still active because I rode my bicycle ALL OVER campus and rode it into the town nearby quite often. THEN I started working in corporate Ameri$$a sitting on my ass 24/7. My health went downhill in a matter of a year, and I'm talking downhill in a bad way. I had never once in my life been fat...I started putting on a spare tire. It took me the next 4 years before I finally picked up something I cant quit - bike racing - and it has turned my health back around. I also will commute to work via bike but most weeks I spend around 8-15 hours of solid training time and I feel much better because of it. What's killing people is sitting in their bubbles 24/7...it's not how even our closest ancestors (meaning our grandparents) lived - little pudding pops under air conditioners complaining about the 2 minutes they have to cross the pavement to get to their next air conditioned bubble. Try training in 90-100 degree heat for 4 hours. I sleep like a baby every time I do it. I would like to get my nutrition under control too though.

[Greywings]

Interesting but studies have shown that they eat more plant material then meat in the wild re-Wild African Grey Parrots feed chiefly on seeds, palm nuts, fruits, and leaves. They have also been observed supplementing their vegetarian diet with protein rich snails. In captivity, it is important to keep them on a varied diet to ensure optimal health and prevent boredom. You can for instance feed your bird a parrot seed mix combined with fresh fruits, vegetables and leaves. Occasional protein rich servings are beneficial but it doesn’t have to be snails, boiled egg whites will work just as well. http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/africangrey/

 

Many people still loose their lives to both bacterial and parasite driven dirreah even in locations with out much in the way of industrialization or protien rich foods.

Diet:

Climbing up a tree from branch to branch, instead of flying, the African grey collects seeds, nuts, fruit, and berries. These vegetarians are especially fond of eating the outer layer of the oil palm nut as well as the red berries from the Cola tragacantha.They have also developed a taste for grain and can do a great deal of damage to the maize crops planted in western Africa. http://www.rainforest-alliance.org/kids/species-profiles/african-grey-parrot

I have no issues with a raw diet but the meat part is more a Predators requirement than a Greys natural inclination towards bark, Flowers, Shoots & leaves, Roots, Fruit, Nuts, yes Grains whan near farm fields, fungi on occasion a bit of meat or insects not a routine addtion of protien from an animal source.

 

Glad you are well hope your birds and you remain so.

[SRSeedBurners]

Interesting stuff Greywings. I have always wondered why around here and other places people say to give their birds fruits and nuts sparingly? I don't see African Greys digging up vegetable crops and lowering their natural fruit intake. My Greycie will bury herself in a mango if given the opportunity. Carrot - meh. I bet they don't drive to the nearest drive through either Exercise!!!

[Greywings]

They do dig up roots and forage on grasses and other vegetable matter.

African grey parrots travel and forage in groups. Part of the African grey flock forages in trees while the rest feed on the ground below. Ground-foraging increases a bird’s vulnerability to predators. With a split flock, the African greys in the treetops act as sentinels, warning of any approaching danger. At the slightest provocation, the flock flies away.

African grey parrots feed on a variety of food sources in the wild, and they’re creative at finding those opportunities. African greys often seek out elephant herds because of the food opportunities they provide. The weight of these huge mammals creates depressions in the ground that fill with water, and the parrots feed on the calcium-rich grasses that grow in these micro-mini swamps. http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-magazines/bird-talk/march-2007/teaser-wild-at-home.aspx

http://www.google.com/imgres?client=firefox-a&hs=WP&sa=X&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1024&bih=605&tbm=isch&tbnid=NMLXRMYSuq2eOM:&imgrefurl=http://www.youtube.com/all_comments%3Fv%3DQnnOx178Z64&docid=7G_GkYP76r5CuM&itg=1&imgurl=http://i2.ytimg.com/vi/QnnOx178Z64/mqdefault.jpg&w=320&h=180&ei=p4-bUYi5B4OVygHE7IDQDA&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:21,s:0,i:156&iact=rc&dur=259&page=2&tbnh=144&tbnw=241&start=12&ndsp=15&tx=185&ty=75

[danmcq]

Thanks for posting this Greywings. I was going to post that same video of them on the ground feeding and watering down, but just to busy at work to do it.

 

I have never read or heard anyone studying greys in the wild note that they were observed dining on a carcass. The danger of even trying that when it was obviously killed by a very dangerous predictor and probably still near by would make it a least likely food source for a grey. I nor can anyone else say they don't perhaps grab a bite if they have observed from on high that there are no predators in sight and decide to take a quick bite and flee. But, as researchers have noted in the wild, the main food sources are red palm fruit, maize, fruits, insects etc. not meat.

 

I do however give my grey a bite now and then of chicken, beef or fish when dining. They love large chicken bones as well obliterating them to small fragments getting to the cherished bone marrow.

[Jayd]

If I may. Thank you.

 

http://www.biodiversityexplorer.org/encounter/food/index.htm

[Greywings]

Interesting link have not seen that before, thank you. I am still concerned about the beef being a daily diet (not natural for them) as Greys like us humans share that susceptibility to the wrong type of fatty acids and cholesterol in the diet leading to clogged vessels and heart disease.

[Branden Cohen]

My research continues:

 

"They eat leaves, twigs, nuts, seeds, berries, shoots, bark, fruits, and other vegetation in various stages of growth." Carolyn Swicegood

 

Add to the list, anything they can get their beaks and talons on including all varieties of bugs and worms.

 

Parrots are omnivores like us, which means they have a varied diet. Though some believe them to be herbivores, insectivores and frugivores. They are not strict vegetarians, although they may be able to live long healthy lives as such if their owners desire this.

 

I may be feeding my two parrots more animal protein and fat then they would get in nature, where fresh, raw carbs seem to be a higher percentage of their diet.

 

I will explore feeding Jyoti and Prem less animal protein, while increasing their fresh vegetable intake. I will continue with fruits and nuts/seeds, all raw, nothing processed or cooked - which doesn't exist in be wild. This may not be for everyone but I am a purist and want to mimic nature as best I can.

 

After a year on the raw food diet, they are doing great, so I don't believe big changes are necessary.

 

Bottom line, I plan to feed them a raw, varied diet.

Edited May 21, 2013 by Branden Cohen

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

My birds eat a diet of fresh veggies, fruits secondary, fresh seeds with protein mixed. They eat chicken and fish, but NEVER raw meat. They don't live in the wild. They live with me. I don't close their cage, but close the bird room. I can imitate their enviroment the best I can. It won't consist of worms, or living off of decayed animals. Nancy

[Jayd]

Thanks every one, as most members know Maggie and I feed all our fids fresh, except no red meat, we feed chicken, tuna, salmon and turkey cooked. We don't feed the no-no legumes raw and the protein is mostly veggie. Cags and Tags are prone to high cholesterol from sat fat, [red meat] a major killer of African Grey Parrots and Zons. As all know we follow and believe in accumulation, we believe a litte is to much in some foods, this is no secret. Red meat and grubs, insects etc are completely differant kinds of protien. As a interesting possibility, a grey could live in captivity on a diet of red palm nuts, corn, seeds and leafy green veggies with occasional legume's and nut's. Unfortunately, our beloved Grey will not become domesticated for some 200,000 years. Thanks All Jay

[SRSeedBurners]

I've always wanted to slurp down a June bug grub. Maybe next time I dig a couple up me and Greycie will have a go at 'em...

 

[Jayd]

:)What would be interesting would be for you avian vet to do a blood work up to see how things are and to compare to a more normal Grey diet.....

[Branden Cohen]

Jayd, I will consider drawing blood.

[danmcq]

Just some words of advice on Parrots and their diet. Parrots originating from different regions have different dietary requirements. Parrots from the countries surrounding Australia, such as cockatoos, were primarily grain and corn eaters, and required a low fat diets. Parrots from these areas were dying from fatty livers and tumors in captivity. A seed diet was just too high in fat. African greys from the African Congo area eat red palm fruit as a main staple. Also, they metabolize calcium differently than most parrots and have problems with calcium, vitamin A and D3 deficiencies. Be careful researching the web. Most have contradictory information and are lumping all parrot species together in a general diet for all. That is a huge mistake and affects their parrots health negatively.

 

Please read the African grey specific stickies in both the food and health rooms. They are chalk full of information for you to consider. An example would be the need to include Red Palm Oil in your Greys diet.

Edited May 22, 2013 by danmcq

[Greywings]

That is excellent advice and those red palm oils also contain beta carotene's and some bioflavinoids. Results of blood work would be most interesting, kudos to you for considering that idea.

[Timbersmom]

I'd love to see the results of that blood draw. I don't agree with a lot of the mainstream dietitians about saturated fat and its affect on humans. Greys aren't humans though and I am very curious about this.

[Timbersmom]

I've always wanted to slurp down a June bug grub. Maybe next time I dig a couple up me and Greycie will have a go at 'em...

 

 

I think you may have hit upon a money maker there!

[Dave007]

Tri-Maggot Pasta Salad