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Why Parrots Eat Clay - Video
| Parrots eat a lot of the fruit of forest trees. Fleshy fruits, but the seeds inside are protected with a hard double layer w/ the inner layer containing alkaloids (a natural defense for the seeds) - Alkaloids are released when that double layer of the seed is compromised by a parrot's beak. These alkaloids are gennerally poisonous to animals other than parrots.
Most animals can't crack these seeds thus they loose the nutrient. Parrots can easily crack these seeds with their beaks BUT by doing so they injest these poisonous alkaloids The particular clay they eat reduces the amount of alkaloids absorbed into a parrots body by as much as two thirds enabling the bird to get nutrition (where other species of animals can not) while not suffering from the ill effects of the poisen. |
Posted by WindyCityParrot.com at Wednesday, December 30, 2009 5:09 PM 
Categories: Feeding Exotic Birds, Video
Categories: Feeding Exotic Birds, Video
I wish BirdELicious had not gone out of business- they used to sell small amounts of clay that you could mix with your birds food on occasion. It was supposed to help with the natural digestion of food - I forget what exactly the clay was called. I know my vet recommended it when I took my amazon parrot in for digestive issues.
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