Birds & Food Poisoning

Food poisoning in birds is caused when a bird eats or drinks something that is contaminated or unhealthy. Pet owners often share their meals with their pet birds, not knowing that the food might be harmful to the bird's overall well-being. Some human foods present health risks to birds if consumed, so the food pet birds eat must be regulated.

  1. Dangerous Foods

    • Pet owners should always know and be aware of the foods that are dangerous and even deadly to their bird's health. Human foods that are harmless to humans might not be harmless to birds and can cause serious health risks if fed to a pet bird at the dinner table. Examples of foods that will give your bird food poisoning are chocolate, apple seeds, avocado, onions, alcohol, mushrooms, tomato leaves, salt, caffeine and dried beans.

    Symptoms

    • It's important to know the signs and symptoms of a bird that has been food poisoned in order to provide the proper treatment as quickly as possible. Food poisoned birds may have unusually colored droppings that range from yellow to black, fluffed out or ruffled feathers, a red or inflamed cere that is also known as the nose, cloudy or runny eyes and an unusual lack of appetite. If your bird has any of these symptoms, it may be a warning sign that your bird needs help.

    Healthy Diet

    • In order to avoid bird food poisoning, you should feed your pet bird a healthy diet. Mix up your bird's diet to provide it with the most nutrition. You can buy formulated foods from manufacturers, pet stores or veterinarians. Formulated foods contain a mixture of grains, seeds, fruit, vegetables and proteins. If you opt not to buy formulated foods, you can feed your pet bird fruit, such as apples (taking care there are no seeds), berries, kiwi, cherries, cranberries, bananas and pears. Vegetables to include in the diet are turnips, radishes, tomatoes (stems and leaves removed), green beans, parsley, corn and cucumbers.

    Prevention/Solution

    • Bird food poisoning is very easy to prevent. Birds should always be watched at meal times, and food shouldn't be eagerly distributed without knowing what effect that food will have on the bird. Children should be taught not to feed the bird human food and, when no one is in the house to keep watch on the pets, all pet birds should be securely placed in their cages. Moreover, birds should remain in a clean environment, away from clutter and disorder.

    Treatment

    • If a bird gets food poisoning, the bird should see a vet immediately upon notice. Because the anatomy of a bird is different from other pets, birds require special care from avian vets. Make sure the avian vet chosen to treat your bird is familiar with your bird's species. If you can't set up an appointment for an avian veterinarian right away, you should put the sick bird into a clean cage and set the room temperature to 90 F. Keeping the cage warm and clean is crucial so that your bird doesn't pick up germs while its immune system low. Providing your bird with fresh food and water is a must as well. Once the bird is taken to the veterinarian, the vet will either give the bird a substance that will delay the food poisoning or make the bird vomit to remove the food from its stomach.