Feed your parrots fat… but only when they are very ill
I’ve presented research for years about the value of a low carbohydrate high fat diet not only for parrots, but for humans as well.
- What causes fatty liver disease?
- Are eggs good for your parrot?
- Animal research into fat, carbohydrates, and disease
- More on fat and carbohydrates
- And many more… just search for “fat” in the search field
Not surprisingly, the opposite message wins the day despite the overwhelming research at this point.
I recently ran across this paper that supports a high fat diet for your parrot, but only when they have a critical health condition. Despite the higher energy density of fat, it’s still a bit bizarre for this paper to recommend a high fat diet, which is argued to be very detrimental to health.
I’ll just quote from the paper.
In humans, excessive carbohydrate feeding results in hyperglycemia, hypercarbia, fatty liver, and failure to wean from a ventilator.
Critical Care Nutrition for Exotic Animals—Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine—April 2013
Yet more proof that a high fat diet does NOT causes Fatty Liver Disease. Stop listening to your vet! 🙂
Optimally, the bulk of a critically ill patient’s caloric requirement should be provided in the form of fats.
Raptors and other carnivorous species require diets low in carbohydrates (2%) and high in protein (17% to 20%) and fat (2% to 28%)
Critical Care Nutrition for Exotic Animals—Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine—April 2013
I won’t bore with too many other quotes, but the gist is that the usual dietary advice goes out the window when your parrot is very ill. It’s very contradictory advice.
