Cookie the Carnivore

[LauraO]

Okay, my loveis love to nibble on some chicken and beef once in a while, but our Meyer's parrot Cookie :omg: :omg:

He is a straight carnivore. He loves chicken, beef, pork, or whatever other flesh we happen to have around the house. I swear he can smell it. He cocks his head and focuses his superkeen one eye on the kitchen everytime we are preparing some kind of meat. I was cooking up some ground chuck steak the other day and kept aside a few pieces for him. He's very careful with the peices I give him and holds them very carefully with his right right claw, the one he holds food in, as not to spill a speck of it. I'm afraid when he finally bites me hard enough to break skin, he's going to like the way I taste too :lol

[Angelwing]

Haha, I was gonna say 'better watch out!'. Ah, they're so smart, aren't they.

[Rubygem]

I have always heard that red meat isn't good for birds....and :eek: then I was reading this. Now it makes me wonder why everyone has always said that red meat isn't good for birdies....I guess it's time for me to do more research. I have always shared chicken and given my birds the chicken bones (my greenwing loves the mirrow from the bones), but haven't tried any other meats. If anyone here knows why birds shouldn't have red meat, I would love to hear why.

Rubygem

[linda040899]

I did a bit of research on meat for birds and the downside of including it in the diet is possibly exposing your bird to salmonella or e-coli that may be in undercooked meat. I also came across an extremely intesting article written by Gloria Scholbe.

http://www.holisticbirds.com/Hbn02/autumn02/pages/foodpp2.htm

[BarbieH]

Wow, excellent article! I really need to bookmark that one.

[linda040899]

Barb,
I added it to our resource library!

[LauraO]

YEP! It's great to see a nutrition article for birds. I've read alot about the grain vs free range animals and the change in fatty acids.

I just want to say, moderation is the name of the game. I don't feed a lot of meats to Cookie and most of his diet is fruits, veggies, and birdy bread. I personally don't think chicken is much healthier than all the meats and came to this conclusion after going through a nutrition phase where I spent years reading about these very topics. Not only do the fatty acids change with grains, but anyone who consumes chicken also consumes the antibiotics and other chemicals they use to fatten up birds and keep them alive til' slaughter. I would absolutely love to move to an entirely free range meat diet but availability and finances don't allow that for me or my birds at this time. It's great because more and more people are seeing the way we raise and eat our meats are the problem rather than the meat itself.