Fruits for birds

This Lineolated parakeet is enjoying pieces of grapes.
This Lineolated parakeet is enjoying pieces of grapes.

Fresh fruit is usually much desired by many birds, once they have become accustomed to the healthy delicacies. The word “birds” is chosen deliberately and is not always synonymous with “budgies”, which is the main focus of this website. The wild relatives of our captive budgies live in dry areas of Australia and fruit is not part of their natural diet. This is why budgies kept as pet birds often do not like fruit very much. Either you decide to offer them vegetables instead, which are much healthier for them anyway, or you try to be patient. With sweet apples or pears, even the most stubborn “fresh food refusers” eventually get a taste for fruits. In addition, fruit not only offers culinary variety but also adds fun to the bird’s daily routine. As a bird, the delicacies are excellent to play with, as long as the owner uses them as a reward in special treat toys. However, it is essential to pay attention to hygiene!

As a general rule, bird owners should always serve fruit with caution. Because of the fructose, it contains, it promotes obesity if the animals eat too much of it. In addition, some animals may experience digestive discomfort. Budgies in particular, but also individuals of some other bird species, should therefore not eat too much fruit. Serving a small piece every day – preferably in combination with lots of vegetables – is advisable. On the other hand, some bird species such as Lineolated parakeets require a lot of fruit every day, ideally of different sorts. The reason for this is that they are not pure seed eaters, but only stay healthy and strong with a diet rich in fresh food items.

When it comes to feeding birds with fruit, there are some aspects to consider. Bird owners should be familiar with these details so that they do not unintentionally harm their animals. For example, cleanliness is an important issue that is addressed on this page, as are some other aspects. But first, let’s look at the fruits that are digestible and healthy for birds.

List of healthy fruits

  • Acai berry
  • Apple
  • Apricot
  • Banana (some birds do not like it because it is so sticky)
  • Blood Orange1
  • Blueberry
  • Bramble
  • Cherimoya
  • Cherry
  • Clementine1
  • Crab apple
  • Currant (red, black and white)
  • Custard apple (Sweetsop)
  • Dates (dried)2
  • Dragon fruit (Pitahiya)
  • Elderberry
  • Fig (fresh or dried)2
  • Gooseberry
  • Grape
  • Greengage plum
  • Guava
  • Honey pomelo1
  • Indian fig
  • Japanese Plum (Loquat)
  • Jostaberry
  • Kiwi
  • Lychee
  • Mango
  • Melon3
  • Mirabelle
  • Mulberry4
  • Nashi (Asian pear)
  • Nectarine
  • Orange1
  • Papaya
  • Peach
  • Pear
  • Persimmon (Kaki)5
  • Pineapple
  • Plum
  • Pomegranate
  • Prickly pear
  • Quince
  • Rambutan
  • Raspberry
  • Star fruit
  • Strawberry
  • Tamarillo (Tree tomato)
  • Tangerine1

Explanations regarding some fruits

Oranges and other citrus fruits are quite sour and are not well tolerated by some birds. © LoggaWiggler/Pixabay
Oranges and other citrus fruits are quite sour and are not well tolerated by some birds. © LoggaWiggler/Pixabay

1. Citrus fruits contain a lot of fruit acid. It can irritate the mucosa of the digestive system in sensitive birds. If one of your pet birds shows discomfort after eating citrus fruits, you should not offer it again in the future. In general, oranges and the like should only be served in small quantities in order not to risk any digestive problems.

2. You should try to get unsugared dried dates or figs for your birds. Do not serve these fruits too often. Dried dates and figs are real fatteners due to their high natural sugar content.

3. Each kind of melon is highly appreciated by budgies and many other pet birds. From watermelon or musk melon to honeydew melon – they’re all healthy treats for the animals.

4. Good to know: Budgies and several other pet birds do not only like the berries, but also the leaves of mulberry trees.

5. Persimmon or kaki should only be served when the fruits are ripe and sweet. As long as they are still unripe, these fruits contain too many tanning agents and are therefore usually not well tolerated by birds.

Fruit that is harmful or intolerable for birds

Many bird species can only tolerate fresh citrus fruits in small amounts because of the acid they contain. © Alexas_Fotos/Pixabay
Many bird species can only tolerate fresh citrus fruits in small amounts because of the acid they contain. © Alexas_Fotos/Pixabay

Please do not serve the following fresh fruit at all or just in small amounts:

  • fresh dates ( they contain a lot of tannins)
  • grapefruit (contains a large amount of fruit acid and is often too bitter for the birds)
  • Kumquat (contains significant amounts of fruit acid)
  • Passion fruit (contains a lot of fruit acid)
  • unripe persimmon or sharon (contains a lot of tannins)
  • Lemon and lime (contain a lot of fruit acid)

Prepare and serve fruit

A Green-cheeked parakeet is about to eat some fruit. © vargazs/Pixabay
A Green-cheeked parakeet is about to eat some fruit. © vargazs/Pixabay

Often it depends on how you offer fruit to your birds. The way it is presented could determine whether or not your birds will accept this healthy food. In addition, it may be advisable to prepare the fruit so that it does not pose a health risk to the birds.

For example, apples are eaten with relish by many birds. But in many cases, these fruits are covered by a wax coating. It is therefore advisable to peel such apples before offering pieces of them to the birds. Especially because apples are very popular among many birds, it is worth trying to find fruit from organic cultivation. Or maybe you have a garden and can plant an apple tree yourself. This way you can be sure that the fruit is not contaminated with pesticides.

Some apples have waxed skin, so it is better to peel them before serving. © cocoparisienne/Pixabay
Some apples have waxed skin, so it is better to peel them before serving. © cocoparisienne/Pixabay

For many other fruit sorts that are imported from faraway countries, about the contamination of pollutants and the treatment of the peel the same applies. For instance, you should never offer your birds oranges, mandarins, and clementines with peel if it has been impregnated with chemicals beforehand. It is much more sensible to offer these citrus fruits to the birds in the portions nature intended. The individual fruit morsels can be freed from the thin membrane surrounding the pulp beforehand. Picky birds will appreciate this. Prepared in this way, budgies, for example, love to eat juicy fruits. But please note: Citrus fruits should not be served too often because they can cause digestive complaints in sensitive birds, see declaration no. 1.

 

Hygiene is important

Fresh fruit such as apples should be available to birds for a maximum of two hours because yeast and moulds tend to grow very quickly on the fresh sweet food.
Fresh fruit such as apples should be available to birds for a maximum of two hours because yeast and moulds tend to grow very quickly on fresh sweet food.

When offering fruits, it is necessary to pay attention to the highest possible level of cleanliness. Because the amount of yeast fungi growing on the food increases rapidly within a very short time due to the high sugar content of the fruits, this food should not be accessible to the birds for more than two hours. This applies even if the fresh food appears to be clean and was prepared for the animals on the same day. Especially in summer, fruit can not only be massively colonised by yeast fungi but can also quickly become mouldy or rotten. Mould is a major health risk for pet birds!

To attach pieces of fruit to the cage or indoor aviary, several shops offer special clamps. These must be cleaned thoroughly every day so that no fruit residues stick to them. If you use plastic clips, you should replace them with new ones after one to two months at the latest. Stainless steel clamps, on the other hand, can be used until their clamping mechanism no longer works. In addition, there are special stainless steel fruit skewers that can also be used to attach these fresh foods hygienically.

Fruit residues sticking to the dishes and their surroundings can quickly become mouldy or colonized by yeast fungi and should therefore immediately be cleaned up. © AlexisLeon/Pixabay
Fruit residues sticking to the dishes and their surroundings can quickly become mouldy or colonized by yeast fungi and should therefore immediately be cleaned up. © AlexisLeon/Pixabay

Under no circumstances should fruit residue be left on the clamps, fruit skewers, or feeding dishes after cleaning. They are a perfect culture medium for yeasts, moulds, and many types of bacteria, which would be harmful to the birds’ health. The vicinity of the feeding place could also be covered with fruit remains that the birds had stuck to their beaks while eating and got rid of by rubbing against objects or by shaking their heads vigorously. These sticky pieces of fruit, just like the fruits themselves, must always be removed quickly from the range of the birds.

Caution, harmful and toxic substances!

Often fruit and vegetables from urban areas are not suitable for birds if these food items come from gardens where pesticides have been used. Because this happens alarmingly often and it is by no means exclusively the farmers who use plant protection agents. Sometimes fruits can also be picked on fallow land. It should be noted that the soil may be contaminated with heavy metals, for example, due to previous use. Unfortunately, this is relatively often the case in industrial and urban areas. However, pollutants from car exhausts, which used to be a major problem, are now hardly worth mentioning. Fortunately, a lot has been achieved in this respect in recent years.

“Fruit salad” for feathered gourmets

Blue-and-yellow Macaw with fruit salad. © Fablegros/Pixabay
Blue-and-yellow Macaw with fruit salad. © Fablegros/Pixabay

Some birds prefer to crush their daily fruit portion themselves by biting large pieces. But some birds prefer to eat “fruit salad” instead, i.e. fruit cut into small pieces. Such fruit salads have the advantage that the owner can offer a wide variety of flavours. If, for example, beak-sized pieces of five or six kinds of fruit are served, there is usually something for everyone’s taste. Of course, fruit salads can also be mixed with pieces of vegetables. Fresh herbs are also appreciated by many budgies and other birds as part of a fresh fruit salad. Dried herbs can of course also be used, they usually soak through quite fast. If very liquid-rich fruit such as melon is used in the salad, this happens particularly quickly.

Please note that the same hygiene rules apply to a fruit salad as to the fruit itself. It should not be accessible to the birds for more than two hours to avoid mould and yeast or bacteria growing on it.

Dried, frozen and canned fruit

Fruit and berries are often mushy after freezing and therefore many birds do not appreciate them. © Free-Photos/Pixabay
Fruit and berries are often mushy after freezing and therefore many birds do not appreciate them. © Free-Photos/Pixabay

If you want to offer your birds dried fruit, you must make sure that it is not sulphurised. The birds’ organism is extremely sensitive to chemicals such as sulphur or other preservatives. What is a harmless dose for humans and permitted by law can be extremely dangerous for small birds such as budgies. It is, therefore, best to exclusively provide unsulphured dried fruit, which is available in health food shops, for example. Candied dried fruit is best not offered to birds because of the high sugar content, or at most served in small quantities now and then as a special treat.

Fruit from tins or jars should also not be on the birds’ menu because it is usually rich in added sugar. Moreover, boiling down destroyed most of the vitamins contained in the fresh fruit. Therefore, fruit from jars or tins is merely a sweet calorie bomb for birds without a significant amount of usable valuable ingredients. Many canned fruits also contain preservatives that can be harmful to birds. On the other hand, unsweetened frozen fruit, for instance, berries, can usually be served without concern after thawing, as long as the hygiene rules are followed and no bacteria can multiply on the fruit. But many birds do not enjoy fruits that have been frozen and thawed since the food turns quite slushy.

Fruits for young birds

Fresh food items like fruits and vegetables are not only healthy for adult birds, but also young individuals.
Fresh food items like fruits and vegetables are not only healthy for adult birds but also for young individuals.

The rumour that young pet birds should not be fed fresh food is unfortunately very persistent. Time and again, you read in online forums or Facebook posts that breeders or even vets recommend that owners, for example, only serve their birds fresh food when they are at least half a year old. It is claimed that only then their intestines are fully developed. However, this is pure nonsense.

A young bird who hatches from an egg has a fully mature (=developed) intestine, otherwise, the animal would not be able to digest any food. Because it is already supplied with food by the parents shortly after hatching, the intestine must work. In case it would not, the bird would not be able to grow up. What the young bird actually lacks at the beginning is a natural intestinal flora.

The initially still kind of “virgin” intestine is “inoculated” with benign bacteria, which the young animal receives from its parents via the food mash. These benign germs immediately settle in the intestine. Usually, the natural intestinal flora of young birds develops within a few weeks. This means, for example, that as soon as a young, healthy budgie or other pet bird leaves the nest, its intestine is the same as that of the adults – including the natural intestinal flora.

Young individuals who have left the nest are therefore physically fully grown, juvenile birds and not tiny ones like recently hatched individuals (= chicks) who still will have to grow. As soon as a young bird has left the nest and can eat himself or herself, the animal can digest fresh food such as vegetables. The vitamins and minerals of this fresh food will have a positive effect on the bird’s health. And also while the adults are rearing their chicks, they need fresh, vitamin-rich food to be able to provide their babies with the best possible nutrients.