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Refrigerated food?

5K views 16 replies 9 participants last post by  Fredandiris 
#1 ·
Is it bad to give cockatiels cold food? I just read a post on the parrot forum where someone had said that feeding cockatiels refrigerated food is very unhealthy. Most of the veggies I feed my birds come straight out of the fridge and the sprouted seed too.

Anyone have any info on the issue?
 
#7 ·
refrigerated food

I always warm Bennie's veggies to room temperature. I never really heard anything about it being bad to give cold food to cockatiels, but it just seemed to me that it would be better. What I was basing it on was my experience with raptors. When caring for rehabilitating or captive raptors (falconry or educational birds) you should give them food at least room temperature. And the reason for that IS sour crop. But, that is for raptors. (Our birds do have hooked beaks, though :) just kidding!)
 
#8 ·
Hmm, makes sense for raptors. They generally eat warm live food right? But cockatiels forage and it can get cold in the parts of Australia that they live in, right? Haha I don't know much about their natural habitat.
 
#11 ·
depends what part of Australia, there are some places that can be very hot in summer and still quite hot in winter to. I agree with it being an issue for chicks but don't see the problem for adults. I would think there would be problems with food that's been left in the heat more since wouldn't it go off faster.
 
#12 ·
Muddy and LuckyBird wont eat anything but their favorite seeds and pellets, the girls Zirra and Suzy will eat other things but nothing cold or bananas. They hated bananas! Kind of makes me sad, as I love bananas and I use the peelings to feed my staghorn ferns. I do hope to switch the boys to a healthier variety of things... but it is proving difficult.
 
#13 ·
You know I never really tried feeding my tiels fruit again, after the first few times I tried failed. They would always do that funny thing where they reach out a little with their beaks and then just barely or not even touch the food before shaking their heads as if in disgust. I mean I have offered it if I was eating some but they never take it. If I gave them anything that was red? Heck no, wouldn't even come near it. Orange? nah. The only color they've taken a liking to is green, but for me (and for them) it's good enough.

How about 6-7 week old chicks? I fed them some sprouted seed from the fridge a few times in the last few days. I figured that if they're eating room temp. seeds then they should be fine, right?

I'm not too concerned about the adult birdies since they're pretty resilient but I worry about the little ones.
 
#14 ·
Could it have something to do with fermentation process in the GI system and maybe birds aren't able to heat themselves back up as well as mammals? I don't know, I'm just throwing that out there. I worry about that a little with my budgies, so I try to make sure their food is at least cool, not cold-cold straight out of the fridge.

I feed them frozen veggies and a bit of bird bread every day, but I nuke it first and mix it with some pellets and seed to cool it down. They LOVE it when it's fresh in their food bowl. Now whether it's due to it's warm temp or the fact that it's mealtime, you'd have to ask them.
 
#16 ·
Actually, microwaving is one of the best ways to keep nutrients in food as long as you don't overcook. The danger of microwaving is that you could have a pocket of super hot food, but if you mix everything well after heating and test it, then you're good to go. And, of course, you don't want to microwave in anything that's not meant for the microwave, like some plastics and styrofoam.

/pro-microwaving
 
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