# Turmeric for cockatiel



## Cytro (Jan 20, 2017)

Hi I was doing research on Turmeric and found it to be beneficial. Has anyone have any expirence with giving it to their teil and if so where do you get it and how do you give your teil it?


----------



## AutumnElf (May 2, 2017)

Cytro said:


> Hi I was doing research on Turmeric and found it to be beneficial. Has anyone have any expirence with giving it to their teil and if so where do you get it and how do you give your teil it?


You would have to refer back to the articles but my thinking is probably the leaves of the tumeric plant rather than the root that we eat? Tumeric is easily available at Asian stores both in root and powdered form. Tumeric powder is used in cooking. We use it in our chicken noodle soup. It turns the soup darker yellowish orange, so it colors nicely with lots of great health benefits. If you are lucky and can find the root, you can use a nib of it to grow in a pot. I can't imagine cockatiels can dig underground so naturally I think they would be able to get at the leaves in nature. But if your tiel has a specific issue and your avian vet tells you it's good for your bird, he may be talking tumeric powder? In which I'd imagine you'd have to sprinkle it in food or bake in birdie muffins.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk


----------



## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

Turmeric powder has MAJOR contamination issues. Turmeric root that you grind up yourself is probably safer, but it's questionable whether it's really helpful or not. Preliminary studies were promising, but the latest word is that it's just the kind of chemical that gives a lot of false positives. 

Cockatiels wouldn't eat turmeric leaves in the wild because it's not an Australian plant. It's native to southern Asia, and probably not eaten much by wild birds there. Leaves in general tend to be so high in fiber that they're not very digestible, and you need special digestive equipment to get much out of them.

Here's some info on turmeric that I've posted in other groups:

Turmeric is frequently promoted as a wonder drug for people and their pets including birds. A compound in turmeric called curcumin may have real anti-inflammatory properties - the research is still ongoing for that. There are some potential side effects too, but turmeric also comes with hidden risks that have nothing to do with the spice itself. 

There are significant problems with contamination and adulteration with turmeric and imported spices in general. It's estimated that 80-90% of the world's turmeric is produced in India, which also accounts for 60% of the turmeric exports. Most of the rest comes from Pakistan, China, Haiti, Jamaica, Peru, Taiwan, Bangladesh, and Thailand. There's no indication that the US, Europe, and Australia produce any turmeric at all, so it should be assumed that all turmeric in these places was imported from countries with major quality control problems. 
http://turmericworld.com/production.php
http://www.turmeric.co.in/turmeric_spice.htm

There have been several recalls of turmeric in the US and other countries due to lead contamination. This is probably due to the practice of intentionally using lead chromate as an artificial coloring. This is prohibited in India but a study by the Indian Council of medical Research said that 99% of their samples were contaminated with lead, and about half were also contaminated with arsenic and/or cadmium. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20041003/spectrum/right.htm 

Lead is toxic and it does build up in the body over time, so if you and your bird are regularly consuming lead-contaminated turmeric, you could end up with lead poisoning. Cadmium also accumulates in the body. Arsenic can accumulate in hair and nails but doesn't accumulate appreciably in other body parts. 

Metanil yellow - another substance banned in India - is also frequently used as a coloring agent. Studies that fed it to rats showed a significant effect on brain chemistry, and the changes were not reversible in growing rats. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8095244

An FDA study found that 12% of imported spices in general were contaminated with insect parts and rat hair. http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/FoodScienceResearch/RiskSafetyAssessment/UCM367337.pdf The report says that the rat hair is a sign of fecal contamination - the rats groom themselves and excrete the hair in their feces. 

7% of the samples were contaminated with salmonella. 

Imports from India tied with Mexico for the highest rate of overall contamination. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/31/h...pice-imports-contaminated-fda-finds.html?_r=0 
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/spice-imports-carry-lots-of-filth/# 

The Indian press reports that the curcumin in turmeric may encourage the growth of salmonella. http://zeenews.india.com/home/avoid-turmeric-during-salmonella-infections_643992.html

It's also common for turmeric to be adulterated with more benign substances like chalk, sawdust, or rice powder. If you're into home chemistry, there are websites telling you how you can test your turmeric for purity. For example: 
http://epicureandigest.com/2014/12/19/turmeric-does-your-supply-pass-the-test/ 
http://www.turmericforhealth.com/ge...er-for-quality-and-avoid-adulterated-products

As for effectiveness, who knows. There are studies indicating that curcumin may actually have anti-inflammatory effects, but this hasn't prevented rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis from being major public health problems in India, with the same disability rate as the US. 
http://tucson.com/news/local/ua-loo...cle_bc38816e-2d75-59b7-99e0-98106947b78d.html 
http://opa.ahsc.arizona.edu/newsroo...nt-rheumatoid-arthritis-moves-clinical-trials 
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...s-Indias-No-1-ailment/articleshow/2341389.cms 

Turmeric is generally considered safe (when it's not contaminated with nasty stuff), but it's not risk free. "high doses have caused indigestion, nausea, vomiting, reflux, diarrhea, liver problems, and worsening of gallbladder disease. The NMCD warns that it may interact with anticoagulants and antiplatelet drugs to increase the risk of bleeding, that it should be used with caution in patients with gallstones or gallbladder disease and in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease, and that it should be discontinued at least 2 weeks before elective surgery. " https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/turmeric-tasty-in-curry-questionable-as-medicine/ 

High doses are what's recommended for treating arthritis and other problems, so it could be an issue. 

In general, curcumin (the active ingredient in turmeric) has low bioavailability. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23662605 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17999464 
Which brings up the question: in those studies that found turmeric had anti-inflammatory effects, were they using ordinary turmeric or a refined medical-grade curcumin extract? There's a high probability that it was the latter. One of the UA links posted earlier says "they were able to demonstrate that THE CHEMICALS in turmeric were highly effective in blocking the body’s inflammatory response". Not that turmeric itself did it.

Golden Paste is a mix of turmeric, black pepper, oil, and water. The pepper is supposed to boost the bioavailability of the curcumin by 2000%, but this is based on a single paper published 20 years ago so we can't be sure that it's actually correct. The study used purified extracts not the actual spices. https://turmericaustralia.com.au/wp...f-Curcumin-in-Animal-and-Human-Volunteers.pdf

A review published in 2016 found that curcumin has little to no actual therapeutic activity. Instead it has been classified as PAINS and IMPS, technical terms for substances that mess up study results by creating a lot of false positives and general interference with the interpretation of the results. Here's a link to the abstract for the paper: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.6b00975?journalCode=jmcmar 

And a couple of articles with more information: 
This one says that with substances like this, "the preclinical and preliminary studies are a horrible guide to actual clinical effects." 
http://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/curcumin-hype-vs-reality/ 

This one talks about the low bioavailability and high instability of curcumin: 
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2017/01/12/curcumin-will-waste-your-time


----------



## AutumnElf (May 2, 2017)

tielfan said:


> Turmeric powder has MAJOR contamination issues. Turmeric root that you grind up yourself is probably safer, but it's questionable whether it's really helpful or not. Preliminary studies were promising, but the latest word is that it's just the kind of chemical that gives a lot of false positives.
> 
> Cockatiels wouldn't eat turmeric leaves in the wild because it's not an Australian plant. It's native to southern Asia, and probably not eaten much by wild birds there. Leaves in general tend to be so high in fiber that they're not very digestible, and you need special digestive equipment to get much out of them.
> 
> ...


I liked your response. We use tumeric a lot in our food. I especially liked the link on how to test your tumeric. I will be trying that. I didn't know they put other elements into tumeric that I would think was 100% dried powdered tumeric. I will start buying organic powder from now on or the root. Thanks for all the info.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk


----------



## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

The stuff that's being added to turmeric is illegal, because the sellers want to make more money and apparently don't care whether they poison anyone in the process. It's doubtful whether buying organic would help, because people who adulterate regular turmeric this way wouldn't hesitate to lie and call something organic when it's not. As far as I know, ALL the turmeric comes from third world countries where legal enforcement isn't very effective. But if you can find some that was grown in a place where the standards are stricter, you might have a better chance of finding something that's pure. Or a company that tests everything they import to make sure that it's not contaminated.


----------



## Oztiel (Sep 5, 2014)

Why on earth would you give something like that to your bird? The risk of doing the animal harm would far outweigh any benefit that may be perceived.

What may be good for humans can be fatal for our little feathered friends.

Take avocado for instance.


----------



## tielfan (Aug 31, 2008)

There's a huge fad going on about the amazing health benefits of turmeric (and lots of other so-called superfoods). Unlike most of the others, for a while it looked like some of the claims about turmeric might actually be true. It's not looking so much like that now. Personally I wouldn't give it to a bird unless I had a very good reason (for example a bird with arthritis that wasn't helped by conventional treatment) and had done a lot of research using scientific sources not hype sites.


----------

