# Is this food toxic?



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

I would like to check about a product my tiels both LOVE to eat (there are a very few items that they eat, so I don't want to cut it off unless its harmful for them). The ingredients are:
organic corn meal, expeller pressed sunflower oil, whey, cheddar cheese (milk, sea salt, cheese cultures, enzymes), maltodextrin, sea salt, natural flavors, organic sour cream (cultured organic skim milk, organic cream, cornstarch, dry organic skim milk, acidophilus, bifidus culture), torula yeast, lactic acid, citric acid.
I heard about milk being toxic but this is probably milk in a different form? They are "Simply Cheetos puffs" by FritoLay. Is salt toxic? I used to have a tiel who would fly to your shoulder if you are eating corn tortilla chips and those are made with salt. He didn't get sick or anything. Whats your opinion about this product? The amount of Soduim is not low if speaking of serving size (290 mg/serving) but when divided into one piece that each bird is allowed to eat its 9 mg of Sodium/day


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## Mezza (Feb 19, 2013)

I am no expert on these ingredients but personally wouldn't give this to them. 
The cheddar cheese would be a powder form I presume - which would probably be artificial.

Salt is not good for them - I never feed by fids ANYTHING with salt.

Just is just my opinion. 

What else do they eat?

Tha


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

thank you. They have 4 babies 1 week old so parents finally started to eat better than before. What they eat:
Bread (sprouted grain bread) 
waffles (that you toast) - I know this is not the best but waffles basically were the only food they would eat until recently so I had to feed it not to leave chicks hungry.
She eats greens like kale, collards, spinach, wheat grass etc, but he doesn't. Maybe he will start as now he really picks up on anything that she eats.
Also seeds, pellets, millets. Sometimes Tortilla corn chips (we use low sodium chips)

What they ignore: cooked oatmeal, cooked rice, frozen peas and corn, boiled eggs, carrots, fruits. 

I bought hard red winter wheat berries but don't know how to prepare them.


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## Kiwi (May 12, 2013)

I agree with Mezza on trying not to give them extra salt. It seems like everything has salt in it today so it's very hard to regulate it in our 'tiles food. Even bread has salt, but people still feed it to 'tiels once in a while. When Kiwi was injured she wouldn't eat much else besides seeds, millet, bread, eggs, and nilla wafers. Best diet ever right? :lol: Well, try not to give foods that taste salty. The cheeto reminds me of one of those really salty foods, not that good for them either.

They shouldn't get an excess of salt because they can't flush excess sodium from their systems. Try unsalted+unroasted(both important not to be in there) sunflower seeds as a little treat. Cuttlebones and mineral blocks will contain all the sodium your 'tiel needs if they use them. 

http://board.birdchannel.com/Topic220720.aspx


For the wheat berries... http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-coo...-farro-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-189553
Maybe try and leave the salt out?


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