HolisticBird.org

Food Allergies 

Food allergies aren't uncommon in birds. I have a friend who called me one day recently because her Double Yellow-headed Amazon's voice had "changed." The bird had been talking in a rather nasal, strained voice all of the time. I told her I thought she should take the bird to the vet for an exam, and asked her if she had introduced any new foods recently. 

She had fed the parrot strawberries for the first time. Upon physical examination, the vet found evidence of inflammation in the mouth and around the vent. As soon as she quit feeding the strawberries, the bird returned to normal. There's no way of knowing whether the bird reacted to the fruit or the chemicals with which it had been grown, but I thought this clear cut case of an allergic reaction was interesting. 

So far I've found that the foods most likely to cause an allergic reaction are corn, peanuts, and fruits typically grown with a lot of chemicals (like strawberries). These are the foods that have been implicated in feather picking problems with African Greys, in cases I have been involved in first hand. I also have a macaw whose behavior changes drastically when fed seed mixes. About 30 minutes after eating any seed she changes from being a calm, sweet, loving bird to screaming non-stop and biting aggressively. It's a very dramatic change, and lasts for about 12 hours. Since I don't usually feed her seed mixes anyway, I've never been motivated to find out what exactly it is in the seed that has this effect on her. 

Pamela Clark