Giving your bird the appropriate foods will allow them to live a healthy and happy life. In fact, if they don’t eat well enough, they will suffer health-wise. Eating the wrong foods can cause birds to suffer from nutritional deficiencies like malnutrition

Broccoli is a healthy and nutritious vegetable that we all know we should eat more of. So, can birds eat broccoli? This article looks into it

Birds can eat broccoli. Broccoli contains a number of vitamins and minerals. The vegetable contains potassium, vitamin K, vitamin D, vitamin C, and manganese to name a few.

Can birds eat broccoli?

Not only can birds eat broccoli but they love this vegetable too. Birds love vegetables and broccoli is a tasty treat to them. This treat delivers a number of beneficial vitamins and minerals to your bird.

Health benefits of birds eating broccoli:

Broccoli is well known for being a very healthy food. The vegetable contains a variety of vitamins and minerals including vitamin K, fiber, vitamin C, iron, vitamin B9, vitamin C, manganese, potassium, and protein.

The vegetable is 90 percent water, has only 7 percent carbs, 3 percent protein, and contains next to no fats making it an ideal food to feed your bird. The little sugar that the vegetable does contain is sucrose, fructose, and glucose.

Pet birds living in the house can miss out on sun exposure and thus vitamin D, broccoli helps with this.

When birds are in the wild, and out and about in the sun, their bodies create a lot of vitamin D. Vitamin D is created in a bird’s body through direct exposure to the sun’s UV rays.

Birds in captivity, even the birds who live under UV lamps will not create enough vitamin D. Eating broccoli is a good way for your bird to get a boost of vitamin D in an easy and delicious way.

Can birds eat raw broccoli?

Yes, birds can eat raw broccoli, raw broccoli is packed with valuable nutrients and minerals, cooking broccoli can remove some of the essential vitamins and minerals in this food, serving birds raw broccoli is recommended.

If you’d like to serve your bird softer broccoli you can lightly steam it. Steaming broccoli makes this food more tender while still preserving the nutrients in it

Boiling the broccoli removes many of the essential nutrients in the vegetable, this method of preparation is not recommended. Boiling broccoli causes the nutrients in this food to leech into the water and this makes the food less nutritious.

Steaming locks the nutrients in. You can steam this vegetable in a microwave, no need for a steamer.

If you’re serving broccoli to your bird for the first time you can mix it in with their regular feed or their regular serving of vegetables.

You can also feed this food to your bird when it’s hungry and just before a meal, this is when they are at their hungriest and will eat almost anything.

Can birds eat broccoli stems and leaves?

Birds can definitely eat broccoli steams, this part of the vegetable is just as nutritious as the broccoli heads. This food can be steamed as broccoli heads can, and, it can be served raw.

This portion of the broccoli plant contains calcium, beta carotene as well as vitamin C which will all boost the bird’s health

Broccoli leaves can also be eaten by birds. Humans don’t usually eat this part of the plant but these large leaves, which can be found growing around the vegetable stalk, can be eaten by birds too. Humans prepare them the same way kale is prepared but birds can have the raw or steamed

Can birds eat broccoli seeds?

Birds will likely not be interested in eating broccoli seeds. These seeds are quite bitter and birds will not be interested in eating them in mass.

This bitter taste is a natural deterrent to birds and other animals. If the bird is unfamiliar with the seeds, it will eat some to taste and then avoid them after tasting.

Feeding birds other fruits and vegetables:

Other vegetables that are good for birds include carrots, peppers, cauliflower, squash, yams, peas, pepper, soybeans, and sprouts to name a few. They can eat potatoes too, they are really good for them, read more here.

Birds can eat cranberries too, they are good for birds. Read more here.

Tip: When preparing fruits to give to your bird, make sure you remove the seeds or the cores. The actual fruit may be delicious and nutritious but the seeds and the cores are toxic to birds.

Tip: If you give birds bananas remove the peel, it’s not good for the bird. Read more here

Food to avoid giving birds

You need to pay close attention to what your bird is eating. Some of the much-loved foods that humans eat are toxic or poisonous to birds. Do not feed your birds these foods.

Foods that you should avoid giving your birds include avocado, guacamole, chocolate, caffeine, onions, shallots, junk food, alcohol, and just for good measure, don’t give them any food that you know you shouldn’t put in your body on a regular basis.

Birds love french fries, but the fries are bad for them. Read more here

Birds also love eating bread but this isn’t the best for them. Read more about bread for birds here.

Conclusion:

Broccoli is not only good for humans but it is also a great addition to your bird’s diet as well. This food should be one of the many vegetables in your bird’s diet.

Broccoli contains a number of vitamins and minerals, one of them being vitamin D. The bodies of birds in captivity do not produce as much vitamin D as birds in the wild do. Broccoli deposits vitamin D into the bird’s body.

You can serve the broccoli raw or cooked. If you want to cook the broccoli you can steam it, streaming keeps a lot of the vitamins and minerals locked into the vegetable.