Article on WHY onions and garlic are bad

Hello,

First of all galic in moderation is good for your parrots. There are good vitamins and they have detoxins in the garlic. Garlic as in humans are a great way to help purify your blood. There is a article on another forum about garlic killing a grey. This caused a uproar and every one on the forum stopped feeding garlic to there birds. I could not disagree more about the article that caused the so called BANNING of garlic. First of all the grey was only 6 months old. Second of all the bird ate 2 whole cloves of garlic. That would be like you eating 3 to 4 whole bulbs of galic. I can tell you that I do not like when people tell things about some foods that are harmful to a bird when in all reality it is good. You need to use garlic in moderation not in an over abundance. The man that his grey passed away made a huge stink over it and the post mordam report only showed that there was bits and pieces of undigested garlic in the crop. There was no report that garlic was the cause of death. Please read all items and understand that when you read something from another that has had no experiance in the bird world that most likely it was the humans fault and not the foods. There are some things that are very dangerous to feed a bird. The list is short but there are things that are not to be fed. Avacados, chocolate, pits of most fruits, onions, caffeine, any tea leaves, coffee products and coffee beans. This is a small list that are deadly to birds. There are others but this should give you enough to understand. Please give garlic in moderation it will in NO WAY hurt the bird. I have been given it to my birds for many many years and never had ONE problem with giving it to them.

Mario

I always did wonder why NOT to feed onions or garlic. This answers that question I guess. I still cook with both and occasionally a bite or two might find it's way into Lyric's portion of food. I definitely won't stop cooking with it but I will try to limit my bird's exposure to it from now on. Thanks for the interesting article.

Oh yes it is Tiff and no doubt just like anything else I'm sure it's controversial for some. But regardless it's a good article for others to read to let them know that there has been some out there that have a bad reaction to it.

lol I agree with you Ronda, I do let them have a little here and there. I have read so many opinions on garlic and onions on other forums. Some even say Garlic is good for birds and offer a clove of Raw garlic every week. I would never do that but like you I cook with both and allow them to have a bite here and there. Just thought that article was a little interesting

I agree with not feeding them the raw ones, but there are soo many things, I don't know. For one when I picked SweetHeart up from the airport one of the things in her cage from the breeder that has been breeding for over 20 years had an onion in her cage for the flight to eat on along with other stuff as well. We cook with garlic all the time, our birds always have a nibble here and there of what we cook and they love it. I do not give them raw garlic at all or even onions now for that matter. I do however still cook with this stuff and offer them bites of it occasionally. We have been doing this with our Quaker now for 9 years and she is healthy. I'm sure there are some birds who may not be able to take much of it, but the same goes for some people. If a person eats too much garlic they will get sick as well. I think it just has to be in moderation, not in it's raw form and don't feed anything like the recipe 40 cloves of garlic chicken lol. I know there was a person who had their Grey die over this, but he fed him raw garlic and god only knows how much of it. For that bird it was toxic just as if a person were to consume what the equivalent would have been for a human they may be sick as well. But of course this is just my opinion, and everyone can do what they feel is safe for their birds.

Onions, Garlic & Birds
Learn about the characteristics of these two foods that make them potentially dangerous for birds
By Margaret A. Wissman, DVM, DABVP, Avian Practice

Onions, garlic and chives are all in the Lily family, Liliaceae. Onions are of the genus Allium, and the true onion is Allium cepa, Allium cernuum, is the wild onion, the shallot is Allium ascalonicum, and the green onion (or leek) is Allium ampeloprasm. Garlic is also in the Lily family, Liliaceae, and is related to onions and has similar chemical characteristics.

Onions, whether cooked, raw or dehydrated, contain sulfur compounds that, when chewed, are hydrolyzed to thisulfinates. Thiosulfinates decompose to a number of disulfides, including dipropenyl disulfide (or n-propyl disulfide), which appears to be the most toxic disulfide. These disulfides are oxidizing agents that can cause hemolysis or a rupture of red blood cells.

The toxicity of onions is based on their disulfide concentration, which is increased when they are grown in soil high in sulfur. Sulfur is a widely distributed element found in abundance in the soil in both free and combined states.

In addition to the compounds found in these plants that cause red blood cells to rupture, resulting in anemia, they can also cause irritation to the mouth, esophagus and crop, and can cause ulcers, although this damage is probably more severe in mammals.

The sulfur compounds found in these plants cause red blood cells to rupture in animals, and dogs, cats and cattle seem particularly sensitive to this problem. Because birds have nucleated red blood cells, and mammals do not, it is thought that this somewhat protects them from the affects of Heinz body hemolysis. Heinz bodies are pieces of oxidized hemoglobin that are found on still-intact red blood cells (RBCs). If enough RBCs are ruptured from the ingestion of these compounds found in onions and garlic, this will result in anemia. Red blood cells are responsible for carrying oxygen to the tissues and for removing carbon dioxide, as well. As the number of RBCs decreases, the animal becomes weaker, and the gums and tissues also become pale.

The good news is that the red cells can be replaced by the body as long as the hemolysis stops. In dogs, it takes several days for the red cell count to reach the lowest point after a single large exposure. In chronic exposure at low doses, the anemic effect is lessened because RBCs, also called erythrocytes, are being regenerated as they are being destroyed.

Allicin, which gives garlic its odor, is also a strong oxidant. In rare cases, this chemical can be dangerous and can cause Heinz body hemolytic anemia, as well.

Although I have not seen any scientific studies performed on any avian species, there is the chance that disulfides could also cause this Heinz body hemolytic anemia in birds. For that reason, I feel that is unnecessary and potentially dangerous to feed birds onions, leeks, garlic or chives, as they don't contain any nutrients that are vital for the health of our pet birds that cannot be found in other food items. Why take the chance?

http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-diet-and-h...and-garlic.aspx