If you have pet parakeets, the question about whether they can eat grapes has probably come up at one time or another. Are you concerned if grapes are safe for Parakeets? Well, read on to understand more about this food/bird pairing.
Can parakeets eat grapes? Yes, absolutely. Grapes are juicy and sweet, which makes them appealing to your Parakeets. Your pet Parakeet can safely eat grapes with their skin. Moreover, other parts of the grape plant, such as its leaves and vines, are also safe for parakeets to consume.
However, you should avoid feeding them seeded grapes, as the seeds present inside could be difficult for your pets to digest. Also, due to their high fructose intake, grapes should only be fed to parakeets in moderation.
Do you want to learn more about how grapes can benefit the health of your feathered pets? Or have you brought home a baby parakeet and are wondering if grapes could be fed to them? No matter what your queries are, they’ll be answered in this article. Stay with us until the end to learn everything you need to know about feeding grapes to parakeets.
Why feed grapes to parakeets?
As most of you might already know, the primary diet of parakeets should ideally consist of pellets and seeds. Both fruits and vegetables should be fed to them as treats, and since fruits have a high fructose content, these should only make up about 5-10% of their diet.
Now, since fruits already have a small place in your feathered pet’s diet, it is essential to make a wise choice of fruit for them. Because these are to be used as treats, you must look for a fruit that is both nutritious as well as well-liked by your parakeets. Can grapes fulfill these criteria?
Most parakeet owners claim that their pets are crazy about grapes and often overeat them, so the popularity of these fruits among the birdies shouldn’t be a problem for you.
As far as the nutritiousness of grapes is concerned, you can learn more about them in the table given below. Take a look:
| Nutrients | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Vitamin A | 66 IU |
| Vitamin B1 (Thamin) | 0.069 mg |
| Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) | 0.070 mg |
| Vitamin B3 (Niacin) | 0.188 mg |
| Vitamin B4 (Choline) | 5.6 mg |
| Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic acid) | 0.05 mg |
| Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine) | 0.086 mg |
| Vitamin B9 (Folates) | 2 mcg |
| Vitamin E | 0.19 mg |
| Vitamin K | 14.6 mcg |
| Sodium, Na | 1 mg |
| Potassium, K | 191 mg |
| Calcium, Ca | 10 mg |
| Copper, Cu | 0.127 mg |
| Iron, Fe | 0.36 mg |
| Manganese, Mn | 0.071 mg |
| Magnesium, Mg | 7 mg |
| Zinc, Zn | 0.07 mg |
| Carbohydrates | 18 g |
| Protein | 0.72 g |
| Total Fat | 0.16 g |
| Dietary fibers | 0.9 g |
| Sugar | 15 g |
| Calories | 69 kcal |
Serving size: 100 grams
As you can clearly see in the table, grapes are packed with both macronutrients and micronutrients. But how would know which of these nutrients can be healthy for your feathered pets and how? Don’t worry, we are here to walk you through it.
Grapes contain Resveratrol
How many of you have heard of resveratrol before? For those who haven’t, it is a plant compound with powerful antioxidant properties that is found in a handful of fruits and berries, such as peanuts, grapes, blueberries, and cranberries. Resveratrol has a number of health benefits for your parakeets, some of which are listed below:
- It can prevent their arteries from hardening (atherosclerosis), leading to improved cardiovascular health.
- It works with Vitamin D to enhance your pet’s gene activity, which leads to stronger immune health.
- It inhibits the production of free radicals in the parakeet’s body, protecting their cells from oxidative stress.
Grapes can improve your pet’s eyesight
Many studies have shown that eating grapes can increase the protective proteins present in your retina and reduce the level of inflammatory proteins found in the retinal structure. This is also true for your feathered pets. In other words, eating grapes can provide healthier eyesight to your parakeets for a longer period of time (even when they begin to grow old).
Grapes can maintain a healthy fluid balance in their body
If you go through the table above carefully, you will notice that the level of sodium present in grapes is quite low, while their potassium content is abundant. This is an ideal combination for your parakeets, as it can help them in maintaining a healthy balance of electrolytes in their body, eliminating excess water and other toxins.
Grapes can protect your pets from certain kinds of cancer
Grapes contain antioxidants like flavonoids, anthocyanins, carotenoids, and stilbenes, all of which can help in reducing the threat of certain types of cancer in your pet’s body. These antioxidants have an even higher concentration in dark-skinned grapes such as red and purple grapes.
Grapes can boost the cardiovascular health of your pets
Besides adding resveratrol to your parakeet’s diet, there are other ways in which grapes can boost their cardiovascular health as well:
- Grapes contain polyphenols, that can boost the HDL (High-density lipoprotein) cholesterol levels in their body, and prevent them from inflammation.
- Grapes also have a high potassium content. Potassium is responsible for regulating the blood pressure levels of your pet, which leads to a smooth blood flow and reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Why should you avoid overfeeding grapes to parakeets?
It is clear to us that grapes have a lot to offer to your feathered pets from a health perspective. However, a common mistake that most pet parents make is not restricting the number of grapes their pets eat.
As we’ve mentioned earlier, any fruit, including grapes, should only make 5%-10% of their diet. This is because grapes have high sugar content, and too much sugar is not healthy for your parakeets.
When parakeets consume a high amount of sugar, most of it gets deposited in their body and converts into fat over time. All the extra fat will ultimately make your parakeets obese. It might come as a surprise to many, but obesity is one of the most common problems among parakeets. It can make them vulnerable to other health issues, including heart diseases.
Therefore, if you want your little birdies to reap all the health benefits of grapes without facing the downsides, moderation is the key. I’d recommend you feed them grapes once or twice a week.
Another thing you must keep in mind is adding diversity to their diet. Grapes shouldn’t be the only fruit you’re feeding them; keep mixing it up with other fruits like apples and bananas from time to time.
Can parakeets eat the skin of grapes?
Do you remember how we talked about resveratrol and its health benefits for your feathered pets earlier? Well, let us tell you that these antioxidants are most concentrated in the skin of grapes. Therefore, grape skin is certainly healthy for your parakeets to eat. Moreover, it is also far too thin to pose any challenge for them while eating or digesting.
There is, however, one thing that you have to be careful about. Like most other fruits and veggies, commercially grown grapes are often sprayed with pesticides in order to keep insects away from them. These pesticides are highly toxic to your pet’s health, which is why pet parents often remove the outer skin of grapes as a safety precaution.
But you needn’t remove the skin to make grapes safe for your birds. There’s another solution to this problem: organic grapes. The organic grapes are grown in a safe environment and are, therefore, safe from any chemical that can be lethal to the parakeets.
Are grape seeds safe for parakeets to eat?
While the flesh and skin of grapes are both safe and healthy for your pet birdies, when it comes to the seeds, there is very little scientific data. This is why different people have different views on whether or not should these seeds be fed to parakeets.
Some pet owners claim that their parakeets have been eating seeded grapes without any difficulty, while others believe that it could be risky.
In any case, when it comes to your pet’s health, it is better to be safe than sorry. Therefore, I’d recommend you to feed them seedless grapes instead of seeded ones.
What about the leaves of grapevines? Can parakeets eat them?
Do you happen to have a grapevine in your garden? Well, you would be glad to learn that there’s more that these vines can offer to your feathered pets than their fruits.
In fact, it would not be wrong to say that leaves of these vines are more beneficial for your pet’s health, and can also be enjoyed more frequently than grapes themselves.
Grape leaves are rich in fiber, and have an ideal Ca:P ratio for your parakeets. If you want to, you can feed them a couple of these leaves every day.
Frequently asked questions
Can baby parakeets eat grapes? Yes, baby parakeets can also enjoy grapes, but only as a rare treat (once a month). Moreover, the mouths of these little birdies are far too small to gobble up a whole grape, you should cut them into smaller pieces for their convenience.
Can I feed raisins to my parakeet? Raisins are simply the dried versions of grapes and contain nothing that can be outright lethal to your feathered pets. However, the sugar content of raisins is much more concentrated than grapes, due to the process of dehydration. For this reason, it is better to avoid feeding raisins to them.
Conclusion
In conclusion, yes Parakeets can eat grapes. There are a lot of good vitamins and nutrients in grapes which makes them suitable to be included in their diet. However, due to high sugar content, grapes should be fed in small quantities (1 or 2 grapes).
Carefully monitor the usage of fruits in your pet bird’s diet as these kinds of fruits may lead to constipation if overfed. Just remember, moderation is key!
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