Last Updated on by Mitch Rezman
Robert B. wants to know,
Can an African Grey and Green Cheek Conures eat cheese?
Dear Robert
Birds are lactose intolerant, but no one ever told the birds.
Cheese should not be a daily part of any bird’s diet.
In the wild, birds are generally scavengers so yes, if they happened across a chunk of leftover cheeseburger and eat it. They will be fine.
The cheese will pass through their digestive tract undigested.
In our homes, a small taste once in a while will be of no harm.
Select harder white cheese over soft yellow cheese as they have less lactose.
And by “small taste” I mean a piece the size of a carrot cube.
If you have a grilled cheese, don’t feel bad about giving a little bit of the warm corner to your bird.
The same with a bit of pizza crust with a tiny bit of melted cheese on it fully cooled of course.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Catherine
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Vlad Tepes
4 Apr 2021Most cheeses are low in lactose as lactose is in the whey and it is drained away in various ways. Hard cheeses have the lowest amounts. I have fed cheese (in small amounts) to my birds for decades and was advised to do so by a experienced breeder. One of my parrots is now 38 years old. The birds seem to like cheddar, Colby and American cheese the best but they like exotic cheeses as well. Cheese has calcium and protein.
John Pavlick
8 Apr 2021I have an African Grey that has been eating the following foods for almost 20 years:
Steak cooked on the grill, hamburgers, hot-dogs, chicken nuggets, plain cheese pizza (not just the crust), Salisbury steaks, scrambled eggs, pasta with sauce, pancakes and bacon, pretzels, the list goes on and on. He thinks he’s human so he eats human food. He does occasionally eat bird seed but his favorite foods are: bacon, Lorna Doones and Peanut butter sandwich cookies!
He’s happy unless it’s too cold outside to cook on the grill. He has ALL of his feathers – he’s never been a plucker. I’m his favorite human but he gets along with almost everyone, even little children. He doesn’t really “bite” he just tests people when he first meets them to see if they’re afraid of his beak. If they don’t pull away, he seems to like them better than the people who act like they’re afraid.