Ahh… Ginger. Ginger Ale, Ginger biscuits and Gingerbread cookies.
One of our classical favourite ingredients. I don’t know about you… but I LOVE ginger.
I’ve even got ginger hair in fact.
Okay just joking, but my love of ginger and parrots has led me to the ultimate, mind-boggling question of… “Can Parrots Eat Ginger?”
Can I share my delicious ginger snacks with my feathery friend?
Those are the words that were burning on my mind.
So, I was left with no other choice but to investigate.
And here are the conclusions that I have come to.
The answer is yes. You can, in fact give your gingery treats to your parrot. Not only that, but in fact, you are encouraged to give your parrot some ginger from time to time. It’s been linked with many nutritional benefits, all of which we are going to uncover now.
Ginger has been used by the Chinese for almost 2,000 years for the treatment of nausea and motion sickness and is even hailed to be more effective than modern-day travel-sickness medication.
Ever since finding this delightful news about parrots and ginger, I began to investigate the following topics.
What benefits does ginger give to parrots?
How much ginger should I give my parrots?
Can my parrot drink ginger beer?
Are there any foods containing ginger that my parrot can’t eat?
Does ginger help with motion sickness?
So let’s not waste any more time, and get straight into the good stuff.
What are the benefits of giving ginger to my parrot?
The truth is, parrots LOVE ginger, full of beneficial and healthy vitamins and proteins.
It is very beneficial to the respiratory system (essentially the breathing cycle in animals, for those of you who don’t know) of your parrot, and does a great job of cleansing the digestive system.
It also contains many benefits, which I will outline here:
Proteins
Proteins are essentially the building blocks of the body, when a bird lacks a diet of sufficient protein amounts, visible problems are evident.
This includes the effects on feather quality and breeding performance for example.
Vitamin A
Vitamin A greatly affects the tissues that line the digestive and respiratory systems.
A deficiency in Vitamin A diminishes the, “mucous secretion” ability in these regions, which in the end, makes them susceptible to infection by environmental bacteria.
The respiratory system is the most commonly affected system.
Calcium
Calcium is required for strong bones and teeth. And they are found in dark vegetables as well as white beans and calcium-heavy foods such as sea vegetables and oatmeal.
Other benefits include Vitamins C & B, phosphorus, iron, sodium, potassium and magnesium.
But unfortunately, I don’t have the time to explain all of them to you.
So, as we can see, there are many nutritional benefits to feeding ginger to our parrots, so let’s examine just how much ginger we should be giving our parrots.
How much ginger should our parrots have?
Generally speaking, whilst ginger is good for parrots, like I’ve already stated, it is probably best to serve it in moderation, simply because it wouldn’t be right to give an6 let excessive amounts of any food or spice.
One great method which a friend of mine uses, is to make smoothies with added ginger, as long as you make it with other, parrot-friendly ingredients, (like carrots and red peppers for example) it should make for a tasty treat for your feathery friend.
Just don’t add in excessive amounts if any ingredient and you’ll be okay.
Can my parrots drink ginger beer?
Brilliant question. But now it’s time to get a little bit serious.
Because we do not recommend that you allow your parrot to drink ginger beer.
We all know what parrots are like.
Anything we drink, they feel a relentless urge to unapologetically take their own little sip too.
So if you do enjoy ginger beer (as you should), keep it away from your colorful little buddy.
Here’s why:
You see the problem here is, that birds cannot burp.
The carbon dioxide in carbonated drinks (including ginger beer), winds up in the bloodstream of birds and can be lethal to them, even in small quantities.
We should also add that this obviously includes fizzy drinks too.
So it’s best to keep the soda stuff away from your pet parrot.
On top of that, make sure not to leave your parrot unattended with your alcoholic drink.
There have been many times when birds have received alcohol poisoning, simply because they were left alone with drinks, the takeaway seems to be that leaving parrots alone in a room with a glass of beer or wine, is not a good idea.
Nor should you directly feed your parrot ginger beer.
Ginger and motion sickness?
Motion sickness is caused by disorientation, when your body interprets that you are seated stationary in a vehicle but can see the rest of the world whizzing by, it gets confused simply.
The brain gets mixed signals, and the result is nausea, sweating and intense vomiting.
All very nasty stuff.
Parrots too, however, can get motion sickness.
Before you embark on any long journeys wi5 your parrot, it is best to take some shorter, 15-20 minute journeys to ensure that it can cope well with these journeys.
If you find that your parrot does not cope well with motion sickness, try driving with it on an empty stomach.
If that fails, that’s where the ginger comes into play.
Try giving your parrot some ginger tea before you leave.
(Strain some ginger into hot water the way you would with regular tea, allow to cool a bit before giving your parrot some of this as well as it’s water. Take some with you for long journeys.)
This should be the best solution for curing motion sickness within your parrots.
So in conclusion then with regard to ginger and motion sickness: it has been proven before that ginger works to prevent motion sickness in adult humans during long journeys.
It also happens to work well for parrots as well.
There’s nothing more delightful than gingerbread cookies, especially during the wintertime.
And I know, that when you’re munching away at your freshly made biscuits, it can be difficult to resist the urge to feed your little friend.
However, the research would suggest this is maybe not such a good idea.
As I have already discussed, ginger brings many benefits to parrots, including; proteins, Vitamins A,B and C, and many other important minerals.
However, within gingerbread cookies, there is a very high level of sugar.
Whilst sugar In itself is not poisonous to parrots, it is just not very healthy, in the same way, that it isn’t good for humans.
It is crucially important, however, that you do not feed your parrot any chocolate that may be on your gingerbread cookies.
Chocolate IS known to be poisonous to parrots, so it is very important that you keep those cocoa treats out of your parrots reach at all times.
Can parrots eat ginger?
The answer is yes, parrots can eat ginger.
Not only that, but it has been shown that small amounts of raw ginger are very beneficial to a parrots health, offering many key proteins and minerals.
However, that does not mean that all ginger-related foods are okay.
For example, as we have discussed, the high levels of sugar and alcohol that can be found within ginger beer and gingerbread cookies, respectively, contain a lot of sugar and/or alcohol.
This can have very negative side effects for your parrots, and even cause fatal injury.
So, it is safe to feed your parrots ginger, but you should always take caution when doing so.
I hope you enjoyed this article, that’s all for now, and I’ll see you soon!