Cockatiels can eat pecans, yes. Pecans, along with other types of nuts out there, can even be a healthy snack for your pet. These snacks provide entertainment, as they love to munch and peck on shelled food. Further, pecan nuts are high in proteins, fats, and trace minerals. The only thing you should avoid is giving it with added salt and seasoning.
Pecan nuts and many other kinds are healthy. Aside from the pleasure of snacking on this food, both we and our pets can enjoy the nutrients it offers.
Here are some of the things about pecans that you may find useful before feeding some to your cockatiel.
Let’s get into it!
Contents
Are pecans safe for cockatiels?
Pecans are safe for cockatiels as long as you feed it in small amounts. These nuts do not contain anything toxic, but too much can still be harmful to them.
Setting that aside, pecans offer a variety of nutrients your pet will surely enjoy. In particular, these nuts can be an excellent source of fiber, copper, thiamine, and zinc.
To understand further, take a look at these nutrition facts. According to HealthLine, an ounce (28 grams) of pecan nuts has the following:
- 196 calories
- 2.5 grams of protein
- 20.5 grams of fat
- 4 grams of carbs
- 2.7 grams of fiber
Aside from these nutritional components, pecans also offer some vitamins and minerals like:
- Copper
- Thiamine (Vitamin B1)
- Zinc
- Magnesium
- Phosphorus
- Iron
Although nutritious, pecans have quite a significant amount of fat content. From an ounce of pecans, which is 28 grams, 20.5 grams of it is fat.
Thus, it would be best if you didn’t offer pecans in large amounts, as it can give your cockatiel too much fat.
Further, be aware that raw nuts have high levels of Oxalates and Phytates. Such components can contribute to the possible nutrient deficiencies of your bird. At the same time, it can cause low mineral absorption.
For this reason, it would be best to soak pecans before feeding. By doing so, it increases the availability of essential nutrients.
Moreover, soaking activates helpful enzymes that increase nutrient absorption.
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Are pecans good for cockatiels?
Pecans are good for cockatiels in the sense that it’s rich in nutrients. It remains to be a good snack as long as you keep it in moderation.
As for snacks, pecans can be an excellent source of various nutrients. However, overfeeding can lead to too much fat intake, which can be harmful to your cockatiel. For this reason, always avoid too much feeding of pecan nuts.
Moreover, you should only feed pecans if it has no added salt or flavor in it.
While pecans are suitable for cockatiels, the added salt in them can be harmful.
Still, even without added components, pecans should have a limit for cockatiels.
How many pecans can cockatiels eat?
Cockatiels shouldn’t eat too many pecans as snacks. Like all other birds and animals, they should have a balanced diet of a few things.
Along with all other nuts and seeds, pecans should only make 10% of their daily food intake.
The most significant percentage should be pellets, making up a total of 60% of their daily diet. The remaining 30% should be for vegetables like carrots and fruits like grapes or raisins.
The key to a good diet is always balance. For this reason, you should limit feeding pecans to once or twice a week.
Further, it would be best if you didn’t feed pecans as the only treat or snack. Consider getting a variety of options like peanuts, almonds, and others.
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Risks of feeding your cockatiel pecans
Although pecans are nutritious for your pet, it still has some risks with it. You should be aware of such to keep your cockatiel safe as it feeds on nuts.
Don’t give pecans with added salt or flavor.
Some pecans have added salt and seasonings to improve the taste. While salt is tolerable for us, it’s not the same for our pets.
Salt could cause an imbalance in your bird’s electrolytes and fluids. It can also lead to dehydration, kidney failure, or worse, death.
For this reason, it would be best to avoid salted pecans and choose the unsalted ones instead. Also, prevent feeding the nuts with other flavors and seasonings added.
Give all nuts without shells.
Although cockatiels are pretty good at taking off shells, it would still be best to give it unshelled.
Nutshells can be quite hard, depending on the variant. While pecans have shells easier to peel than other nuts, you should still take them off for your pet.
Avoid giving pecans with molds.
Keep the pecans in a dry and cool area to prevent them from getting molds. As a general rule of thumb, don’t feed pecans that you won’t eat yourself.
Since moldy food isn’t something we eat, it would be best to avoid feeding your pet. Further, keeping your pecans in a moist area can cause fungus to grow, which is also toxic for these birds.
Thus, always make sure your pecans are in a safe and secured area and avoid giving them with shells intact.
Avoid feeding large servings.
Whatever the type of nut, always make sure you give it in small amounts. Of course, pecans may be tiny for us, but it can still be big enough for our birds.
It would be best to crush the pecans before feeding so they can swallow it easily. It’s ideal to do so, mostly if your pet has just finished weaning.
What other nuts are good for cockatiels?
Aside from pecans, cockatiels can eat the following nuts as well, given that it’s human grade and unsalted. If you have some, you can give it the same as walnuts:
- Almond (dry roasted/no shells) Almonds contain high levels of anti-nutrients.
- Beechnut
- Brazil Nut (no shells)
- Cashews (roasted)
- Coconut
- Gumnut
- Hazelnut
- Macadamia
- Palm-nut
- Peanut (roasted/no shells)
- Pili nut
- Pine nut
- Pistachios
- Walnut (roasted and unshelled)
As I said earlier, nut snacks are nutritious and will remain as such if appropriately fed.
You can even give your cockatiel some peanut butter, as long as you know the risks.
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Summary
Cockatiels can eat pecans, and it can be a highly nutritious snack for them. Still, there’s a thin line that separates pecans from becoming healthy and becoming harmful. Thus, it would be best if you always were cautious to ensure your pet is safe when feeding such a nutty snack.
All it takes is awareness and caution in feeding pecans to our birds and other pets. As long as we do so, our pets can enjoy the nutrients without causing any harm.
Resources
HealthLine’s nutrition facts on pecans
PubMed’s study on phytates’ effects on birds
Image Credits:
- Photo by Ratul Ghosh on Unsplash
- https://c.pxhere.com/images/2f/af/7a009f5fde264c5f1807c4269410-1430719.jpg!d
