peanut concern

[Lisa A. Bono]

Hi Lisa!
I don't offer peanuts. Reason being is because you can not tell a healthy peanut from a sick one. There are so many other healthy options (almonds, Filberts) . Roasting, cooking, freezing or anything else will not kill the mold on peanuts.
Here is an article I wrote on them. It will help explain it a little more:
http://thegreyroost.com/nopeanuts.html

[merlin]

Hi Lisa,
Guess you're going to have two different answers here. I DO serve peanuts to my Greys... one per day... and then I grate a peanut along with almonds in the processor to add to the morning MASH. This makes the MASH taste great... and they will eat it! YEAH!

The problem with peanuts is the afflotoxin, which comes from Aspergillus. Please refer to an article on this site about peanuts by Alicia McWatters (former avian nutrition pioneer). You need to click onto the Article section and scroll down to nutrition. For some reason, this system will not link to articles. Here is the address: http://www.africangreys.com/articles/nutrition/peanuts.htm


If you give Smokey peanuts, make sure they are human-grade. Also, roasting may may kill some of it (although Lisa disagrees). Former Avian Nutrition expert Alicia McWatters recommended Spanish and Valencia peanuts in her article.

CAUTION:
There appears to be anecdotal evidence that some Greys are sensitive to peanuts, possibly causing some feather picking. Some Grey pet humans have found that their Greys stop picking when peanuts were removed from their diets. If your Grey feather picks and eats a fair amount of peanuts and/or other mold forming foods as outlined in Alicia McWatters' article, you may want to experiment by deleting the peanuts from his or her diet for a few weeks. This means ALL foods that contain peanuts (including pelleted diets with peanut ingredients), and observe if this makes a difference.


Hoping this helps.

Blessings,
Maggie-