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A Diet for Health and Healing
This article contains excerpts from my column, ‘The Holistic Parrot’, that appears in the February 2011, #157 issue of Parrots magazine.
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xThe dictionary defines health as the general condition of the body or mind, being free from disease or ailment, while also possessing vigor and vitality. But how many of the birds under our care can actually be described as being completely free of the symptoms of illness and disease? Many holistic veterinarians have told me that their human clients readily accept mediocre to poor health as being normal in their companion animals. If you’re truly interested in the health of your birds – be mindful of the fact that healthy birds are symptom free and naturally resist illness and disease.
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Avian Natural Healthcare
Avian Holistic Nutrition is the foundation of my work with the birds. Did you know that avian holistic nutrition is four decades – 40 years – behind what is commonly available for dogs and cats? It’s time for this to change.
One holistic veterinarian who treats my companion animals once told me, “If there’s life, there’s hope.” This simple phrase has become an affirmation for me, an indicator that we can make a difference.
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Examples of Natural Healing –
Using Diet for Cataract Reversal
These photos show one example of the healing results in parrots we are seeing.
What is a Cataract?
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A cataract is a condition in which the eye lens looses its clearness. A grey-white film can be seen in the lens, behind the pupil. In people cataracts are surgically removed. (1) When cataracts are present the lens of the eye thickens and becomes clouded, it becomes unable to focus or admit light properly into the eye. The main symptom of a developing cataract is the gradual loss of vision. Cataracts are commonly caused by free radical damage. Free radicals attack the structural proteins, enzymes and call membranes in the lens of the eye. The free radicals present in our food, water and the environment are a major factor in the development of cataracts.(2)
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In this photo taken ten months later notice how the cataract in the eye of this same bird has become much less cloudy. We attribute this improvement to the personalized nutrition and diet plan she is on along with constitutional homeopathic treatment.
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This bird’s diet consists of 100% organic foods. Our Wheat-Free – Complete Protein – Sprouting Blend makes up 80 to 90% of her diet. The remaining 1- to 20% consists of organic raw fruits, raw or steamed organic vegetables with select nuts. Why was she fed a wheat-free diet?
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Are you beginning to see why the type of sprouting blend you feed your birds is so important?
For more information, please read, ‘Excellent Nutrition, Made Easy’.
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(1) The Signet Mosby Medical Encyclopedia.
(2) Prescription for Nutritional Healing, Third Edition, Phyllis A. Balch, CNC.
For the entire published version of this column visit Parrots magazine.
Hi,
I have a Parrot for the last 17 years and i have noticed that it has become little difficult for her to see things clearly,there is cloudiness in her eyes,it looks like to be cataract but i m not sure. we are very worried for our parrot. Our parrot’s mainly consists of cream with sugar, fruits, vegetables and nuts.
I am not sure if cataract surgery is possible here in New Delhi. Need your suggestion for her treatment.
Thanks
Anwar
Hi Anwar,
Please stop feeding your parrot cream with sugar. Birds cannot digest dairy products and sugar is also very bad for them. Your bird’s diet is completely lacking in complete protein. Here’s a link to down load a Free Report titled,(LINK) “Why Parrots Need Balanced Nutrition”, this will give you a good introduction to my approach to balanced nutrition for parrots.
You can also contact my UK distributor, Garden Feathers, and ask if they can mail you my sprouting blends to India. I would suggest to get some and start feeding them to your parrot because of the rich amount of nutrients they contain.
I hope this information has been helpful.
My cockatoo Bianca who turned 26 this year had his annual checkup up two days ago. His vet has known him since he was 9 months old. I told my vet I thought I saw a slight change in his vision just for a moment. So he checked his eyes and said there was a slight change. My problem is that Bianca is picked about eating veggies, fresh fruit and the like..I do make a pasta dish with sweet potato baby food with, peas, carrot bits etc , he love to eat pizza and also what we eat as long as it is good for him. He has a very healthy pelleted food along with safflower seeds..he does not like other seeds..I am going to make food toys daily now that are with veggies and fruit. But I want to add supplements to his pasta dish like vitamin E lutien, etc…My question is what would you suggest???? We love him very much, I don’t want him to have eye problems!!! I also use mostly all natural cleaners for his cage…can something in our home are be encouraging this…perhaps I am over reacting??? I would like to nip this in the bud!!!** BTW although Bianca is a male he insists he is a pretty girl and good baby girl even we say he a good boy…. Anything you can suggest will be appreciated!
Hi Maria,
Your parrot’s condition sound very serious. I’ve recently posted two new blogs on being successful when teaching parrots to eat new foods.
Here’s the link to Part 1,
Be Successful When Introducing New Food
Sometimes it really take commitment to teach parrots to eat healthier foods. I hope this two-part blog post gives you some new ideas to try.
Let me know how it goes, ok?
Please excuse some of my wording!! Perhaps Bianca is just having a bad week possibly as both my husband and my hours have changed. So Bianca may just have been tired with our new schedule??? In any event, I would still like to up his vitamins and fresh foods. We use the Harrison Diet which he loves!! Looking forward to your input!
Hi Maria,
The best thing you can do for Bianca’s eye sight is to feed a balance of wholesome foods using our sprouting blends as the main food in the food plan. The “Balanced Exotic Avian Food Plan” I’ve created is based on the data I’ve uncovered from the published scientific papers I’ve read for the articles on avian nutrition that i have written over the past 16 years. You can go to the Home Page on my website and download the Free Report titled,”Why Parrots Need Balanced Nutrition”. It will give you a lot of information on how important it is to improve the quality of foods your feeding your parrot.
Hi
My bird.. an Indian parrot …she is suffering from cataract(just started) few months back.
We have started the complete organic protein diet.
Plz let me know the success rate of recovery.
Hello Gopi,
For the best rate of healing success please consider the following for your bird.
1.She will need to receive a balanced combination of wholesome foods, including our sprouting blend that has been especially formulated to contain complete protein, and other foods to ensure she receives all the nutrients needed by her body to heal and regenerate.
2. There is also an additional protocol (special eye drops) we have added to the healing plan to more fully suppoprt a complete recovery. If you live in the US, and would like more information on this, please let me know.
To the best of health and healing recovery for your Indian parrot.
We recently drove 3 hours to pick up a re home 13 yr old red headed parrot. When we got there his left eye had signs of cataract. They did not show in his pictures. They say his spot in the eye has stayed that size for 2 YRS! Can we help him with reversal of his damages. Is it too late.. he can see. Also. His right eye has a small speck too. He has vet check friday…
Hi Lisa,
Feeding natural, raw foods that are very high in antioxidants may be helpful. There are also some specific nutritional supplements I have used to help reverse cataracts in parrots, however, you would need to schedule a personalized consultation with me so we could ensure that your bird’s food plan is built around supporting health to help support his recovery.