Feeding Parrots: Using Diet for Good Health and Healing, Part 1

What ever a bird eats and drinks creates his level of wellness, or lack of health. But why is this so? There are a variety of factors that cause sickness and disease.  Here we will focus on diet and nutrition, because the food and drink a parrot consumes either builds healthy, well functioning cells, or contributes to illness and disease.

More and more professionals in the area of Holistic Healthcare – for people and animals – agree that numerous diseases, degenerative conditions, and even the aging process itself are caused by free-radicals.

When parrots eat poor quality foods, such as dry seeds and human junk foods–foods with high levels of omega-6 essential fatty acids, and out-of-balance pellets these foods cause inflammation to develop in the body and this inflammation causes many known diseases, including avian fatty liver disease.

Although the body’s natural biochemical processes produces many of the oxidative free-radicals, when these free-radical levels rise above what the body can control they begin damaging cells.  When free-radical damage occurs the free-radical molecule begin altering the way cells decode genetic material. This changes the basic structure of the proteins that make up the DNA molecule in the nucleus of every cell.  These changes cause errors to occur during protein synthesis. Protein synthesis is the process where the cells in the body create proteins by using DNA, RNA and various enzymes.  When the cells involved in protein synthesis have been damaged by free-radicals the proteins created have been altered in a way that makes the body see them as ‘foreign substances’.  Because the body identifies these altered proteins as ‘foreign substances’ the immune system springs into action and tries to destroy them.

Autoimmune diseases occur when the body attacks its own cells. The formation of these altered proteins can damage the immune system. This free-radical damage can cause leukemia, other types of cancers and many other disease to develop.

The best way to cope with free-radical damage is to prevent it from developing in the first place. However, if sickness or disease already exists, the body has amazing healing and regenerative capabilities.  The method I have discovered involves eliminating certain foods and drinks from the diet while feeding foods that provide superior nutrition.