Hi!

 

I have recently bought some expensive food mix for budgies which contains dried eucalyptus leaves. At least the lable says so. It smells like eucalyptus should as well.

 

Then I reread about the unsafe items and got puzzled. My birds have been eating the product for about two weeks now. I can't tell whether they eat up the dried leaves, those are quite small and can't be seen in the shells which I throw away daily. I think they do chew on them anyway.

 

Maybe that is some type of eucalyptus which is safe for budgies, after all it is their native land tree and it shouldn't be so harmful. Anyway, the birds seem to enjoy their new feed and I hope dried eucapyptus won't harm them. What do you think?

Sorry, can't help you there, cannot imagine anybody producing treat food with eucalyptus if it wasn't safe, I buy treat foods all the time and that is not listed as one of the ingredients. Somebody who actually lives where eucalpytus grows naturally should show up soon. Good you are checking things out.

We feed natural eucalyptus leaves and branches to our birds all the time. It has been said that treated eucalyptus in dried arrangements of flowers are toxic as they have had chemical treatments to make them endure as a dried flower arrangement. I do not think this applies to natural eucalyptus.

 

http://www.plannedparrothood.com/plants.html

 

http://www.eucproducts.com/benefits.html

 

Eucalypts have a special place in the life of the budgerigar

The wild budgerigar has evolved alongside the Eucalypt tree and over a million years has developed an intimate bond with the tree and its leaves. Wet eucalypt leaves excite and invigorate both the wild and aviary budgerigar into a frenzy of joy. They love to bath in the wet leaves and breeding hens destructively chew the bark searching for trace elements and lysine, the breeding protein. The eucalyptus oil from the leaves has medicinal properties that stimulate the immune system and promote a strong natural resistance to disease.

Edited February 26, 200718 yr by Bubbles

Thank you Phoebe and Bubbles!

 

I feel much better now, especially to find out about the budgies and eucalyptus relationships in the wild! Knowing that eucalyptus is generally a very healthy thing, I was just very surprised when I read about the dried leaves accident. It is too bad that we can get only dried leaves here! But maybe the budgies born in captivity forgot about their wonderful native land?