Is it safe to give dried fruit to budgies...ie. apricots, apple, banana, mango, sultanas etc and if so how often or is this a no no...thanks for your help.

l searched the internet and l found this little article

* Dried fruit preserved with sulfites may not be the best choice for your bird. People sometimes have acute hypersensitivity reactions to sulfites, so an animal as small as a bird may have an even greater sensitivity to them. In many cases, we have to rely on guidelines we use for ourselves until someone discovers that the ingredient affects birds as well.

l searched the internet and l found this little article

* Dried fruit preserved with sulfites may not be the best choice for your bird. People sometimes have acute hypersensitivity reactions to sulfites, so an animal as small as a bird may have an even greater sensitivity to them. In many cases, we have to rely on guidelines we use for ourselves until someone discovers that the ingredient affects birds as well.

 

I totally agree with Birdluv here.

I agree too... you never know what is in the dried fruit. Fresh clean fruit is best

Dried fruit is fine for your budgie if they will eat it. But as birdluv said, you need to choose dried fruits that are not preserved with sulfites. Many seed mixes also have dried fruits in them. If it is not expressly stated that the fruit does not contain sulfites, then it most likely does. Sulfites keep the color prettier and prolong shelf life and are inexpensive, that's why they are used even though they may not be good for you. You can get dried fruit from your local health food store, just look for 'sulfite-free' or something similar on the label. Sulfites cause issues with some people also. Fresh is best, but even with fresh fruit unless you are growing it yourself and know it has not been sprayed you will need to wash it very well before giving it to your bird. Scrub the peel with mild soap and water or a fruit and vegetable wash, or you can also contaminate the produce by transferring whatever was on the peel into the fruit with your hands if you don't wash it well first. If you are real industrious you can dry fruit yourself, although I've never tried it. My birds won't eat dried fruit.

:hap: By "Sulfites" do you mean Sulpur Dioxide? I have just looked and it's clearly labelled on the ingredients of the packet of dried Apricots we have....thanks for the warning...I didn't know this was dangerous to birds...makes you wonder what it's doing to us ...and bought from a health food shop aswell...

drying fruit is really quite easy you can do it in the oven or you can do it with a dehydrator which are fairly inexpensive we have one where Tim makes beef jerky. I bet if you do a google there are ways to do it that are very inexpensive.

I added this to the unsafe list :yellowhead: