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Can Cockatiels Eat Raisins & Grapes? Our Vet Answers

PetKeen_Can Cockatiels Eat_grapes raisins

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Dr. Luqman Javed Photo

REVIEWED & FACT-CHECKED BY

Dr. Luqman Javed

Veterinarian, DVM

The information is current and up-to-date in accordance with the latest veterinarian research.

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Do you enjoy garnishing your salad with fresh, juicy grapes? How about adding some raisins to your daily bowl of cereal? While grapes and raisins are a delicious and nutritious snack for humans, can you feed them to your cockatiel?

The simple answer is yes. Cockatiels can eat grapes & raisins. However, you should only be feeding your bird these foods (especially raisins) in moderation due to their high sugar content.

Let’s further explore everything you need to know about your cockatiel and grapes and raisins for their optimal well-being.

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Can My Cockatiel Eat Grapes?

However, you should only be feeding your cockatiel grapes in small, infrequent quantities. Most fruits are not very conducive to the diet of a pet parrot in high quantities. Fruits usually contain water, sugars (in the form of carbohydrates), and a small amount of vitamins and minerals; vitamin C is often the primary vitamin in fruits. The sugars in fruit offer energy to your pet. That being said, pet parrots receive, on average, 10–15 times less exercise than their wild counterparts and as such, it’s very difficult to justify a high-energy diet for them.

In addition, cockatiels can make their own vitamin C (a trait they share with all other parrots). As a result, the vitamin C perk of fruits is largely a non-factor for otherwise healthy cockatiels. The nutritional profile of vegetables seems to better align with the needs of pet parrots. For cockatiels specifically, smaller fractions of various grains and seeds are preferred over fruits; as natural granivores (seed eaters), they are better adapted to handling seeds in their diet over fruits.

Grapes are quite high in sugar 1. Though intrinsic sugar is a natural component of all fruits, the amount of sugar present in grapes easily exceeds that found in other fruits such as:

  • Apples 2
  • Blueberries 3
  • Cantaloupe 4
  • Honeydew 5
  • Bananas 6
  • Mangoes 7

This further pulls from their appeal as far as fruit options for cockatiels are concerned. Nonetheless, fresh, raw grapes are indeed safe for cockatiels and can be offered to them in moderation if needed.

If your parrot doesn’t enjoy grapes, there’s no reason to worry. As highlighted above, many other fruits are lower in sugar than grapes and offer a similar assortment of minerals and vitamins to your cockatiel.

cockatiel on branch
Image Credit: jlkramer, Pixabay

Can Cockatiels Eat Raisins?

Though cockatiels can eat raisins, it’s always better to consider other options. This is because raisins are even higher in sugar than grapes!

Feeding your cockatiels the wrong mixture of seeds can be dangerous to their health, so we recommend checking with an expert resource like The Ultimate Guide to Cockatiels, available on Amazon.

This excellent book will help you balance your cockatiels’ food sources by understanding the value of different seed types, dietary supplements, fruits and vegetables, and cuttlebone. You’ll also find tips on everything from housing to health care!

How to Feed Your Cockatiel Grapes & Raisins

As a general guide, your pet cockatiel’s diet can consist of 40–50% pellets and 30–40% seed mix with 10–15% healthy vegetables and 5–10% of fresh fruit. Though you could offer your cockatiel grapes on a daily basis, we would recommend a different strategy of using grapes in a rotation as part of a variety of fruits, as variety is definitely desirable in a pet parrot’s diet.

True berries such as blueberries and strawberries are preferred over grapes and raisins in a cockatiel’s diet because they are lower in sugar and higher in antioxidants.

Cockatiels can safely consume human-grade grapes (grapes intended for human consumption). You should not feed your pet wild grapes, moldy grapes, or any other grapes that you yourself would be hesitant to consume. When preparing grapes for your cockatiel, it might be beneficial to cut them up into small pieces that your bird can easily eat. However, do note that some cockatiels may have a preference for whole fruit, as they often enjoy interacting with and “playing” with it! You don’t have to remove the skin. However, it is recommended that you do so because it could eliminate your bird’s exposure to dangerous pesticides.

YouTube video

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Wrapping Up

Grapes and raisins are perfectly safe to feed to your cockatiel in moderation. They should be viewed as an occasional treat, not as a primary meal. This is due to their exceptionally high sugar content, which renders them somewhat unfavorable when compared to other fruits.

As always, we encourage you to talk to your vet before adding anything new to your bird’s diet.


Featured Image Credit: Pxhere

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