If you’re eating crackers in the room, you might have noticed your pet bird eyeing them with longing looks. But can cockatiels eat crackers? Here’s what you need to know.
As a pet parent, you might feel tempted to share your snacks with your cockatiel.
However, various foods meant for human consumption are unsafe for pet birds. This is especially true for artificial and processed foods.
Pretzels and crackers are known to cause severe health problems and even death in birds.
They’re delicious, but you should be careful about feeding them to your feathered friend.
In this article, I talk about crackers, chips, pretzels, and most other human foods that we should avoid giving our pet birds.
Can Cockatiels Eat Crackers?
Generally speaking, bird owners should never let their birds have any salty food.
Most bird species have a very delicate electrolyte and fluid balance that can be upset by even a small amount of excess salt.
Consuming salty chips and crackers can cause your cockatiel to suffer from dehydration, excessive thirst, and kidney failure.
In more severe cases, the bird might even die from it.
If you have any low-salt or unsalted crackers, a couple of bites should be fine for your cockatiel. However, you should strictly keep it restricted to such small amounts.
Can Cockatiels Eat Pretzels?
Everything I said regarding crackers applies to pretzels too. It’s the salt content in pretzels that make them unsuitable for consumption by birds.
A very small amount of unsalted pretzels won’t cause any issues, but once again – you shouldn’t let a cockatiel have more than a bite or two.
Salted pretzels are to be avoided altogether due to the health concerns I mentioned.
Can Cockatiels Eat Tortilla Chips?
Tortilla chips are something you shouldn’t give to your cockatiels at all. Although quite tasty, they’re usually very salty and contain a lot of preservatives.
The fact that they’re deep-fat-fried doesn’t help, either.
In short, tortilla chips are simply too hazardous to a cockatiel’s health. Corn tortillas, however, are a different story.
They are low in salt and fat, which makes them more suitable for feeding pet cockatiels. You should still be careful and only let your feathered friend have them in moderation, though.
Can Cockatiels Eat Takis?
Since corn tortillas are safe for cockatiels, you might be wondering if they can eat Takis.
Indeed, Takis is essentially corn tortilla chips, but they’re also intensely spicy.
Well, whether your cockatiel can eat Takis depends on the bird’s overall diet and health.
A healthy cockatiel on a well-fed diet can eat these tasty corn tortilla chips in moderation.
However, you should still steer clear of the particular spicier and saltier flavors for obvious reasons.
Can Cockatiels Eat Potato Chips?
Unless they’re homemade, cockatiel owners should avoid sharing potato chips with their feathered friends.
Although they aren’t that spicy and might seem harmless, potato chips are junk food and can cause severe health complications.
To begin with, potatoes aren’t of much value in a cockatiel’s diet.
While they aren’t toxic or harmful, there are far more nutritious fruits and vegetables that you can feed your pet.
Do note that sweet potatoes are much more nutritious and make perfect occasional treats.
Potato chips are typically salted and often contain sugar as well.
Unsalted and homemade potato chips without any sugar content are okay for cockatiels to eat, but only in moderation.
What Other Foods Should Cockatiels Avoid?
To be honest, there are a lot of human foods that cockatiels should avoid.
Before you get a cockatiel, it’s wise to research a bit on what they can eat and what they shouldn’t. Some of the common foods to avoid include:
1. Chocolate
We all love chocolate, but this delicious treat can be fatal to birds. The caffeine and theobromine present in chocolate are toxic to them.
Even a small amount of chocolate-containing foods can result in increased heart rate, diarrhea, vomiting, tremors and seizures, and hyperactivity in cockatiels.
2. Avocados
Cockatiels can eat a wide range of fruits, but avocados are to be avoided.
The avocado plant contains Persin, a fatty acid that acts as a fungicide. The cockatiels ingesting person may face respiratory problems, weakness, heart damage, and even sudden death.
3. Onion and garlic
Like avocados, onions, and garlic are harmful to birds too, despite being vegetables.
The sulfur compounds present in onions can cause irritation and ulcers in the inner lining of the mouth, esophagus, and crop.
It may even result in anemia by rupturing the bird’s blood vessels.
Similarly, a chemical known as allicin present in garlic is responsible for causing anemia and weakness in birds too.
4. Foods with high-fat content
One of the main reasons why cockatiels should avoid junk foods is their high fat content.
Overweight birds are prone to high cholesterol levels and heart disease, just like us.
A cockatiel’s diet shouldn’t include much butter, oil, fatty meat, or other fatty foods.
5. Certain fruit seeds and pits
Apple seeds, pear seeds, pits of plums, cherries, nectarines, and apricots are unsafe for birds.
This is due to the cardiac-toxic cyanide compound present in these fruit pits and seeds.
Apart from these, Xylitol can cause liver damage and hypoglycemia.
Foods containing caffeine are to be avoided, too, as caffeine can cause cardiac arrest in birds.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can cockatiels have pretzels?
Don’t give pretzels to cockatiels. Pretzels tend to be high in sodium and trans fat, both of which can be harmful to a cockatiel’s health.
Eating such high-fat snacks could lead to obesity and other health issues in the long term.
Instead, a better option would be to feed your cockatiel foods that are healthy and specially formulated for birds.
Can cockatiels eat crackers?
No, cockatiels should not be given crackers, even as an occasional treat.
Crackers are high in fat and carbohydrates, so it should not be a part of the bird’s diet.
It’s important to feed cockatiels a balanced diet that consists largely of pellets or seeds to ensure they get all the proper vitamins and minerals they need to stay healthy.
Salt-free crackers can be fed occasionally but should never exceed 10% of their total daily calorie intake.
Can cockatiels eat Pringles?
Pringles are not part of a healthy diet for cockatiels since it is high in fat and sodium.
Moreover, they don’t provide any essential nutrients that would help your bird stay strong and healthy.
Additionally, the high-fat content of Pringles could cause gastrointestinal discomfort for your pet.
Just stick with nutrient-rich foods like pellets, grains, seeds, leafy greens, and fruits, but if you do want to give Pringles as a treat, only feed very small amounts.
Can cockatiels eat popcorn?
Cockatiels should not be given the salted popcorn available in stores due to its high fat content.
Popcorn is not a suitable food option for cockatiels as it can cause serious health issues such as obesity and malnutrition due to its lack of essential nutrients.
You can offer it home-popped corn kernels, but store-bought is a strict no-no.
Some grain-free bird snacks can offer an occasional treat that is safe for cockatiels to eat but should only be given sparingly and in appropriate quantities.
Wrapping up
If you aren’t sure whether to share your snacks with your avian pet, it’s best not to.
Don’t feed them anything that isn’t included in the natural diet of wild birds without checking if it’s safe for them to consume.
If you want to give your pet some treats and snacks, there are plenty of healthy options.
So, that covers it all, and I hope I’ve been able to answer your queries.
Thank you for reading, and hopefully, you can give your feathered friend the best treats without endangering their health.
