Q: Is it safe to feed uncooked pasta to my birds?
-Julie B., Syracuse, NY
A: It is fairly common knowledge that pasta is safe for parrots. However, most people would no sooner think to serve it to their birds uncooked than they would eat it that way themselves.
Dried pasta is has a couple of distinct advantages. It is firm and holds its shape making it ideal as a safe vessel for foraging or as a plaything. Additionally, even though it’s food, it does not collect bacteria while dry making it safe to leave in the cage for longer periods.
The concerns about dry pasta (as well as dried grains) stems from two thoughts:
1) Broken pasta pieces are sharp and might be dangerous to swallow, and
2) Pasta and grains expand in moisture and if a bird ate enough of it, the expansion could kill them
Let’s look at each idea separately…
I have never actually seen a bird eat dried pasta. I wonder if they don’t consider it more of a toy than a food item. My birds will chew it into oblivion and drop it to the cage bottom. But that does not mean that some birds will not eat it understanding that it is food.
Before I began writing this post I went into my pantry and popped a piece of uncooked ziti into my mouth. When I bit into it, it did not break into life threatening shards but into manageable pieces with little effort. I swallowed them without incident.
Given a birds much more powerful bite pressure, I feel pretty certain that they would have no trouble whittling dried pasta into safe pieces. I do not believe this to be an issue because I don’t think a bird would purposely swallow something too sharp any sooner than something that is too large.
(I must add that some bird have been known to do strange things such as swallow nut shell pieces or toy parts. If your bird is known to eat unsafe or inedible things, there are many precautions you need to be taking aside from avoiding dried pasta.)
With regards to the concerns with over-expansion in stomach fluids – it is a myth. This may have roots in the urban legend about the horrific, stomach exploding deaths wild birds supposedly suffered after eating the rice thrown during weddings. It never happened.
For starters, bird have been eating wild dry grains forever, a food that would not have remained in the natural diet of birds if it were dangerous to them.
It is true that grains and pasta expand in moisture, but they do so very, very slowly. When we cook pasta or grains, it is subjected to intense heat that speeds the absorption rate up enormously. A bird’s body will digest these foods long before they could expand to a degree where a bird was in danger.
I can say without any hesitation whatsoever that dried pasta is safe for birds.
Patty Jourgensen specializes in avian health, behavior and nutrition and has been working with and caring for rescue birds since 1987.
20 comments
Can birds eat cooked pasta?
My couture bid Rio , I had for 5 years just 3 month old when had , the thing is when I seen him he was happy and full of fun , the trouble is the kids there cut one of his wings past the bone , I did not ask them to do this seen but if blood 🩸 on wing when I went to collect next day , they said something strange if he dies , we refund you , I thought why say that he is happy bird , well I left him in his cage in a darkish place fir about a week just going in and bit not forcing him to play I thought it’s all new so let him come around , he was in the corner all week just eating now and again , but looked so frighted m this being my first parrot , I took some awful bites of him but after a few weeks , I could get him to sort of trust me and not hiss , a far cry to when I first seen him then I noticed his wing m I phoned them and said something is wrong with his wing , and far from the happy chap I had seen him that first day at the let shop , they said bring him down , and was horrified when they saw the damage the boys and girl had done to his wing he never will fly 😡they closed the shop and they said they should ne er have done it , if it wasent fir me leaving him alone olive who knows all a lit parrots 🦜 in main let shop said he could have died of shock and I must have looked after him very carefully or he would be dead , well 5 years on he ne er will except my son he’s ok with husband but he don’t go near him much , he tumbles , but will bite my son nasty and he loves him ti bits , I only let him do what he’s confutable doing he talks , but still will not go onto to my hands we spend hours together on chair with his toys. But as soon as my son comes in he fluffs up and looked to see if I’m behind him and bites me sometimes , how can I stop 🛑 him doing this , I taught him to fly on my hands so I am his wings , he dies try to fly usually with a bump , but he’s made it across the room love him help please so I can get us please , I know he very jealous and trusts me with his life m I do Clip his nails m but hate doing it with small clippers and a lot of worry thank you help help help x
Love watching your shows! Beautiful birds . I’m very sad that your friends bird ( African grey LaGuya) is gone. Miss her so much , she looked so healthy till just before the end . I would like to Know more about that problem .I have 2 greys too ,a amazon and a Senagul. Is this disease contagious?? Is there any way to know a head of time? Please if you are going to publish this please don’t mention LaGuya. Thank you
Everyday I go to my balcony I have an army of town pigeons comming awayting for food , I used to give them bread ,but one day I learn that is killing the pigeon blowing is stomach ,so now I give them packs of very tiny dry noodles call ( french coquillete) and they are crazy about it everyday I give them about 3 to 400gr is that dangerous ?Or z5not !.
My Sun enjoys a treat of baby food filled ziti. He has fun breaking it apart to get to the yum.
I give my parrots a piece of cooked spaghetti each as a treat. They absolutely love it! Have never noticed any negative side-effects, either in their behaviour or in the droppings. Although they rarely receive anything starchy (bread, cereal, etc), they make a mad dash for their one long noodle, which they have learned to eat from one side to the other (not in the middle, like they originally did and have subsequently discovered that the technique didn’t quite work for them)
Kurt William – The pasta in the Birdtricks Diet recipes is meant to be cooked.
can you tell me why my eclectus is losing his feathers on his belly?
i have conure..is it the same for them..the exotic bird vet wants my bird to only have pellets
My eclectuses love dried pasta where as my galah will fling it out of her cage. I give my ekkies corkscrew pasta or rotele as it’s easy for them to hold. They don’t really Like cooked pasta though. Another thing my birds really love is quinoa although that’s more of a Grain than a pasta, but it’s funny to see it all over their beaks!
my south african grey only a baby really, as I lost my second one 2 and a half yrs ago aged 30, so now Smokie has everything I eat ,toast,eggs,spag, crisps chicken doesnt go barmy on it but does eat it, has an orange a day with grapes,and theres fruit and veg in his normal diet being it dried he plays drums with it on his up tipped feeder his fav is my blinds which are very holy now lol
My small kids love to eat dry pasta and will chew on it. I use dry macaroni on some of the bird toys I make instead of cut up drinking straws.
I have been feeding my birds, mostly macaws, dried pasta for many years now and they all except one eat all I give to them which is only 5 to 10 of the curley type that comes in colors. Some eat the white and some eat the dark and some eat anything in the bowl. Even my amazon loves the stuff as he will leave the fruits alone to eat the pasta first. Bill
My sun conure is picky about his pasta. I like mine rather far on the al dente side sometimes – semi-soft — for certain dishes. He tosses that and will only eat the very slightly al dente or completely soft cooked versions. Personally, I love to munch a dry spaghetti strand when dropping the rest into the boiling water but he doesn’t even think any pasta is a toy at all, only wants it as a good. I do choose whole grain pasta so it is better for both of us, since it is one of his fave foods and I eat it fairly often also. So at least we go for the healthiest version, at least I think it is better for us.
I’ve been using dried pasta to make bird toys for tiel and Meyer’s using leather strips alternate stringing with clean bamboo pieces, cornhusk, variety of macaroni sizes.My Grey loves only the spiral shapes for a reward treat. Have fun with different shapes, sizes, veg colors, you never know what will appeal to each individual bird!
Frankly I never considered this option till reading this interesting blog thanks a million. My African Congo gray, Kenya will have a new Italian toy to toil with.
Thank you …this information is really helpful
So glad to hear you confirm this! When I saw the title I was worried that you were going to tell us it is bad and my Eclectus loves to grind up uncooked pasta. Like you said – it doesn’t seem like he eats it.
Recipe #1 one of the BirdTricks.com diet calls for 2 cups of whole wheat pasta. It does not say whether to cook it or not. Is is meant to be mixed in dry?
Thanks for the information. My blue front amazon loves cooked pasta and he shredded dry pasta.
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