If you have a parakeet at home, you already know what a pleasure it is to be around them. Not only are they warm and affectionate but also thoroughly entertaining. Just watching them eat can be hilarious at times. You must be feeding your feathered pets leafy greens every now and then, but have you ever fed them celery?
Can parakeets eat celery? Yes, they certainly can. Although celery is not as nutritious as the other leafy greens, you can still feed it to them in moderation. However, don’t forget to destring the stalk before feeding it to them. Your feathered pets can eat celery leaves and seeds safely.
Below, we will cover all aspects of feeding celery to parakeets: their nutritional composition, pros and cons of feeding them to parakeets, practicing moderation, and more.
- Will parakeets eat celery?
- Is celery healthy for parakeets?
- Risks involved with feeding celery to parakeets
- How much celery should you feed to your parakeet?
- Can parakeets eat celery stalks?
- What about celery leaves? Are they edible to parakeets?
- Is it okay for parakeets to eat celery seeds?
- Can you feed celery juice to parakeets?
Will parakeets eat celery?
Introducing something new to your parakeet’s diet, even a vegetable, is a big deal. As a responsible pet parent, you must ask yourself beforehand: will my pet like eating it?
As far as celery is concerned, there are very slim chances of parakeets not liking it, since they are used to eating leafy greens (such as kale, cabbage, broccoli, and so on) frequently and should, thus, be able to incorporate celery in the diet in no time.
However, on the off chance that your parakeet doesn’t take to eating celery and are leaving their dish untouched, take a hint and back off. You can easily find another vegetable that’s equally healthy for them, if not more.
Is celery healthy for parakeets?
As we learned in the last section, your parakeets will most likely eat celery if it is being offered to them. But will celery be a healthy addition to their diet?
As you already know, parakeets are small birds that have an equally small diet. It is, thus, vital that you fit in all the nutrients they need in their tiny diet. Now, let’s find out whether celery can serve the purpose or not.
Celery: Nutritional value
We will begin by taking a quick glance at the nutritional composition of celery:
|Vitamin A||22 mcg|
|Vitamin B1 (Thiamin)||0.022 mg|
|Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)||0.056 mg|
|Vitamin B3 (Niacin)||0.33 mg|
|Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic acid)||0.245 mg|
|Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine)||0.075 mg|
|Vitamin B9 (Folate)||36 mcg|
|Vitamin C||3.1 mg|
|Vitamin E||0.26 mg|
|Vitamin K||29.2 mcg|
|Copper, Cu||0.036 mg|
|Potassium, K||260 mg|
|Calcium, Ca||40 mg|
|Magnesium, Mg||11 mg|
|Manganese, Mn||0.102 mg|
|Phosphorus, P||24 mg|
|Dietary fibers||1.6 g|
Serving size: 100 grams
Health benefits of celery for parakeets
As indicated in the table above, celery is rich in a lot of vitamins and nutrients. And we’re about to find out how many of these can benefit your feathered pet’s health:
- Celery has Vitamin A, which is essential for maintaining the parakeet’s healthy eyesight and smooth and bright feathers.
- Vitamin B9, which is also referred to as Folic acid, is also present in celery, which improves the cell growth and metabolism of your feathered pet. If they’re not consuming enough of this vitamin, they can be vulnerable to stunted growth, malformation, and anemia.
- Vitamin C in celery is responsible for the smooth functioning of their immune system and helps them in fighting against all kinds of infections and diseases. The parakeets that lack Vitamin C in their diet are engaged in preening more often than those that consume it in sufficient amounts.
- Celery also contains Vitamin K, a vitamin that plays a key role in their blood coagulation. If your parakeet has a deficiency of this vitamin, it might bleed out from a mere cut.
- As far as minerals are concerned, celery contains several. Out of all these, two are most essential for parakeets: Calcium and Potassium. While Calcium enhances the strength of their bones, Potassium takes up the job of maintaining fluid balance in their body.
We’re sure that all the aforementioned pointers have cleared out any doubts that you might have had in your mind about the nutrition value of these veggies for your pets.
Risks involved with feeding celery to parakeets
If you’ve had a parakeet as a pet for a while, you might have noticed on several occasions that these little birds have no knowledge of what might and might not be good for their health. This is why it falls upon you to worry about the risks of feeding them anything that can have a negative impact on their health.
In the last section, we discussed all the benefits that your pet will gain from eating celery. But is there any concern you should know about as well? That’s what we are here to tell you.
While celery itself is completely safe for your pet birdies, it contains thin, string-like parts running along the length of its stalks.
You might have often noticed these annoying strings getting stuck in your mouth while you eat a celery salad.
While these strings can irritate you, they can do much worse things to your pets, such as clog their digestive tracts. The clog can only lead to two possible outcomes: constipation and crop impaction.
For those of you who haven’t heard of crop impaction before, a crop is an organ in the parakeet’s body that makes up an essential part of their digestive system. It’s located near their throat and is responsible for temporarily holding the food they consume before the process of digestion begins.
In crop impaction, the speed with which the ingested food passes through the digestive tract slows down considerably, leading to problems like hypoglycemia, dehydration, and various kinds of infections. In some cases, it has also led to the death of the bird suffering from it.
So, does this mean that you should never feed celery to your parakeets? No. It only means that you should destring the celery before feeding it to your pets.
How much celery should you feed to your parakeet?
Although celery is quite nutritious, there are many other green vegetables that have a much higher nutrient density than it, such as cabbage, spinach, and gale.
Therefore, you should take care that it doesn’t take up a large portion of their diet. We would recommend you to feed them a small stalk of celery once a week.
Can parakeets eat celery stalks?
Like we discussed in the previous section, the fibrous strings in celery stalks can prove to be lethal for your parakeets. This is why you should only feed them these stalks after destringing them. It is much easier than it sounds; all you need is a vegetable peeler.
If you have a Swiss peeler at home, that’s even better for getting the job done. In the absence of a peeler, you can also use a Mandoline slicer or a paring knife to remove the strings from the stalks.
What about celery leaves? Are they edible to parakeets?
Although there is insufficient data regarding feeding celery leaves to the parakeets, many parakeet-owners have claimed that they have been feeding their pets these leaves for months without any adverse effects. This should mean that they’re probably safe for your feathered pet to consume.
All you need to do is wash them thoroughly and chop them into smaller pieces for your pet’s convenience. You should also try to buy organic celery so that there’s no risk of pesticides.
Is it okay for parakeets to eat celery seeds?
Whenever we talk about feeding celery to our pets, we often have its leaves or stalks in mind, forgetting all about the seeds. But as a pet parent to parakeets, you must remember that they’re quite fond of seeds and eat a variety of them.
So, can they eat celery seeds? Yes, absolutely. While the bitter taste of these brown seeds might not appeal to your feathered pet at first, they have surprising health benefits for them.
Being rich in Calcium, these seeds can strengthen your pet’s bones. They also have antioxidants as well as antibacterial properties, both of which ensure the healthy growth and development of your parakeets.
You can easily find celery seeds in the market, both whole as well as in crushed or ground form. However, since these birds are used to eating seeds, feeding them whole is your best choice.
If you don’t want to feed these seeds to your parakeets alone, you can also sprinkle some of these on the veggies you’re about to feed them.
Can you feed celery juice to parakeets?
Blending vegetables to make their juice is a refreshing way to treat your little pets with healthy snacks. But can you feed celery juice to them?
Well, if your parakeets can eat raw celery safely, there’s no reason why its juice should not be fed to them, as long as it is home-made. In fact, if you want to make their juice more nutritious and tastier, you can also add kale and spinach to the blender, along with a few apple slices to sweeten it.
However, there is one concern about feeding them celery juice: these veggies lose all their fiber in the process of juicing. And while the absence of fibers makes it easier for your feathered pets to digest it, they still need the fiber in their diet. Luckily for you, we have a convenient solution to this problem as well.
After juicing celery, the remaining pulp contains fibers in abundance. Instead of throwing this pulp away, you can feed it to your birdies later as another snack. Some bird owners also tend to use the pulp in making bread and feed the bread to their pets.
Conclusion: Can parakeets eat celery?
Let’s wrap it up by doing a quick revise of everything we’ve learned today. Parakeets can eat celery safely but should do so only in moderation since it’s not nutritious enough to be included in their daily diet.
Before feeding your pets celery stalks, you must carefully remove their strings to avoid the risk of crop impaction and other digestive issues.
In addition to the stalks, you can also feed them their leaves as well as seeds. Lastly, if you want to mix up their diet a little, you can also make refreshing celery juice for them.