Can Parakeets Eat Carrots? [BENEFITS]

Parrots enjoy most of the foods that human beings do. Usually, the common foods are fresh veggies and you can count on natural foods as opposed to processed food when it comes to feeding. But because some vegetables are harmful to birds, it’s important to know the culprits and keep them as far as possible from your pet parakeet. Today, let’s examine carrots.

Can parakeets eat carrots?

Parakeets can eat carrots. Carrots are safe and nutritious food for parakeets/budgies, and this includes carrot stems and carrot greens.  You can slice or grate the carrots or turn the carrots into carrot juice. Raw carrots provide a nutrient that your pet parakeet need.

Nutritional Value of Carrots

World Carrot Museum provides us with the nutritional contents found in a 100g of carrots.

As we can see from the table above, carrots have a varied amount of vitamin contents as well as minerals. What do these vitamins and minerals do for parakeets? We look at that next.

Benefits of feeding carrots to parakeets

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is essential in strengthening the immune system of your parakeet and enabling healthy cell growth.

Therefore, this nutrient will ensure that your baby parakeet grows up strong and ready to beat any infection that may come around.

By the way, if you want your parakeet to obtain as much Vitamin A as possible from carrots, try making carrots into carrot juice and then feeding it to your parakeet.

Juicing retains close to ninety percent of beta carotene – that anti-oxidant that parakeet’s body usually converts to Vitamin A.

Good eye health

Most people know that carrots enhance the eyesight of human beings. This benefit stretches to the parakeet kingdom as well, whereby Vitamin A created out of beta carotene prevents the onset of cataracts.

Prevents calcium deficiency

Calcium deficiency is a serious problem for parrots in general. Calcium is the most abundant mineral in the bodies of parrots and is used to build and sustain their skeletal structure as well as to help in the synthesis of Vitamin D.

Parrots that suffer from calcium deficiency are prone to convulsions, lack of coordination (the parrot falling from his perch), trembling, muscle pain, feather plucking, among other nasty consequences.

Calcium can help to keep those dangerous symptoms at bay by offering up 33 mg of calcium for every 100 g of carrots. Other sources of calcium include kale, mustard greens, and turnip, cabbage, and beet tops

Flavor

Carrots have a lot of flavors and it’s no shock why parrots love to eat them.

In the juice of juice, carrots can be used to add taste to food that your parakeets just aren’t talking to.

The texture and orange color of carrots also help quite a bit in, you know, liven up food for your parakeets.

A natural source of nutrition

Carrots are a better source of vitamins and mineral supplements as compared to commercially prepared supplements.

With the latter, it is quite easy to overdose your pet parakeet on these nutrients, which can produce negative effects such as feather-plucking, aggression, and organ damage, among others.

Also, when you feed carrots to your pet parakeets especially in the form of carrot juice, you do not have to worry about artificial sweeteners, added sugar, and preservatives.

At the end of the day, natural is always better – it is a nutritional principle that I think is golden for human beings as well as parrots.

TIP: Cooked carrots are fine for parakeets. Nonetheless, you’re better off feeding the carrots raw and uncooked because raw carrots are the most nutrient-rich; heat from cooking may erode some nutritional value.

How to feed carrots to your parakeets

Grated or in pieces

Larger parrots are good with a whole carrot. You can simply wash, peel, and offer the carrot and bigger parrots like Macaws will easily wrestle the carrot to submission.

However, smaller parrots (parakeets) need you to take down the carrots a bit before feeding them.

First, you can cut the carrot into tiny pieces that may not choke your parakeet.

Personally, I think that grating the carrot is the better option because then you don’t have to deal with that nagging question – how small is small enough?

Once you’ve grated the carrots, mix them up with your parakeet’s pellets and seeds in such a way that the grated carrots are the smaller portion in the mix.

Carrots should be served as treats and, hence, moderation is the guide.

Keep in mind that younger parakeets may not like to eat from bowls. That does not mean that they do not like carrots per se.

Take out a saucer and put the food contents on the saucer. Place it in different spots of the parakeet’s enclosure and watch out for the reaction.

Sometimes, presentation is the issue and some pet parakeets are just fussy like that.

Juicing

In addition, carrots can be fed to parakeets in the form of juice. Carrot juice (and juice from other fruits and vegetables) is one of the richest available food sources for vitamins and minerals.

This is because when you make juice out of most fruits and vegetables, you remove the fiber and, hence, nutrients are easily absorbed with minimal effort by the digestive system of parakeets.

Also this cocktail of vitamins and minerals is a tasty treat for parakeets. Fresh juice can be offered to parakeets in small cups by hand.

TIP: It is recommended that the carrot juice is fed to parakeets as soon as it is made. However, leftover carrot juice can be stored for a short while in a refrigerator. The cold temperatures of the refrigerator will kill some of the nutrients in the carrot juice but there are no health concerns and the juice will still remain a tasty and nutritious supplement in your parakeet’s diet.

Getting pet parakeets to eat carrots

The internet has more than a few posts by parakeet owners who just proclaim that “my pet parakeet just won’t eat carrots.” Sometimes the orange color is supposedly repelling for some parakeets while other times they don’t care for the treat.

Whatever the reason, the pet parakeets lose out on the awesome nutritious and tasty treat in carrots. Now, I’m not going to recommend force-feeding here.

But before you throw your hands in the air, let’s make sure that the issue is not how you present the carrot. Consider the tips below:

Change things up

Sometimes, parrots will eat carrots shredded but not chopped. So it doesn’t help to give such a parrot chopped carrot after chopped carrot, does it?

As a general rule, never serve the carrots to your parakeet the same way twice repeatedly.

Shift between chopped, whole, sliced, diced, mixed, mashed, skewered, and shredded. You can also mix them up. Really, the possibilities are numerous.

Demonstrate

Parrots are intelligent birds that love to mimic human beings. Use that to your advantage.

Place the parakeet’s meal of carrots alongside yours and then proceed to make a show of the treat as you eat the food.

You can even share the carrots right of your plate. Have fun with it.

Serve fresh in the morning

In the morning, parakeets are usually hungry especially if there were no nightly snacks.

You can use that opportunity to serve fresh carrots and see whether the parakeet is willing to take a bite.

Remember to take out food from the cage as you go to bed. It is not safe to leave leftovers in the parakeet’s enclosure overnight since food tends to get bad pretty quickly. For instance, food maintains its freshness for about 2-3 hours.

Create a mix with his favorite food

You can try mixing a little carrot into your parakeet’s favorite meal. The parakeet could simply eat the carrots in order to get to its favorite bits in the mix.

Serve under the sunlight or a UV lamp

Birds tend to see better in the sunlight and without it, objects can look rather grey and dull.

So, putting the carrots under the UV lamp or sunlight may brighten up things and enable the parakeet to see the food under a new light – pun intended!

Let him see other parakeets enjoying carrots

In a close social society like that of parrots, you can use peer pressure in your favor.

If you have more than one parakeet, and the others love carrots, it may help to place that picky eater where he can see the others happily eating carrots.

Try the carrot tops

Sometimes, the carrot tube may seem intimidating to some parakeets but they may like the idea of carrot tops – perhaps due to their greener, softer appearance.

The carrot greens will contain part of the nutrients found in carrots generally (e.g. Vitamin A), and you can feed only the carrot greens especially if they’re kitchen scraps.

Be consistent and persevere

Changing the habits of pets is not easy. It is a drawn-out process that can easily erode human patience.

Though the process may take weeks and sometimes even months, press on with your strategies because, in the end, your parakeet will be healthier for it.

Generally, you’ll have better success with younger parakeets because in that case, you have a better chance of weaning him onto fresh foods including carrots as compared to older parakeets.

Related questions

Can budgies eat raw carrots?

Yes, budgies can eat raw carrots. Carrots are flavorful veggies that are crunchy and sweet. In addition, carrots contain essential vitamins and minerals for budgies.

Can bird eat carrots?

Yes, birds can eat carrots. Carrots are a fresh and rich source of nutrients and they have a texture and taste that will keep most birds coming back for more. Birds will eat carrot tubes as well as carrot tops.

What can parakeets eat?

Parakeets can eat a wide variety of foods including carrots, vegetables, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower, collard, and chard, among others. However, parakeets should never be fed mushrooms, avocado, chocolate, peanuts, salt, beans, and dairy products as these foods are potentially toxic to parakeets.

Can parakeets eat celery?

Yes, parakeets can eat celery. Celery is one of the fresh veggies that can provide some variety and natural nutrients in your parakeet’s diet.

What vegetables can parakeets eat?

Parakeets can eat a variety of vegetables. These include carrots, asparagus, sweet corn, zucchini, broccoli, squash, pumpkin, kale, romaine lettuce, dandelion leaves, spinach, cauliflower, and cabbages among others. Remember to rinse them carefully and hang them – still wet – in your pet parakeet’s enclosure. He will love plucking on these veggies.

Final Thoughts

Carrots are one of those fresh vegetables that are loved the world over – by parakeets and humans alike. For parakeets, carrots provide significant health benefits such as enhancing vision, improving their immunity, preventing calcium deficiency, and adding flavor to your pet parakeet’s diet.

Carrots are also diverse in the ways you can feed them to pet parakeets. Some like it chopped, some like it sliced, and others like it diced. There are many ways to feed this treat. If all else fails with solid carrots, you can try liquid – by making carrot juice. In fact, carrot juice is great for carrots because parakeets can quickly absorb the nutrients into the body – since the fiber is out.

So, the next time you’re thinking of giving your pet parakeet a natural food treat, carrots are way up there in the list of veggies you can consider.

Taniya

94% of pet owners say their animal pal makes them smile more than once a day. In 2007, I realized that I was made for saving Animals. My father is a Vet, and I think every pet deserves one. I started this blog, “InPetCare”, in 2019 with my father to enlighten a wider audience.