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DAIRY & BIRDS
- By DeAnn Waggoner, Executive Director, Wings
of Love Bird Haven
Cheese and dairy products should never be given to pet
birds! Contrary to much
misinformation regarding the safety of dairy ingestion,
the avian digestive tract is
incapable of digesting the lactose contained in most dairy
products, thereby causing
severe allergic reactions, obstructive disease, or even
death.
From a common sense approach, avian species are not nursing
animals. They
develop from an egg with the yolk as their sole food source
until they hatch. After
hatching, the chick is fed food that the hen first ingests
and then regurgitates the
contents from her crop into the crop of the baby chick.
There is no mammary tissue
involved, as in mammals. Because of this, birds never
evolved to produce lactase,
the enzyme necessary to help digest lactose. Essentially,
birds are highly "lactose"
intolerant" species.
Why does my Bird like cheese?
Is everything that tastes good always safe? Of course
not! Dogs and cats will eat
antifreeze because it tastes sweet, but it kills many
of them each year. Chocolate
also causes many animals to visit emergency rooms. There
are many products that
taste good but aren't good for us. We must act as the
"safety" guardian for our pets.
Why didn't my bird get sick when I fed him cheese?
It depends on how much he ate, the type of cheese (and
lactose concentration),
the frequency and what other components are contained
in the cheese that might
worsen the effects. It is sort of like alcohol ingestion
in people; a little will cause no
visible effect, a little more will make you sleepy or
drunk, and a lot can actually
cause alcohol poisoning or death.
How does cheese and lactose affect my bird?
Since the bird can't break down lactose, the bird's gastrointestinal
tract initiates an
allergic or inflammatory reaction to the product. This
can lead to mild inflammation
with no clinical signs, mild symptoms like diarrhea in
moderate cases (laxative effect)
or total blockage/enterotoxemia in severe cases. Mild
symptoms are often missed or
incorrectly diagnosed as just "oh, that is normal
for this particular bird". As the
frequency or quantity of ingeston increases, the inflammatory
process can lead to
secondary bacterial/fungal infections, decreased postrointestinal
motility or complete
functional/foreign body obstruction, toxemia and death.
What types of cheese have caused the most serious
problems?
Mozzarella cheese is by far the worse offending cheese
and the number one
recovered surgically from birds during surgery. It is
found in pizza, lasagna, and
under other names such as "string-cheese." Because
of the high gum content in
mozzarella, this cheese has a very high risk of becoming
obstructed in the intestinal
tract and death within 48-72 hours.
Jack cheese and other soft "white" cheeses often
cause proventriculitis (gastritis)
with secondary bacterial/fungal infections. The prognosis
is solely dependent on
whether surgical intervention (clean-out) and medical
therapy can control the
inflammatory process and secondary toxemia that ensues.
Cottage Cheese/Feta Cheese has also caused this syndrome.
One case noted was a
bird with a history of diarrhea for several months and
repeated treatments for
bacterial enteritis. The bird eventually became lethargic,
anorectic and unresponsive
to antibiotics. Radiographs demonstrated an enlarged proventriculus
with an
obstructive process extending from the mid-proventriculus
to the duodenum and a
transit time of over 20 hours (normal 3-6 hours). In spite
of surgical removal and
intensive medical therapy this patient succumbed to toxemia.
In Conclusion... DO NOT FEED
YOUR BIRD DAIRY PRODUCTS OF ANY KIND!
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