I don’t know about you guys, but hormones are running rampant here at my house. The weather has been oddly spring-like lately, with hot weather one minute, and thunderstorms the next. My female cockatoo is acting extremely nest-y, and all the birds are molting to boot. Nothing better then a houseful of crabby, hormonal birds *she said tongue in cheek*.
As soon as these hormones start raging, I start making changes in my birds diets. Diet can be a huge proponent of hormonal behavior. Excessive feeding of mushy, cooked veggies can trick your bird into thinking “Oh she really DOES love me, look she is feeding me!” and cause them to reciprocate their affection (yuck – bird barf). Foods high in estrogen and phyto-estrogren, like soy and yams, can especially help ramp up those female hormones. However, there may be a food that you weren’t aware can affect your birds hormonal behavior – and this ingredient is in almost every seed mix and pellet available. What is it? Wait for it….
Wait for it….
Ready?
Pumpkin seeds. *dramatic gasp* Yes, it is true! Pumpkin seeds can help fuel the ‘love fire’ of your birds libido. Why, and how? Pumpkin seeds are one of the foods that naturally contain an extremely high amount of zinc. (Note that roasting the seeds can deplete some of their zinc levels). According to some quick research I did, pumpkin seeds contain about 10mg (70% of human DV) of zinc per 100g of serving, 59% of DV per cup, and 3mg (19 of DV) per cup 17-20% of recommended daily value of zinc. Zinc is an essential mineral part of any (human or avian) diet, but there is a point at which too much of a good thing can be bad. Bird pellets are zinc fortified, and zinc appears in many other foods, at much lower levels then pumpkin seeds.
Now – what does zinc, and pumpkin seeds have to do with bird behavior? Good question.
Zinc has been shown to increase sex drive in men. Dr. Oz even touts pumpkin seeds as one of the ‘top natural libido boosters’. You know those silly little bottles and pills for sale at the gas station counter that claim to boost and enhance your sex life? Next time you are near a product, sneak a peek at the ingredients, especially the ones that claim to be natural. The top 3 ingredients are (generally) zinc, magnesium, and Vitamin E.
Now – this isn’t just something for the men, but the ladies as well. Yes, ladies, zinc can increase your sex drive as well. I’m not going to go into the details, but let’s just say, that regardless of gender, zinc helps in the bedroom. Or, in this case – the bird room. A long time ago when I was doing some research on hormones, I found out this nugget of info about zinc, pumpkin seeds, and sexual behavior. I seized on it and went on a quest to search for some pumpkin free parrot food. What did I find?
Not much. Well – to be fair, I found a little.
These bird foods do not contain pumpkin seeds: Harrisons Pellets, Zupreem Fruity Blend, TOP, Higgins InTune
These bird seed mixes do contain pumpkin seeds: TOP seed and sprout mixes, various blends of Higgins seed mixes, Sun Seed, Brown’s Seed Mixes…. and more
What I did when experiencing absolutely awful hormones in my home was eliminated any pumpkin seed from the seed mixes, and made sure the pellets I was feeding did not contain pumpkin seed. Additionally I took care not to feed any pumpkin seed in any treat mixes the birds received.
The result? Well, in my opinion, it worked on curbing some hormonal behaviors, especially hormonal aggression in my caiques. On the Caique Forum, I had some people who were also suffering from extreme birdie hormones try the same thing. They reported back that they saw a decrease in hormonal behavior in their birds, and continue to cut out pumpkin seed when that time of the year rolls around.
I’m wrapping up this post with some links to sites for your own research on zinc heavy products and how they can affect libido. Here you go:
- Superfood Profiles: Pumpkin Seeds
- Livestrong: Foods with High Levels of Zinc
- Readers Digest: 6 Essentials
- Dr. Oz’s Ultimate Libido Boosters: zinc
- Fox News: Jump Start your Sex Drive
- Pumpkin Seed Nutrient Chart
* I am not a nutritionist, I have absolutely no training in nutrition or health food. This info was something I found one day while mindlessly doing research, and I filed it away for future testing. If you have any experience with zinc and birdie hormones, I would love for you to share your experience. Do you have any input from a nutritional point of view? I would love to hear that as well!
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2 Comments
I have been doing a lot of reading on the best bird food for parrots lately and have found a number of varying idea from no seeds at all to pellets only to making your own chop. I have been trying to combine a number of these theories so that my Macaws get the best bird food for a healthy and long life. I will continue to “experiment” with their feeding to achieve the best results possible. One thing for sure though; I am going to take all of the pumpkin seeds that I find and give them to my wife!
I started feeding my baby Kiwi pumpkin seeds as a treat, i was the mommy bird u saw sitting in the middle of walmart checking all the bags to see which ones had the most in it! Then i found this WONDERFUL store online and started buying in bulk.. One issue though when i “took” him off the pumpkin seeds other than him being crabby his beak started cracking (after many many many pages on the net between me and one of my friends this is an issue with quaker parrots and pumpkin seeds) and then to my horror it SPLIT! i was flipping out… So trying to not take him to the vet and do home health healing (bad experiences at Vet) i found out Vitamin E oil to the rescue It helped a lot and ofc putting my baby back on his beloved seeds (not doing that again!) It took about 6 months but hes back in tip top shape ripping his seeds to pieces and have a blast! Just be warned if u wean a quaker off pumpkin seeds their beautiful beaks may flake badly and even split. Personally i will deal with the hormons, thats what his favorite blanket and toys are for 🙂