Yes cockatiels can eat broccoli. Not only is it a nutrient rich food that will benefit your cockatiels health in number of ways whether it be maintaining the health of bones, the organs or limiting your cockatiels stress levels but it can also be a nice little snack for them. If overfed cockatiels might get gassy so moderating it to 2 – 3 times a week is recommended. 

Why Feed Broccoli To Your Cockatiel?

It’s nutritious, low in calorie, very neutral according to its 6.3 – 6.8 rating on the pH and it can be a great overall snack for your cockatiel to chow down on.

Obviously, not all cockatiels will take a liking to it but for those that do, it’ll be an excellent addition to the diet for the betterment of their health, provided it’s fed in moderation and in a way to keep their diet balanced.

Benefits Of Feeding Broccoli To Cockatiels

Below I’ll be breaking down the benefits of all the more prominent nutrients within broccoli so you’ll have a better understanding of each element.

Benefits Of The Vitamins

• Vitamin A – It protects the light sensitive pigment in the retina of the eye, upkeeps immune production, cell recognition and cell function.
• Vitamin B6 – This will help with the cockatiels stress level, promotes brain health, is important for hemoglobin production and can prevent issues like hyperexcitability, convulsions, twisted neck and polyneuritis as a result of a B6 deficiency.
• Vitamin D – Other than the sun, broccoli also has elements of vitamin D within it which is great for healthy bone, immune system growth and it can prevent the negative effects of rickets that cockatiels could suffer from.
• Vitamin K – This vitamin is great for bone development and helps with blood clotting, bone metabolism and regulating blood calcium levels within a cockatiel.
• Vitamin E – This vitamin is great for offspring as it enhances the chances of fertility for cockatiels. It’s also great for muscular activity, tissue integrity, immune response and the nervous systems making it an essential vitamin for a cockatiels overall growth.
• Vitamin B12 – This vitamin is important for a birds health as it’s an essential biochemical in metabolic transformations and interactions in the cell. Although a B12 deficiency isn’t a common thing, the lack of it can still cause issues like dystrophy in the legs, poor hatching rates and high mortality rates in young birds.
• Vitamin B9 (Folate) – Folate is helpful in the production of healthy blood and tissue growth. It’s also a fundamental compound for a healthy pregnancy so, if your cockatiel is in the process of giving birth, feeding it food sources with folate is recommended.

Benefits Of The Minerals

• Calcium – This helps maintain a normal heart rhythm and assists the nerves in the nervous system to communicate with each other. They’re also important for birds that are breeding as it will help with the production of eggshells and for chicks who are having skeletal issues.
• Potassium – It promotes healthy blood pressure and helps with water retention, which in turn can prevent major health issues like a stroke.
• Iron – This is important for maintaining the hemoglobin production which is carried by oxygen to a cockatiels body parts. too much or too little can cause either anemia or iron storage disease.
• Phosphorous – Birds tend to have lower phosphorus content due to their high seed diet so, by having broccoli cockatiels can minimise the negative from a deficiency. The common issues that can occur include an issue with calcium absorption which may cause kidney stone issues.
• Other minerals included within broccoli are Riboflavin, Thiamin, Niacin and Zincl

Other Benefits

There are a few extra qualities that broccoli provide which are great for a cockatiels health, which include:

• Fiber – This Is  great for your birds gut health.
• 90% Water – This high water concentration means the caloric density of broccolis will be minimal and it can also act as an extra way to hydrate your cockatiel.
• Sulphoraphane – This has been observed to reduce blood sugar which will limit the potential of diabetes forming, stopping cancer cells from forming and can even slow down or prevent the effects of osteoarthritis.

Negatives Of Feeding Cockatiels Broccoli

Eating too much broccoli may make your cockatiel gassy whilst it also does have oxalic acid within it much like spinach and kale so, there’s also the possibility it could cause the formation of kidney stones.

However, that is a less likely situation as the oxalic acid isn’t enough to be deadly as long as you don’t overfeed broccoli to cockatiels.

Types Of Broccoli Cockatiels Can Eat

• Raw Broccoli – As long as the raw organic or normal broccoli is rinsed to rid itself of pesticides and a good portion of the other bacteria, you should be good to feed it to your cockatiel, provided the food is cut down into smaller more manageable sizes.
• Cooked/Steamed Broccoli – When feeding cooked or steamed broccoli you should avoid seasoning it as cockatiels (along with other smaller parrots) aren’t the best at handling or breaking down salt, garlic, peppers among other forms of seasoning.
• Dried Broccoli – Feeding cockatiels dried broccoli is also a great alternative broccoli type although do check to see if its been seasoned for the same reasons as mentioned above.

Types Of Broccoli That Cockatiels Shouldn’t Eat

Only plain, cleaned and unseasoned broccoli should be fed to cockatiels as adding extra stuff to it like garlic, salt, peppers etc. won’t easily be digested.

Adding oil and even sugar should be avoided due to the extra calories they will add on top but, other than that most broccoli based dishes should be edible and not cause very many issues for these little parrots.

How Much Broccoli Can You Feed Cockatiels?

Cockatiels tend to eat between 30 – 40 grams of food a day with 60 – 80% being made up of pelleted seeds, around 15 – 25% as vegetables and between 5 – 15% as fruits.

If we break down the numbers here, your average cockatiel should be able to eat around 4 – 10 grams of broccoli fed in moderation roughly 2 – 3 times a week. This is around a small stalk of broccoli per day.

As long as you mix it up with other fruits and vegetables (like kale, celery or spinach) throughout the week, adding broccoli to the diet wouldn’t be a bad thing at all.

Summary

As long as you mix it up with other fruits and vegetables throughout the week, broccoli will be an excellent addition to your average cockatiels diet, which is mostly down to its fair share of positive health benefits.

Therefore, if your cockatiel has previously attempted to grab one of your and as a whole is open to consuming broccoli, it’ll be a solid vegetable to rotate in out of their diet.