Yes, cockatiels can eat celery provided it’s cleaned well and switched out for other foods sources to balance their diet out. Celery is not only able to maintain a health respiratory system, upkeep their brain health but is also great for reducing the effects of the more acidic berries out there.

Why Feed Your Cockatiel Celery?

Celery is a nutritious, healthy little snack that won’t negatively a cockatiels stomach due to its almost neutral pH rating of  5.7 – 6. As a result these sticks can even neutralise the affects of the more acidic fruits.

Celery has a moist yet crunchy texture that some cockatiels may even fawn over. Who knows it may even become one of their favourites down the road so adding it into the diet to mix things up is worth trying.

Benefit Of Feeding Cockatiels Celery

Below I’ll go over the many different nutrients found with celery and the benefits these nutrients have on a cockatiels health.

Benefits Of The Vitamins

• Vitamin A – This vitamin is most well know for protecting the light sensitive pigment in the retina of the eye. It’s also beneficial for immune production, cell recognition and cell function.
• Vitamin K – It has benefits with clotting mechanisms and has a protective effect against coccidiosis which will prevent internal and external haemorrhaging as well as blood spot in eggs.
• Vitamin C – This helps with the healing process, maintaining a healthy respiratory system, allows the kidney’s to be in tip top shape and acts as a cancer preventative.
• 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 that included vitamin B9 will be extremely beneficial to it.

Benefits Of The Minerals

• Potassium – It regulates the heartbeat, ensures proper function of the muscles and nerves all of which are vital for protein synthetization and metabolising carbs.
• Magnesium– This mineral ensures that the brain, nerves, digestive and reproductive systems all stay in good health.
• Iron – This mineral is important as it creates hemoglobin and protein within red blood cells that carry oxygen to a cockatiels muscles so they function healthily. Growth and development is the main attribute of iron otherwise with the lack of it many bodily issues like weight loss, anorexia, circulatory failure, may affect your little parrot.
• Sodium (Salt) – Salt in moderation can be a very useful mineral for birds as it helps in conducting nerve impulses, contracting and relaxing muscles whilst also assisting in maintaining the proper balance of water and minerals within a cockatiels body.

Other Benefits

Celery is a low glycemic index vegetable which means it will be useful in keeping the blood sugar of a cockatiel low. Furthermore, celery is extremely high in water content at almost 95% making it both low in calorie and an overall great vegetable for hydration.

Negatives Of Feeding Cockatiels Celery

One side effect of feeding your cockatiel too much celery is the affect it has on their stool. Too much celery could result in their stool becoming a watery mess and in turn would make it a harder job for you when it’s time to clean out their cage.

The other area to look out for would involve the pesticides or other forms of bacteria that would be a problem if not cleaned, particularly on the leaves of the celery sticks. Celery is part of the dirty dozen so it makes sense stronger bacteria is present on its surface.

Therefore, if these green sticks are not cleaned, your cockatiel may suffer from bowel issues among other potentially serious illnesses.

Types Of Celery Cockatiels Can Eat

• Raw Celery – Provided the raw celery is thoroughly cleaned to remove pesticides and other chemicals on its body, you should be find adding it into the diet. Organic celery will have less pesticides on its surface but, even then it’s always advised you clean the celery before as they’re still a part of the dirty dozen.
• Cooked Celery – Cooking celery will diminish some of the nutrients found within it but, it also kills off more of the harmful bacteria present on its surface. Therefore, in some cases cooked celery may be worth giving to you cockatiel over the raw alternative as long as you have the time and patience to cook or steam it.

Types Of Celery You Should Avoid Feeding Cockatiels

The leaves on a celery should be avoided as they’re covered in the most dirt and as a result bacteria and other unhealthy pesticides that are harmful for these rosy cheeked parrots would be on it

On top of this if celery is cooked with garlic, peppers, onions among other acidic seasonings, you should avoid feeding that to cockatiels too as their sensitive stomachs aren’t the greatest at breaking down acidic seasonings.

Other than the above elements that should be avoided, cooked or raw celery that has been cleaned adequately can be eaten by a cockatiel.

How Much Celery Should You Feed Cockatiels?

Cockatiels much like other smaller parrots tend to eat a variety of foods with pelleted seeds making up around 60 – 80% of their diet. Vegetables makes up around 15 – 25% of the diet with fruits accounting for the remainder of 30 – 40 grams of food they consume per day.

This means the amount of celery you can feed your cockatiel should be around 4 – 8 grams a day, which should be spread out throughout the week so food items like spinach or kale can keep the diet balanced. This means cockatiels can consume around 2 – 4 celery sticks in the 2 – 3cm size range.

Overfeeding can become a problem too an cause watery droppings so, as long you don’t overfeed your bird there isn’t really any danger that celery may pose to your bird (unless somehow how your bird is allergic)

Summary

As a food source, celery has a number of positive attributes whether its how low in calorie it is, the multitude of vitamins it has within as well as its ability in reducing the negative effects of the more acidic foods, makes an overall great addition to any cockatiels diet.

That’s why if you can and if your cockatiel genuinely likes the flavour of celery, it’s certainly worth adding into the mix.