Yes, parakeets can eat broccoli but, you should only feed them around 2 – 5 grams, 2 – 3 times a week with the other days acting as a way to balance out the diet with other fruits and vegetables. Broccoli has a multitude of health benefits where it promotes brain health, promotes bone development, and is great for fertility purposes too.

For a more detailed breakdown of the benefits broccoli can have on a parakeets health, continue reading through this post.

Why Feed Your Parakeet Broccoli?.

If you want to add more balance to your parakeets diet, adding a few pieces of broccoli would be worth doing, not only to mix it up from its fairly plain pelleted seed diet but also due to how nutritious it is.

It’s fairly neutral on the pH scale being 6.3 – 6.85 so, it should be quite a comfortable eat for them, not causing too many issues for the stomach although, that doesn’t mean that its perfectly safe as too much of even a good thing can be potentially detrimental too.

The Benefits Of Feeding Parakeets Broccoli

As mentioned multiple times previously, broccoli has a variety of nutrients within it that will be beneficial for your parakeets health and in this section I’ll be breaking down the benefits of the more prominent nutrients within it.

The 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 parakeets 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 the health of a parakeets bones, immune system growth and it can even prevent rickets from forming.
• Vitamin K – This vitamin is great for bone development and helps with blood clotting, bone metabolism and regulating blood calcium levels within a parakeet.
• Vitamin E – This vitamin is great for offspring as it enhances the chances of fertility for birds. It’s also great for muscular activity, tissue integrity, immune response and the nervous systems making it an essential vitamin for a parakeets 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 parakeet is in the process of giving birth, feeding it food sources with folate is recommended.

The 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 within a parakeet which is carried by oxygen. 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, parakeets can minimise the negative effects from a deficiency. The common issues that can occur include an issue with calcium absorption which may cause issues with kidney stones forming.
• Other minerals includes Riboflavin, Thiamin, Niacin and Zinc

Other Benefits

Broccoli is high in fiber which is great for gut health, low in calorie due to its high water content of around 90% water.

The sulforaphane within broccoli is also great for reducing diabetes as its is observed to reduce blood sugar, and can even help in stopping cancer cells from forming and can even slow downs or can even prevent the effects of osteoarthritis.

The Negatives Of Feeding Broccoli To Parakeets

If you feed too much broccoli to your parakeet, it can cause a bowel issues as this vegetable is known to make people gassy, which would be a bit worse for parakeets due to their sensitive stomachs.

Furthermore, due to oxalic acid content within broccoli, it could also potentially result in kidney stones to form as this acid affects the way calcium is absorbed.

Types Of Broccoli You Can Feed Parakeets

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

Types Of Broccoli You Shouldn’t Feed Parakeets

Most broccoli based dishes can be eaten by your parakeet but, it’s best that you only feed them cleaned and plain chunks of this vegetable as seasonings aren’t easily broken down by these parrot’s stomach as mentioned above.

As long as you do this and feed them broccoli in moderation, your parakeet shouldn’t really suffer any major damages whilst at the same time enjoying this unqiue vegetable.

How Much Broccoli Can You Feed Parakeets?

Feeding your parakeet broccoli 2 – 3 times a week should be fine as long you only feed them the required amount which is generally 15 – 25% of their diet.

Parakeets tend to eat around 15 – 20 grams of food per day so that would be around 2 – 5 grams of broccoli a day. you should ideally interchange how often you feed it with other vegetables like celery or kale so you can balance out the diet.

Summary

As long as you don’t overfeed your parakeet too and mix it up with other fruits and vegetables so their diet remains balanced broccoli will be a good feed for these little parrots.

Therefore, if you want to add broccoli to your parakeets diet, you can do so but make sure you don’t give them too much as it can make parakeets gassy and the oxalic acid could be an issue too although the chances of it actually forming kidney stones isn’t very likely.

References

https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/health-benefits-broccoli