reminder: All articles and posts on my website are written by me and from my own perspective (Sophie The Pigeon) and often I'm typing it aimed at other birds 😉

Pigeon & Bird Articles – Toxic and bad Foods (& drinks)

There are a lot of foods (and drinks) which are toxic or bad for us pigeons and many other birds. Due to this it is also (nearly) impossible to list them all on this page. Therefor I’ve decided to list the most common ones and to mention those which cover a ‘wider product base’ at once.

General Advice
Despite something not being listed on this page, you humans should not just assume it is safe to give to us birds. In general it is recommended to only give us birds foods which are actually intended for birds. However in some cases even foods which might seem to be safe for us birds, can still be very toxic or bad for us (like apple seeds for example).

Disclaimer
Most of the information on this page can be backed up by either scientific data or by lots of other ‘external confirmed sources’, but there are also topics mentioned here which do seem to ‘spark a debate’ here and there. Me and my pet humans however try to ‘play it safe’ as much as possible, and therefor we basically just say: If it seems like there is a risk (or the opinions about it are something like 50/50), then we will just recommend to avoid that risk altogether.

Recommended Food(s) can (and will) vary per bird species
It is also very important to keep in mind that the recommended food (types) can and will vary between different bird species. Certain foods might for example be required for parrots but might not be suitable (at all) for us pigeons. Therefor it is important to always research your particular bird species and their food (requirements) before getting a pet bird.

Toxic Drinks

In general you should only give your pigeon(s) water to drink. Unless otherwise recommended by an (avian) veterinarian, you should not just give your pigeon(s) any other (flavored) drink. Please do not think that it’s “cute” to give your pigeon(s) something like coffee, energy drink, yogurt drink, soda’s like cola etc. It really is not cute and even quite dumb to be very honest and blunt. Lots of these drinks contain substances which are bad or even toxic to us pigeons. It is not ‘sad’ either if we pigeons ‘only’ drink water, that is what we are used to and ‘made for’ in and by nature.

So please: only give your pigeons fresh water and do this at least once per day, but preferably twice a day or more often when the water gets dirty. And do not offer us pigeons (or any other bird for that matter) any other human beverages. Of course you can ‘divert’ from this advice if your (avian) veterinarian recommend you to give your pigeon(s) something else for treating certain conditions or so.

There is however a small exception to this rule/advice, and that is for certain tea’s. You can actually safely give us pigeons certain tea’s as drink (if prepared properly and when you have bought the correct tea). You can find more about tea’s on my Safe Human Foods & Drinks page.

Toxic and Bad Foods

This list is a general list of (both animal and human) foods which are bad, toxic or even deadly for us pigeons (and many other bird species). It is (obviously) impossible to make this list ‘all inclusive’, but it can definitely be used as ‘general guidelines’ for avoiding bad or toxic foods for your pigeon(s) 🙂

Short List (of toxic and bad foods)

This short list is intended for if you just quickly needed to look up if a certain product/food is on our ‘toxic foods list’ or not.
NOTE: That it isn’t on our Toxic Foods List’ is however not an guarantee that it is actually safe to give to your pigeon(s) or other birds.

– Apple Apple, pear, plum, peach, cherry, nectarines, apricot and mango’s Seeds & Pits
– Avocado
– Courgette/Zucchini
– Cassava, Tapioca, Maniok, Yucca, Cassava Root etc
– Tomato leaves, stems and vines
– Salt (and any human (food) product which contains salt!)
– Sugar (raw sugar and foods containing added sugars)
– Fat (both from human foods AND from certain bird seeds & nuts)
– Alcohol (any and all types of alcohol)
– Chocolate , cacao & cacao beans
– Coffee, Caffeine & Caffeinated products
– Moldy/Old seeds and foods
– Dried Beans, raw beans/dry beans
– Artificial sweetener / Xylitol
– (Raw) Meat
– Anything with artificial flavors or artificial food coloring
– (Honey) Treat Sticks (Controversial, please read bellow for more information!)
– Onions & Garlic (Please read the extended part bellow for more information!)
– Mushrooms (Please read the extended part bellow for more information!)
– Dairy/Lactose and cheese (Please read the extended part bellow for more information!)
– Complete Human dishes, meals and pizza’s etc (Please read this sad story bellow!)

Extended List (of toxic and bad foods)

This extended list is the same list as above but with more information about the reasons why these products/items are listed as toxic for birds.

Apple Seeds (and pear, cherry, plum seeds etc)

The seeds of apples, pears, plums, peaches, cherries, nectarines, apricots and mango’s contain contain varying amounts of cyanide and/or a cyanide compound. For you humans it would take many many (apple) seeds for the poison to have effect on you, but for us birds even a few seeds can be enough to cause very serious issues. How many seeds this would take varies per bird and also depends on it’s size and weight. What is a given fact though, is that these seeds are all bad for us birds and can cause death. Make sure to remove the ‘core’ and/or pits of such fruits before giving them to your birds.

Avocado

There is quite some ‘debate’ on what parts of the avocado is toxic to us birds, and what the levels of toxicity actually are, but in general most sources say that the leaves, pit and skin of the avocado are toxic to us birds. It is known to cause cardiac (heart) failure, difficulties breathing and even death in birds. The most difficult part about avocado’s and their toxicity for birds is that it can vary per avocado type and even per bird species (according to several sources). Therefor me and my pet humans would like to recommend to once again just go for the ‘Better safe than sorry approach‘, by just not giving your birds any avocado or avocado containing products at all (for example guacamole).

Courgette/Zucchini

Zucchini is not really toxic, but not completely safe either. There are some things you’ll need to know about zucchini and the possible issues with them containing cucurbitacin. More information can be found on this website. But a quote from this page for example is:

“The cucurbitacin is usually found in zucchini in the stem, leaves and roots, sometimes it can extend to the fruit but its concentration depends on a zucchini to another, so you can not say that all zucchini are toxic foods.“

Zucchini might also have some benefits to us birds according to this website, but for me personally it has been put on the ‘no-go’/toxic list by my pet humans, just to ‘play on the safe side of the field’. There are plenty of other alternatives to zucchini for me to snack on, so my pet humans just decided not to take any possible risks. If you are actually considering giving your pigeon(s) zucchini, then we would highly recommend you to do (a lot) more research on this topic on (multiple) external websites.

Cassava, Tapioca, Maniok, Yucca, Cassava Root etc

These should all be avoided, although it is not commonly used in most households, and it will even (in most cases) take quite a lot to harm a bird seriously, it is best to just avoid it altogether to be honest. Cassava also contains (small) amounts of cyanide inducing compounds, and thus could pose a serious risk for us birds in some situations. Just don’t give us pigeons cassava or cassava related products and you should be just fine. This one is mainly a “better safe than sorry” one.

Tomato Leaves, stems and vines

The tomato itself isn’t too much of a problem to give to your pigeon(s) (or most other birds), however, the stem, vines and leaves are highly toxic to them. If you give your pigeon(s) tomato it is very important that you remove all the stems and leaves, and that you wash the tomato thoroughly.

Do however keep in mind that tomato’s aren’t the best option in regards to fruits to give to your pigeon(s) due to their high acidic values. There are many other fruits and vegetables which are far better to give to you pigeons, but a sliced piece of tomato to peck from won’t hurt your pigeon, and it might actually really like it every now and then.

Salt

Just like eating too much salt isn’t good for you humans, it also isn’t good for us birds. Even a small amount of salt from for example fries, a salty cracker, salted popcorn or anything alike can potentially be toxic and/or dangerous to us birds. When we birds are exposed to too much salt we can get excessive thirst (and dehydration), organ failure and it can even cause death. Therefor it is highly recommended not to give your pigeon(s) human snacks or foods which contain salts.

Sugar

Just like humans, birds can also get diabetes and other ‘sugar related health problems’, and many bird species can’t even digest raw sugar. When we pigeons (and other birds) are given too much sugar, we can get all kinds of issue like (but not limited to): Diabetes, cardiac damage, cancer, obesity, stress/anxiety, depression, hyperactivity and many other (behavioral) problems. Of course the occasional natural sugars (like in banana’s for example) isn’t too much of a problem for your pigeon(s), but don’t overdo this either.

Fat

Everyone knows that consuming too much fat is bad for humans, but the same also goes for pigeons (and other birds). But did you knew that (just like humans) we birds can also get (a lot of) the same conditions as humans resulting from consuming too much fats? We can get obese from it, we can get a (dangerously) high cholesterol, we can get ‘clogged up arteries’ from it (due to the cholesterol), we can get heart conditions from it and we can even get strokes from consuming too much fats 😱.

So it is best not to give your pigeon(s) any fatty snacks intended for human consumption. But even snacks which are actually ‘intended’ or sold for birds can be too rich in fats if given excessively. Nuts and seeds like almond, walnut, peanuts, sunflower seeds and safflower seeds for example (just to name a few) are very high in fats, and can most definitely cause serious health issues if given too much to your pigeons (or other type of birds).

It is much much better to encourage your pigeon(s) to be a ‘turbo flying machine’ than that it turns into a ‘snack gobbler’.

An (overly) ‘fat and fluffy’ pigeon might look cute to some, but it actually isn’t cute at all. If you see a pigeon like this (and it is not shaped/sized like that due to it’s breed), then it most likely is having serious health issues (or will be having them rather sooner than later). An healthy (non obese) pigeon has a much happier life than an overfed obese pigeon, and will often also live (much) longer.

Alcohol

Should this even be necessary to be listed here? In my personal (and my pet human’s) opinion anyone in their right mind would never offer alcohol or alcoholic drinks to their birds. You should not even consider giving it to us birds, but unfortunately every now and then there will pop-up a video where humans gave their pet(s) alcoholic drinks “for fun“. Luckily these often get taken down rather quickly, but despite the fact that the video will (or has been) taken down: The “crime” has already been committed. Please do not ever consider giving your pigeons (or other birds) alcohol. Alcohol can be fatal to us birds and is very bad for our organs.

Prevent Accidental Alcohol Consumption
Even if you are not intentionally giving your pigeon(s) alcohol, there is still a slight risk that your pigeon (or other birds for that matter) might accidentally consume it when they are taking a sip from a glass of alcohol you’ve left unattended on a table for example. Always keep a close eye on your bird(s) and your drinks when your birds are flying around your home freely. This however does not only goes for alcoholic drinks, but obviously for all human drinks which are put on a table openly (within reach of your bird(s)).

Chocolate , cacao & cacao beans

Chocolate is highly toxic for birds due to it containing the alkaloid theobromine. Even a small amount of chocolate can already be deadly for your bird(s). When birds eat chocolate it can cause all kinds of problems including but not limited to: seizures, (extreme) vomiting, increased heart rate (cardiac issues), organ failure, diarrhea and more. All of these problems can easily be lethal to us birds. Simply put: we pigeons (and other birds) should not (be allowed to) consume ANY chocolate at all!

This also goes for any product which contains even the slightest bit of chocolate, cacao or coffee: You should never give it to your pigeon(s) or any other bird, ever.

PLEASE do not think something along the lines of: “Ahh well, one nibble can’t hurt him/her“, because it can and it will! Even the smallest amount like 1-2 grams can be fatal to us birds. If your bird has accidentally ingested chocolate (even if it was ‘just’ a nibble), then please contact your (avian) veterinarian instantly to be ahead of any possible complications.

Coffee, Caffeine & Caffeinated products

Caffeine is an chemical belonging to the class alkaloids, and is found in beverages like coffee, (some) tea, cola and for example in foods like chocolate. Just like theobromine (found in chocolate), caffeine is also highly toxic to birds. It can (and will) cause problems like an (extremely) high heart rate (medically called Tachycardia), it can cause seizures, kidney issues, respiration issues and several other serious complications which will result in death.

Please do note that there is no ‘potion’, medicine or ‘antidote’ for caffeine poisoning or so in birds! IF the poisoning isn’t too severe, all an (avian) veterinarian can do is trying to treat the symptoms to lower the severity and discomfort for the bird, hoping it will survive the whole ordeal.

Yes, me and my pet humans do realize that these descriptions sound quite scary, confronting and maybe even a bit ‘extreme’ to some. But we really hope that it will help in keeping pigeons and other birds safe due to their humans being aware of these risks and thus not exposing their birds to these chemicals, drinks and/or foods containing caffeine.

Moldy/Old seeds and foods

I can be very short and simple about this one: Would you eat moldy or old foods? No, I don’t think so 😉 and neither would we pigeons like to eat that old (or even moldy) stuff. So please don’t feed us your old moldy foods, and if your “seed supply” (suddenly) starts to look “strangely pale”, or it looks like it’s getting ‘off color’ so to speak, then please just throw it out and replace the (entire) supply. Chances are that the seeds are (or have been) going bad and moldy, and (obviously) moldy seeds can cause all kinds of health issues for us pigeons (and other birds).

Dried Beans, raw beans/dry beans

Lots of parrot websites report that lots of their parrots love cooked beans. However, a lot of uncooked, raw or dried beans can contain a poison called hemagglutinin and/or phasin which is very toxic to us birds.

There are some beans of which on some sites is claimed that they are safe (or they say that they “appear to be alright“) like mung beans, but personally me and my pet humans would like to recommend to just stay away from any beans to avoid any potential (and unnecessary) risk.

Artificial sweetener / Xylitol

Xylitol is an artificial sweetener which is often found in sugarless products like chewing-gum, diet foods and diet drinks. This sweetener is known to cause hypoglycemia (low blood glucose levels), liver damages and possibly even death in animals like dogs, cats and other animals. There is however not much scientific evidence that this artificial sweetener also causes the same problems for birds, but considering that the metabolism of birds is much faster than the metabolism of many other species/animals, it is highly likely that we birds are also affected negatively by this artificial sweetener. Therefor me, my pet humans and many other bird websites highly recommend not giving us pigeons (or other birds) any products containing this artificial sweetener at all.

(Raw) Meat

We pigeons are officially herbivores and we mostly rely on seeds, grains and more of the alike, but occasionally you might see one of us eat from a piece meat ‘lingering around on the streets’. This is because those feral pigeons actually have to scavenge for food and thus rely on what they can find throughout the day. We can eat some meat(s), but it is not recommend to actually give us pigeons meat on purpose. Raw meat is definitely a no-go if you would ask me or my pet humans, but for most parts (if not all) we would also say the same about cooked meats.

Simply because our digestive system is not made for digesting meats and such, and eating (too much) meat could cause serious health issues for us pigeons. Even if you do cook your meat, many other additional factors can make eating the meat problematic for us pigeons, this for example depends on what kind of oils, fats or butters you have used to bake the meat in, what kind of spices you have used and more of the alike.

There are some websites which claim that eating a bit of cooked chicken every now and then could be beneficial to us pigeons due to the protein levels, but we would however like to recommend to not feed your pigeon(s) any meat at all (either raw or cooked), and this also includes cooked chicken.

Not only because (like said before) the cooking process and spices could have rendered the meat ‘useless’ or even harmful to us pigeons, but also because it’s not part of our normal and natural diet. And due to the simple fact that there are so many other things which you can give your pet pigeon(s) in your controlled and safe environment at home, your (pet) pigeons don’t need to scavenge for food, so it’s best to just give them the balanced diet they need with the occasional ‘special treat’ (which isn’t meat).

Meat is not a natural or necessary part of our diet, and that my feral friends do consider it to be edible, doesn’t mean you should also give it to your (safely living indoors) pet pigeons 😉.

Anything with artificial flavors or artificial food coloring

You should avoid giving your pigeons anything which contains artificial flavors or artificial food coloring. What the negative effects are for us pigeons obviously depends on the type of artificial flavor, coloring, chemicals etc etc. But what we can (hopefully) agree on, is that these products (or ‘food additives’) are not intended for us pigeons (or any other bird for that matter). Lots of these ‘additives’ are already bad for you humans, so just don’t give them to us birds either.

There are plenty of products out there which are ‘all natural’ and safe to consume for us pigeons, so please just stick to those products instead.

(Honey) Treat Sticks

I’m guessing that we all know those ‘Treat Sticks’ you can hang inside the cage of your birds right? Those (often wooden) sticks which are covered in seeds? Well the ‘glue’ used in those ‘treat sticks’ is often honey and/or sugars. My pet humans personally feel like the amount of honey and possibly sugar in those sticks are not healthy for me (and thus other pigeons and or birds). Lots of other bird (mainly parrot) websites agree with my pet humans, but there are also many websites which claim it isn’t bad for us birds. So this topic is a bit controversial/debatable and it depends on whom you would ask.

Personally we would say: ‘Treat Sticks’ are on the ‘Bad Foods List’, and thus we would recommend not giving them to your pigeon(s) and instead choose better and healthier alternatives.

You could however of course do your own research and make your own ‘judgement call’ on these ‘treat sticks’, we personally just stay away from them.

Onions & Garlic

Onions are 100% a no-go for pigeons and/or other birds! Onions contains sulfurs which can (and will) irritate the inside of our beaks, esophagus and crop. Onions can or will cause ulcers and can even cause anemia! Therefor it is a big no-go to give us pigeons (or other birds) unions or anything containing unions/union flavor. Just play it safe and follow my general rule: “Better safe than sorry“.

Garlic
Garlic on the other hand has quite some discussion online, for most birds it’s said that it is a definitive ‘no-go’, but on many pigeon (often racing) forum’s you’ll find lots of conversations and information that it works as a ‘mild antibiotic’ and that it contributes to “building good immunity” for pigeons. HOWEVER, you should never give your pigeons raw (or cooked) garlic to eat/chew on directly, as this can (read: will) be bad for them and can even hurt them.

There are all kinds of ‘tips’ and discussion on how it should be added to the drinking water by letting garlic soak in it for a while etc, and more information about this can be read, analyzed and judged by yourself here on this forum for example.

Our personal advise would however be: Just don’t use garlic at all for your pet pigeon(s)! If you would give your pigeon garlic (in it’s drinking water), and you would accidentally do this incorrectly, then it could be doing more bad than good so to speak. So only do this if you are absolutely certain what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how you should be doing it. For all other pet pigeon keepers we would yet again strongly urge not to give your pigeons garlic in any way to prevent any possible issues.

The reason why we have posted the ‘positive effects’ of garlic to pigeons (according to many racing pigeon forums that is!), is that this information easily pops up when googling combinations like “garlic and pigeons”, while for many other birds you’ll instantly get the ‘Garlic is toxic to birds‘ warning. Even Pet Poison Hotline .com for example states that garlic is 5 times more toxic than onions for animals like dogs, cats, cattle, horses, birds, reptiles, sheep and goats!

Our recommendation

Our recommendation would be (yes, yet again) not to give your pet pigeon(s) any garlic at all. And if you do need antibiotics or anything alike because there is something wrong with your pigeon(s), then (in our personal opinion) you should just visit a vet with your pigeon(s), instead of trying to ‘play DIY home doctor‘

Mushrooms

There are some websites and sources which claim that all mushroom types are (highly) toxic to (all) birds, this is however not true. According to a lot of research me and my pet humans have done, it seems that mushrooms which are generally safe to consume for humans should also be safe to consume for birds.

However there isn’t much actual scientific data available on this topic, but we can confirm that the general claim which is often seen: “All mushrooms are toxic to birds” simply isn’t true and isn’t as simple as that.

We can write (yet another) long post, article or whatever on this topic (while there are already plenty of articles and forum discussions about this which you can easily google), but we actually won’t. In general pigeons (because that is what my website is mainly about) and other birds don’t seem to be eating mushrooms in the wild, and it definitely isn’t a regular/standard part of their (natural) diet.

Therefor me and my pet humans would like to recommend to not feeding your pigeon(s) or any other bird any mushrooms at all. Even if the ones that are safe for human consumption are actually also safe to eat for us pigeons, why would you even give it to us pigeons if it isn’t part of our normal diet? Just to try it ‘for fun’? Or so that your pigeon(s) can ‘eat along’ with what you are eating? That is not necessary, and often not even healthy for us pigeons. It’s fine if you want to ‘eat together’ with your pigeon(s), but just give us pigeons our own (appropriate) food(s) while you consume your human food 😊.

There are plenty of other (a lot less controversial/debatable) vegetables, fruits or (human) snacks which you can actually safely ‘share’ with your pigeon(s), just go with those and stay away from ‘experimenting’ with stuff which we usually won’t eat anyways (yes this can be said about many other things also which are actually listed as ‘safe for pigeons’ on my website, but I’m guessing that you get my point on the mushroom topic).

Dairy/Lactose and cheese

Technically not really an ‘toxic food’ or substance, but many studies have shown that (all) birds are basically lactose intolerant (they can’t digest lactose). Lactose is found in milk and often in many dairy products. However, not all dairy products contain lactose or just have a very little amount of lactose in them. Hard, aged cheeses, parmesan and chedder cheeses are for example lower in lactose, same goes for feta cheese made from goat or sheep milk.

If pigeons and other birds are fed dairy and/or too much lactose we can develop diarrhea, which is obviously not good for us.

So if you want to give your pigeon(s) a small ‘treat’ of something like cheese, then please make sure that it is just a few nibbles (as in very small amounts) and very occasionally (more towards rarely even).

I could pretend “being a saint” here, but that would be just lying to you guys and gals, by saying: “Never feed your pigeons any cheese at all!“. Because I myself (Sophie The Pigeon) are actually very curious and ‘demanding’ when my pet humans eat cheese, and then I almost ‘scream bloody murder‘ to get some cheese on my claws.

VERY rarely they will give me two to three nibbles/pecks at a small piece of cheese, and that’s it. No it definitely isn’t recommend to be honest, but lots of pet bird keepers are ‘guilty’ at giving their birds something which they should actually not eat, and seeing what lots of other people give to their birds, a few nibbles of cheese isn’t so bad after all then 😉. For me personally it has never given me any problems at all (aside from the fact that I get a bit mad when they take it away after just a few nibbles 😝).

But keywords here are: A few nibbles, and very rarely! Do not overdo this, because then it will cause problems for your pigeon(s)!

Despite the fact that the few nibbles of cheese I sometimes get don’t ‘hurt’ me, my/our “official advice” would still be: Do not give pigeons any cheese, dairy or lactose products at all, just to be on the safe side.

Complete Human dishes, meals and pizza’s etc (Sad story warning!)

I have to admit that I personally think it’s totally bonkers that I would even have to write this part, but unfortunately me and my pet humans see a lot of photo’s and video’s on social media like Twitter, Instagram and YouTube where humans actually let their birds like parakeets, cockatoos, pigeons, doves and other birds eat things like: Pasta (including the sauce, spices etc), pizza’s, fried food and many many other ‘full fledged human meals’ including all kinds of meats, herbs/spices and sauces right of their plates.

This is just a NO GO! It even upsets me and my pet humans a bit to be honest! There was even one (very sad) story about a pet dove which you could literally see unfolding in total disaster while scrolling through their Instagram page (from bottom to top) until the last ‘sobbing post’ which was about their pet dove “unexpectedly” passing away.

In this particular story you could see multiple photo’s and videos (called Reels on Instagram) where the (white) dove had just ‘jumped into’ sauce which her humans where preparing, and several instances where the dove ‘fell into’ (another) sauce while eating from it etc. At one specific post they even posted a photo of a heavily discolored dove (from the sauce on her feathers) which read a caption along the lines of:

“We could not get more of the sauce out of her feathers with bathing, so she’ll have to preen it out herself over time“.

I wish I was kidding, but this was really the ‘story’/caption posted at that particular photo 😱.

And while more photo’s and video’s kept popping up (while scrolling to the top of the Instagram page) about that particular dove eating along with them, and also showing that the dove was taking sips out of their drinking glasses (containing all kinds of different beverages), they also had a few posts in between every now and then about that the dove was ‘feeling a bit sick‘ lately, and that ‘she had diarrhea‘ a few times (Oh really? I wonder why! 🤦🏾‍♀️).

And the worst part was that it where not just ‘innocent meals’, it was all kinds of foods, meats, sauces, spices, oils, fats, salts and more of the alike. The poor dove didn’t got older than 2 to 3 years maximum (can’t remember her exact ‘final age’ sorry). Well I guess that for most people with even just a little bit of bird knowledge it is already very clear why and how this poor dove has come to her end 😢.

Luckily this account has been taken down since (due to many complaints also by others in the ‘bird community’ on Instagram), but this poor dove is not an exception unfortunately. And when people like that post such ‘content’ it has a fairly high probability that others will be trying or doing the same to and with their birds 😒.

The reason why I decided to take this opportunity to write about this dove here?
Simply because I wanted to make my point before even stating it: Human dishes, completely prepared pasta’s, takeout foods, fast food, pizza’s and more of the alike ARE NOT BIRD FOODS! Please be a responsible and caring ‘bird parent’ and just do not feed your birds anything like that.

Even if you have a very curious bird (like I am myself), which does want so see what it’s human is eating, and even tries to ‘ask/beg’ for a piece to try (which I also do myself), then you humans could also ‘fool’ your birds by keeping a bird safe snack/treat at hand (for example one of it’s favorite seeds), and then giving those instead (in moderation of course). Obviously I’m not taking about ‘human foods and snacks’ which are actually safe to eat for us birds, but about all the other stuff which you aren’t supposed to give to us birds.

I suspect (and hope) that this last section of this page doesn’t apply to most readers 😊, but at the same time I also hope that this part of the article does reach those whom do actually (still) do this with and to their birds. And thus hoping it will inspire them to stop doing these kinds of unhealthy things to their bird(s).

And yes, just like I honestly admitted in the previous part (about me getting a few cheese nibbles very occasionally), there most likely will be some ‘cheating’ on giving your pigeon ‘unhealthy’ snacks or a ‘small bite’ from time to time, but please do make sure that when you do this that it is with something which has minimal to no (health) risks for your pigeon(s). And not with some dish or meal which could potentially contain many different “risky” (or even ‘unknown’) ingredients, fats, salts and more of the alike.