That Bird Blog – Bird Care and History for Pet Birds
While looking over some information on Goldenfeast’s Sweet Potatoes Bird Treat it occurred to me just how often I have used these tasty vegetables during my life as a private and professional animal keeper. I would hazard a guess that, with the possible exception of bananas, yams and sweet potatoes have figure in the captive diets of a greater variety of animals than any other food item. Animals ranging from African dwarf mice to African elephants, golden pheasants to ostriches, millipedes to land crabs and iguanas to Galapagos tortoises consume them avidly (at an aquarium in Japan, I was astonished to see Australian lungfish gobbling them up as well!).
It turns out that sweet potatoes are an ideal food item – high in fiber and packed with valuable nutrients. Goldenfeast’s dehydrated sweet potatoes offer a convenient method of providing your birds with their benefits. Although marketed for parrots, I suggest you offer small bits to your finches and softbills as well. If you keep shama thrushes, mynas, Pekin robins or similar birds, you might try soaking the potatoes in water for a few minutes to re-hydrate them.
Resources dealing with the nutrient content of sweet potatoes are listed at: