Most parrots love the taste of grapes. Parrots have a more developed palate than many birds, ensuring they can taste sweetness as much as sourness and bitterness.
If parrots encounter grapes in the wild, they’ll pluck the fruits straight from the tree or vine that hosts them. Regardless of whether your parrot is familiar with the taste of grapes, it’ll welcome this fruit.
If you introduce grapes into a parrot’s diet, feed them sparingly. As grapes contain so much sugar, your parrot will gain weight if it eats too many, leading to joint and organ problems. A parrot may reject other, more nutritionally balanced foods if it thinks it’ll be offered more grapes.
Grapes contain fiber, which aids parrot digestion, and Vitamins A and C, strengthening your parrot’s immune system and cardiovascular health. Grapes also contain antioxidants and flavonoids.
If feeding grapes to parrots, use seedless grapes to minimize the risk of choking.
Black grapes contain the most antioxidants, followed by red grapes. The latter should be considered a tasty treat rather than a boon to parrot health.
Grapes can be fed to parrots in small servings, ideally limited to one or two grapes, once a week.
Can Parrots Eat Grapes?
We’ve established that many parrots enjoy the taste, but are grapes good for parrots? Here’s a nutritional breakdown of one cup of grapes:
| Calories | 62 |
| Fat | 0.3g |
| Sodium | 2mg |
| Carbohydrates | 16g |
| Fiber | 1g |
| Sugar | 15g |
| Protein | 0.6g |
| Vitamin C | 3.68mg |
| Vitamin K | 13.4mcg |
| Vitamin A | 4.6mcg |
Never feed a parrot an entire cup of grapes, as that’ll lead to a stomach upset and weight gain.
Advantages of Feeding Parrots Grapes
There are some distinct health advantages to bringing grapes into a parrot’s diet, including:
Fiber
Parrots need fiber to maintain a healthy and active digestive tract. The fiber found in grapes will help parrots produce regular, solid stools and provide a sense of sated hunger.
Potassium
Potassium manages hormones and regulates the heart. It also ensures that your parrot has good circulation, providing energy and aiding in recovery from minor injuries.
Another critical component of potassium is processing glucose. The presence of potassium will prevent a parrot’s body from developing an unnatural balance of glucose and insulin.
Vitamin A
If the parrot has a Vitamin A deficiency, it’ll experience problems with its skin and feathers. Vitamin A also promotes superior eyesight and a strong skeleton.
While insufficient Vitamin A is harmful, too much (hypervitaminosis A) leads to skin rashes, vomiting, and pain in the abdomen.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a natural antioxidant, absorbed into a parrot’s liver. Coupled with the additional antioxidants and flavonoids in grapes, they can combat free radicals and keep your parrot healthy.
Parrots need a steady supply of Vitamin C, and it can’t always come from grapes, so ensure you balance dietary intake with supplements or other fruits and vegetables.
Check that your parrot isn’t getting too much Vitamin C, which can lead to iron storage disease.
Manganese
Manganese is a mineral associated with the skeleton of a parrot. Grapes contain manganese, ensuring your parrots grow and maintain strong bones.
Manganese is essential for breeding female parrots. This mineral keeps the reproductive organs working at capacity and ensures any eggshells are sturdy enough to keep a parrot chick safe until hatching.
Disadvantages of Feeding Parrots Grapes
Although parrots adore the taste of grapes, they do have drawbacks, including:
High Sugar
Grapes are high in sugar, which is to be expected given the sweet taste of these fruits. Sugar in moderation is fine, but a parrot’s body isn’t designed to process excessive glucose.
If a parrot eats too many grapes, it’ll struggle with diarrhea and likely become lethargic. In the longer term, your parrot will gain weight, which can strain the joints and heart.
As per the Journal of the Association of Avian Veterinarians, parrots can also develop diabetes. Excessive sugar consumption and obesity can increase this risk.
Change in Dietary Habits
Parrots enjoy grapes, but they’re not a complete meal.
If your parrot eats grapes and develops a taste for them, it may refuse to eat anything else. This will result in an unbalanced diet, leading to hypovitaminosis (a vitamin deficiency).
The Dutch Journal of Veterinary Medicine explains that hypovitaminosis can lead to hypocalcemia, goiter, and respiratory infections. Couple this with the hazards of obesity in parrots.
What Types of Grapes Are Best for Parrots?
There are many types of grapes available from any supermarket or grocery store. When purchasing fresh fruit for a parrot, shop organic to avoid harmful pesticides.
Grape seeds don’t contain cyanide, so they’re not toxic to parrots. Just ensure your parrot can swallow seeds safely without risk of choking.
You can choose between three main colors of grapes for parrots:
| Black grapes: | Black grapes are bursting with antioxidants. Black grapes contain resveratrol, which Biomedicines describes as a powerful antitumor ingredient and bacterial deterrent. |
| Red grapes: | Red grapes contain anthocyanins in the skin, pigments that give these fruits their distinct coloring. As explained by Frontiers in Pharmacology, anthocyanins are natural antioxidants and anti-inflammatories. Red grapes can slow the aging process in parrots. |
| Green grapes: | Green grapes don’t contain the same antioxidants as their black or red counterparts. They remain juicy and delicious to a parrot but should be offered infrequently. |
While parrots enjoy all grapes, organic black grapes are recommended.
How To Feed Grapes To Parrots
Grapes should be hand-fed to parrots as a reward for good behavior or learning tricks.
Consider cutting grapes in half before feeding them to a parrot. This increases the scent released by the grapes and prolongs the feeding experience. Two grapes cut in half essentially becomes four treats.
If your parrot doesn’t immediately eat grapes, don’t leave the fruits in a cage. Grapes don’t have a long shelf life, especially when cut open. If grapes start to rot, they become a bacterial hazard.
How Many Grapes Can Parrots Eat?
Limit parrots to one or two grapes in a single serving, and avoid offering grapes more than once a week.
Your parrot will likely cry, beg, and demand more grapes, as these fruits satisfy the palate so much. The more grapes you feed, the less your parrot will be inclined to enjoy a balanced diet.
Grapes make an invaluable reward or training treat and are sure to endear you to your parrot.
