A Facebook Parrot TREAT Trend: Chicken Leg Bones?
by Nancy Vesely
Back in 2006-2007, there was a huge trend on Facebook where everyone seemed to be giving their parrots chicken leg bones – the bone marrow from chicken leg bones was a treat for the parrots!
So one day, I decided to join a Facebook Group that was very active in this interesting movement, and I shared chicken leg bones with my parrots. I dropped one in Indy’s bowl, my White Fronted Amazon, and another leg in Holly’s bowl, my Timneh African Gray.
In a flash, my older bird, Indy, grabbed her chicken leg bone and started to chow down on it like she had eaten a chicken leg before! Indy was my was my rehomed Amazon and had lived in other homes before mine. However, Holly was my baby who came home with me when she was only 12 weeks old. Holly had never seen a chicken leg before and didn’t know what to do with it!
Over the next few weeks, I gave Indy and Holly a couple of bones. The last time, Holly picked it up and chewed on it a little but ended up dropping to the floor of her cage. I considered this a success and was so proud that I had taught my baby bird to eat a chicken bone!
A few weeks later, I was at my favorite local bird store in Indianapolis, IN, called Bird Fever. As I was chatting with Mark Roth, the owner of Bird Fever, I mentioned that I fed my parrots chicken bones. His eyes rolled up in his head, and he asked me why. I explained that everyone was doing it in my Facebook Group, and I thought it was a great treat for my parrots. Mark pointed out that in the wild, Amazons or African Grays would not be eating chicken bones. I was in disbelief! I quickly Googled this, and he was right! Chicken leg bones are not in the regular diet of parrots.
This was a powerful lesson I learned: we cannot believe everything we read on Facebook.
Since then, I have researched so many delicious treats for my parrots. One of their favorite treats is freeze-dried kiwi! They love it so much that I learned on my own how to make fresh batches for them. Stay tuned for more delicious treat ideas!