It has come up so many times now that it seems it’s time to dedicate an article to the topic of birds and mushrooms. Can parrots eat mushrooms? Or are they as deadly toxic as some sources claim?
To be entirely honest, I don’t have a definitive answer either. Psittacology likes to rely on scientific sources, but there don’t really seem to be any! However, let’s go into what info I did manage to gather on the topic below.
Controversy?
Mushrooms are truly a controversial topic in many parrot care groups and forums! Unfortunately, blogs and articles are not much clearer. Some sources flat out say even cooked human-safe mushrooms are dangerous to parrots, as they contain toxins that we humans can process, while parrots’ small bodies can’t.
Others state that some types are safe when cooked. Yet others are of the opinion that a regular, raw white or brown supermarket button mushroom is absolutely not going to kill your parrot. It’s often pointed out that we tend to overreact a bit when it comes to our pets.
It is unfortunately true that many “facts” about bird diet and other care aspects are (partly) myths that spread due to pet owners parroting (pun intended) anecdotes. “The guy from my local pet store said one of his clients’ friends parrots died from mushrooms”! The science is often behind, as there is still a lot left to study.
I’ve tried to find actual scientific sources for the mushroom debacle. The only one I encountered only mentioned mushrooms in the context of those collected from the wild.
“(…) unless the mushroom can be definitively identified as a non-toxic variety by a qualified expert, mushrooms collected from yards, lawns, parks, and forests should never be offered to companion exotic animals as either food or enrichment items for their habitats.” (Murphy, 2015).
Because some unsafe shrooms look very similar to safe ones, it goes without saying that wild ones shouldn’t be offered to your bird. Or you. After all, as you probably know, some toxic mushrooms can be incredibly similar to edible ones in appearance.
It has been posited that wild parrots and birds might be able to digest mushrooms better than their domestic counterparts due to geophagy. This involves eating clay or soil, which binds with toxins and therefore makes the birds’ stomachs much more robust.
So, can parrots eat mushrooms?
All in all, if you do want to offer your bird the occasional button mushroom (or other human-safe variety) to switch up its diet, it’s unlikely it’ll fall off its perch stone-dead after ingestion.
A quick look on some forums reveals many folks who feed mushrooms now and then without apparent negative effects. It’s not scientific evidence, but it’s an indication at least.
Use safe mushrooms (like button mushrooms, Agaricus bisporus), obviously keeping the shrooms of the magic kind away from your feathered friend. Cook them to minimize any risks and don’t repeat the exercise if you feel it has caused stomach upset.
Alternatively, you can just for the ‘better safe than sorry’ approach. There are many other items on the list of safe vegetables for parrots. I have never fed mushrooms to my birds myself, simply because there are so many non-controversial veggies out there.
Looking for more information about parrot diet? There’s a lot to learn! Head over to the parrot diet guide to get started.
Please chime in if you can direct me to any scientific sources about the topic! Also, feel free to comment if you just want to share your own thoughts about parrots and mushrooms.
mushrooms are a fungus and should not be eaten by birds
Thanks for chiming in, but the fact that something is a fungus doesn’t automatically mean it shouldn’t be eaten by birds. As you can read in the article, it’s a bit more nuanced, although there are plenty of alternatives.
Amanita muscarious is, by all appearances, happily harvested and eaten by our local Grey Jays. The birds do not appear to be suicidal.
For other readers, that’s the red and white speckled fly mushroom which for humans is apparently deadly around ~15 caps. That’s very interesting, I knew some wild birds go for mushrooms but hadn’t seen them go for the types listed as toxic. Not that I’d go ahead and offer my parrots some, but interesting nonetheless.
Why get any animal to eat something that in the wild is often poisonous and looks like the safe ones?
That’s for you to decide 🙂 this article is just here to provide those wondering with some more background info!
Mushrooms that are safe for humans are safe for pet birds. There is a lot of incorrect information on the internet and the myth about mushrooms is one example of that.
While I’m no expert, especially when it comes to parrots, I have hand raised fledglings of other species and I can say with confidence that my fledglings quite enjoyed occasionally pecking mushrooms to death they found while exploring. As far as I can recall, they had no adverse effects. Keep in mind these were wild growing mushrooms that popped up all over the property after a good storm. They seemed to enjoy them and would even go looking everytime they had free run time (letting them loose to explore their world and watch other birds and their behaviors so they still learned the skills that I as a human just can’t teach) as if it was a treat. Come to think of it, it was the raven that liked them most and thinking back the only time she ever got sick was when she managed to get the lid off her food mix I made and ate it all. After that, she didn’t really want to do anything but sleep.
I can imagine a bulging raven in a complete food coma! Thanks for sharing your experience with this.
I am mostly curious about mushrooms that can be used as a supplement. I get massive benefits from a very clean and purely derived source of lion’s mane mushroom. I wish there was information on whether or not this was something I could also give to my birbos to share the massive benefits
Hey! I have no idea if this has been tried. However, I’m personally not a fan of feeding supplements to my birds in the hopes of getting some kind of benefit out of it – I think it’s best to just feed a healthy and varied diet. That should do the trick!
I made some pasta with canned mushrooms in it, and I also had garlic in it, and my bird ate some last night and this morning. My bird was eating some seeds and she fell over her eyes are open and she is breathing but she’s not moving and she will not move. What can I do, is she dying? What can I give her to make her feel better and she won’t eat or drink anything?
Hey. Did your bird make it through the night? Given the symptoms you describe, I’m going to assume she didn’t, in which case I’m very sorry for your loss. If she did, and you haven’t done so yet, you need to ring an avian (emergency) vet NOW. This is not something that is resolved at home.
Now, for the pasta: how much did she have? I have my doubts about whether it’s what caused these symptoms. Small amounts of cooked garlic and canned mushrooms are highly unlikely to provoke this dramatic an effect. If she had a lot then what comes to mind for me is excess salt, but it’s also entirely possible this is an unrelated neurological issue or something similar. I’d say broken neck, but it doesn’t sound like she bumped into anything before it happened?
In any case, I’m sorry you’re going through this. They’re so fragile.