# can pigeons eat bananas



## pigeonpigface (Feb 21, 2012)

can pigeons eat bananas


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## Jaye (Mar 13, 2008)

You tell us...if yours do, then...yup ~ 

If you are asking are they bad for Pigeons ?...I don't think so. Going off a list of poisonous/bad food for companion birds....banana isn't on that list. But I wouldn't give them much....


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## Ross Howard (Nov 26, 2009)

Why would you want them to? I'm sure if nothing else to eat they would.


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## NZ Pigeon (Nov 12, 2011)

Could it possibly cause canker? I imagine it may get stuck or gluggy in their throat.


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## Gay Fisherperson (Sep 14, 2021)

I try out all sorts of foods with the flocks around me and when it comes to banana... some do eat it and some don't.


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## Doves Witness (Apr 23, 2016)

The flock that lives near me gets a daily mix of *very many* types of seeds, along with some powdered spices that I can't give in seed form (cinnamon, for instance) and usually with either olive oil to bind the spice to the seeds or the spices embedded in bread cut into small bits, and some chopped fresh veggies such as garlic, ginger, carrot or bell pepper. It's about 3 pounds of food each day and never enough to give the birds a full day's meal. I don't want to encourage them to create more malnourished fledglings, but rather I want the existing birds to be healthy and resistant to disease.

The seeds are a very nutrient dense food, and I hope that they teach the fledglings _especially_ to recognize their natural grain, seed, and legume diet by sight, texture, and taste, or scent since the young birds are born here in the middle of a city where concrete, asphalt, and buildings cover virtually all the land and there aren't many seeds growing anywhere near. The spices (and some of the seeds) are all natural remedies given as preventive medicine (which has been working-out quite well for years!) A couple of the veggies are preventive medicine too, and the rest are a vitamin A supplement because feral pigeons usually don't get enough vitamin A.

The local park across the street from me has an area of dirt, plants, and trees where I scatter the seed mix widely so that when 120 or so birds land, they can each get some of the different kinds of food despite that there isn't that much of it. That works well, they all get to eat some of the food, but there are some interesting patterns of behavior that have developed among the birds.

All the birds look first for unshelled sunflower seeds, safflower, and roasted but unsalted peanuts. The adult males look for those *exclusively* as they hurriedly peck-up just those seeds and then fly to a different area of scattered seed and again look only for those particular seeds, then move to a new area again, and so on. It's a race for the most energy-rich seeds. Meanwhile, there are so many other birds already on the ground that there is no way that the males could possibly get all the bigger high-fat seeds, but they do get more than they would have by staying in a single spot. Once the high-fat seeds are all gone, the males stop racing around and focus on the larger seeds that are left: chickpeas, peas, lentils, mung beans, and so on.

The whole flock keeps after the seeds exclusively, rather than bread and veggies, until only the smallest seeds are still visible on the dirt patches: anise, sesame, chia, quinoa, basil, mustard, etc. Then all the birds eat both/either of small seeds and/or the larger bits of bread with spices embedded. Only when those are gone do the birds eat the vegetables. I think that the veggies are least popular because they are generally moist / wet / fluid-filled. I tried coating the vegetables with spice powders, but the same pattern occurs either way. The birds prefer the higher nutritional density of even the tiniest seeds over the larger bits of water-logged vegetables.

Dried and diced bits of vegetables or fruit might be more popular, but may not be a great idea if the birds don't have a reliable water source nearby. The seeds have tiny amounts of moisture in them, but freeze-dried or desiccated fruits and veg might not have enough moisture left in them for good digestion, although I am not sure wether or not it would be a problem because I haven't tried it.


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