I keep hearing that soybeans are dangerous for birds. That concerns me, because soy seems to be a primary ingredient in just about every brand of pellets, including Zupreem, Lafeber, Roudybush, and some other well known brands. The one exception I've found is TOPs, but that stuff is expensive, and only able to be bought online.

Anyone know for sure if it's ok or not?

I have been using Vetafarm mini pellets, which contain soybean(s), for years and my boy is perfectly fine, so yes, they should be safe.

PS: Oh, I just turned into a chick with this post.

I have never seen soy on a list of forbidden foods for cockatiel by the way...
Where did you hear it is dangerous?

Most likely from a woman named Pajarita on another forum who is always going on about this and that and is wrong a lot of the time.

Lol, she must be Mexican or Columbian or something, pajarita means little birdie in Spanish

I have articles on just about every bird-nutrition topic that comes up regularly lol. So it's not surprising that I have an article on the alleged dangers of soy at http://www.littlefeatheredbuddies.com/i ... n-soy.html

It appears that soy is actually safe and beneficial, and it's super efficient at providing the amino acid lysine which is needed for complete protein but isn't plentiful in seed. That's why soy is used so often in pellets - it's the bean with the highest protein density.

But the most interesting thing about the soy rumors is that they appear to be the result of an intentional propaganda campaign. I'm not usually one for conspiracy theories, but in this case there's a smoking gun with the dairy industry's fingerprints on it (soy is the biggest marketplace competitor for dairy and meat). The organization spreading the rumors is either in cahoots with the dairy and meat industry, or they're a bunch of wackos who have a bee in their bonnet about soy because their love of animal protein has corrupted their thought processes. Those two options aren't mutually exclusive.

The anti-soy propaganda includes a scary story about soy in bird pellets, which my article discusses in detail. It turns out that the pellet sample in question was contaminated with a dangerous mycotoxin which causes the symptoms that were observed. But somebody chose to blame the normal soy content of the pellets for the problem instead of the most obvious cause. This mycotoxin is associated more with grains than with beans, so the soybeans probably weren't even indirectly responsible for it.

Thanks for the article.
I am a fan of soy, as I am vegetarian and normal milk makes me sick.
I have never given my boy soy products (I've got quite a few in my freezer), but I guess if I check the other ingredients (like spices) I might as well try.

Actually Brandon, it wasn't Paj who said it. It was another member on the same forum. Ironically, it was someone who constantly disagrees with Paj (you might know who I'm talking about).

And well, she does make good points sometimes, but a lot of her claims on dietary health fall on propaganda articles, and she claims that pellets are linked to kidney problems, which I highly doubt is true.

Oh gosh, so help us if she finds and signs up on this forum. All heck might break loose from there.

Well, it's good to know that it isn't as bad as people say... Now to solve the mystery about the "kidney problem" scare. Probably claims from a bunch of anti-pellet people.

I'll mop the floor with her if she does lol. I've never met a person who says pellets are bad that actually knows anything about nutrition. They have good intentions and a lot of passionately held ideas, but it's like a religious faith, based on a belief in what they think SHOULD be true no matter what the evidence says. I'm the opposite - I go in the direction the evidence points whether I want it to be true or not, and if somebody else can show me that their evidence is better than mine then I change my viewpoint. I really wish that somebody would prove me wrong on the "sprouts are not a miracle food" issue, because I would really like for them to be a miracle food. But that's not what the evidence indicates so I have to go with that.

There's an interesting history behind the pellets and kidney disease rumors. Several decades back it was observed that certain small parrots with certain color mutations tended to develop kidney problems when they were fed pellets as more than 90% of the diet, but the problem resolved when the pellet percentage was scaled back. You can read about it in Chapter 16 of this online medical book: http://avianmedicine.net/publication_ca ... -medicine/

The statements in the book were taken out of context by an anti-pellet writer and twisted around into a conclusion that pellets are bad for all cockatiels and budgies, which was definitely not the original intention. So the author of the chapter, Scott Echols (who is VERY knowledgeable about avian nutrition and definitely not anti-pellet) issued this clarification:


IMO this problem is probably an indicator of some genetic weaknesses in certain mutations in certain species, not a problem with pellets themselves. The book itself is 10 years old now and pellet formulas have been adjusted since then. It was originally thought that excess protein might have been the problem, which is why they did the study where they fed cockatiels a diet of 70% protein and the tiels just laughed at them. Later it was felt like too much Vitamin A in pellets might have been a problem, so the amount was revised downward.

And its a problem that Pajarita is causing because some people will listen to her and follow her advice and I quickly realised she was talking crap and thats why I never post anything to do with diet or healthy and especially health it you could be posting about a little bruise on say Mango's foot and they would say get him to the vet now.And when Rocko was really sick I was very upset because she was making it out like he is gonna die.Honestly Rocko being bitten by Cracker was like a Vampire being bitten by a Werewolf.