[cmiller217]

my conures love papaya but I'm not sure if they are supposed to smell like this when I cut it up... smells kind of rank... almost a puke type smell, maybe, the best way I can think to describe it... does any one else feed papaya to their birds? is this smell normal? from the time I cut it up fresh it has a bit of the smell and after two or three days in the fridge it gets a bit stronger, I usually don't keep it longer and three to four days, how long should this fruit be OK in the fridge? thanks <><

 

[Kate]

Your right Papaya does not have the best smell. In Australia it is known as Paw Paw. It is extremely good for birds and is a wonderful aid to digestion. It can be used mashed up and given to a baby bird being hand raised that has a slow crop. It will help get the crop moving.

It would depend on how good your fridge is on how long it will keep. I have an extremely good fridge that I can select the temperature of both the fridge and freezer. Fridge will actually go to zero and I have it set a 1C and freezer can be set down to minus 26C. At 1C stuff in the fridge doesn't freeze but I have found fruit and vegetables keep fresh much longer than in previous fridges I have had. Last week I realized I had some parsley in the fridge that I had not used that I have bought over 3 weeks ago and it was as fresh as the day I got it.

 

[Jess]

I buy dried papaya amongst other stuff from a company called Tidymix (they only sells human grade bird food) I hadn't even thought about buying fresh as my bird are a bit fussy when it comes to exotic fruits! Is dried papaya still nutrional?

 

[cmiller217]

I would think it would have nutritional value still... I may be wrong but don't think it would be too much of a difference... I give my parrots the papaya yogurt bites for treats, they LOVE it and it is supposed to be good for them as well

 

[Jess]

Is that the kaytee yogurt treats? Can't get them over here at the moment, haven't seen them around for a long time. Once they stopped nutriberries comming here (something to do with customs) but thankfully we can get them again.

 

[skthurley]

Be careful with the yogurt treats. Birds are actually lactose intolerant so they should not have large amounts of yogurt. I personally don't offer yogurt at all, but if you wanted to, I wouldn't suggest more then once a week.

I personally offer organic dried papaya with no additive or sugar.

 

[cmiller217]

it isn't actual yogurt... these are bird treats, they aren't made with real yogurt... thanks for the advice but they are fine

 

[cmiller217]

yes, I use the Kaytee treets... one of them is called"yogurt dipped papaya" but there are several others I use also... one is dried papaya, its different colors and one is blueberry covered sunflower seeds...

 

[Jess]

It's a long time since I've had those kaytee treats, I think the ones I used to buy were dark pink inside and yogurt dipped on the outside ring shaped. They were probably strawberry flavour, I didn't know if they were still in production.

 

[Jenny]

It's a long time since I've had those kaytee treats, I think the ones I used to buy were dark pink inside and yogurt dipped on the outside ring shaped. They were probably strawberry flavour, I didn't know if they were still in production.

Kaytee recently re-did their entire bird line, as well as all the rest of their stuff too, I believe. These yogurt treats are along the same lines, but different. They're not the ring shape anymore, just chunks of papaya with yogurt on them rather than cut into shapes. I don't think they make the ring ones anymore, but some shops may still have them until they sell out/spoil

 

[cmiller217]

yea, the ones I get aren't rings, just differnt size chunks... the yogurt dipped papaya ones are orange