Is Corn Bad?

[GraceBirds]

Is corn a bad thing to feed my cockatiels and budgie? I read that some people never feed corn and that it is bad to feed due to yeast infection. Should i completely cut corn out of their diet and avoid food mixes and pellets that have corn in them? Thanks!

 

[Mizzely]

I don't avoid corn. It is a grain, and currently "out of fashion." Corn allows pellets to be widely available, cheap to produce and thus buy, and are tasty so our birds actually eat them! Corn based "crappy pellets" (as some people will call them) have saved the life of my bird, and have extended the lifespans of countless other birds because of their affordability, availability, and palatability!

I feed fresh corn and corn based pellets and my birds are happy and healthy.

What do the names Harrison's, Roudybush, and Hagen all have in common? They are all pellets with decades of research and a veterinarian behind that research. They also happen to be corn based.

This isn't to say those are the only pellets to trust (I'm currently feeding Zupreem) or that going corn free is bad. I just don't know that it's necessary to avoid corn.

 

[GraceBirds]

But what about what other people said about corn causing avian gastric yeast?

 

[Mizzely]

Is there evidence to back it up? Or is it anecdotal cases?

So far I've fed several birds corn based pellets over the past 12+ years. Never have I had a bird get Avian gastric yeast. One will be 13 in May. I have a Jardine's who was super sick when I got him and already had a host of illnesses at 19. He probably would have been a prime candidate to get it with his weakened immune system.

So anecdotally, based on my own experience, it hasn't been an issue. Other people may have a different experience.

 

[GraceBirds]

Is there evidence to back it up? Or is it anecdotal cases?

So far I've fed several birds corn based pellets over the past 12+ years. Never have I had a bird get Avian gastric yeast. One will be 13 in May. I have a Jardine's who was super sick when I got him and already had a host of illnesses at 19. He probably would have been a prime candidate to get it with his weakened immune system.

So anecdotally, based on my own experience, it hasn't been an issue. Other people may have a different experience.

It was a person who had budgies and said that feeding them (or maybe just one of them) corn had given them Avian gastric yeast, and changing their diet to a no corn diet helped them and prevented it.

 

[Mizzely]

It was a person who had budgies and said that feeding them (or maybe just one of them) corn had given them Avian gastric yeast, and changing their diet to a no corn diet helped them and prevented it.

What does your vet think?