Why are Cherrie Pits bad for Parrots?

[Walt Perko]

Hi,

My Double Yellow Amazon parrot loves cherries and has been chewing up the pits and I guess eating the seeds inside.

Why are pits not good for parrots?

Just Who the Hell is Walt Perko's friend Leonard?

 

[~Drini~]

I haven't actually searched this but I believe fruit pits have small amounts of cyanide in them. For humans, it would take a LOT of seeds to build up enough cyanide to be lethal but because parrots are smaller, it takes a lot less.

I highly suggest you take the pits out before giving them to your DYA.

EDIT: Did a quick search, cyanide is in fruit pits.

 

[Dartman]

Peach pits have a ton of it and it tastes like almonds, when we were kids and dirt poor mom bought or picked some and we ate the fruit then broke open the seeds and ate them. They were delicious and we all fairly quickly got the scoots afterwards. We had no idea they were poisonous but never ate any more after that.
SO part of the issue is if it has enough it also tastes great so be careful with stuff like that as more then likely your bird will like the taste.

 

[Rolanda]

I LOVE those food bowl brackets! I can see those being so useful. I always wish they made more shallow bowls to avoid waste and mess from birds digging for favorite pieces. That is absolutely perfect for a play perch.

 

[karen256]

They contain cyanide but eating an occasional pit won't harm him. It's safest to pit them for him. If you feel bad taking away his treat in the middle, you can slip a tiny piece of almond in where the pit was. (Almonds also contain cyanide - they are fruit pits, too - but they have much less than cherry pits).

I remember hearing a story (most likely not actually true) of a man who liked the taste of apple seeds so much he decided to save up a lot of apple seeds and eat them all at once to enjoy them more, and poisoned himself. But it really would take a LOT of fruit pits or apple seeds to get a lethal dose of cyanide.