[Rob E]

I'm sorry if this is old news but I feel it's worthy of a re-post.

credit to bobojenday, who posted this some time ago...

"SOY BEANS
There is more and more disturbing data found about soy beans and products. Soy beans in their natural state contain large quantities of natural toxins and there is data that soy is cumulatively toxic when fed to animals. For example, The PARROT SOCIETY NEW ZEALAND claims that soy products in bird food have caused such problems as immune system breakdown, failure of organs and multiplication of the birds' own benign bacteria."
----------------------------------------------------

I'm sorry to have to verify that in my experience, this is true. I fed my BFA a very varied and, so I thought, healthy diet. Steamed soybeans (edamame) were a regular part of the rotation. Years ago, she rejected my attempts to switch her to a pelleted diet, but she received a variety of fruits, seeds, greens and meat, eggs, pasta, etc., and always seemed to have a good appetite and enjoy her meals.

She was the light of my life for almost twenty-four years. While she ate in the cage (a spacious Jock), I never locked her up. I never had her clipped after the first two years, and permitted her freedom to fly 99.5% of the time. There was a different perch in every room of the house for her. I understand that flying around indoors, in no way compares to flight in the wild, but she did get about as much exercise as a pet parrot could have. She had toys, mental stimulation, and a lot of hands-on time. With me, though not everyone else she was gentle and permitted much intimate handling.

I loved this parrot dearly and mention the above synopsis, just so you have a general idea of the type of life we had with each other. Much time and effort from day one went into building up, what became a very special bond between us. I wish that every parrot owner could have as wonderful an experience of their bird(s) as I had with mine.

One evening, I noticed she couldn't keep down her food. She threw-up a few times that evening, and her droppings were very loose, not solid. There were virtually no symptoms prior to this. I'm located in Westchester (NY), and I took her to Bond Animal Hospital the next day. I was fortunate to have the services of Dr. Laurie Hess, an excellent avian vet, but despite numerous tests, medicinal administrations and a few thousand dollars spent, the parrots condition only worsened. I was at the animal hospital every other day for about a week but in the end I was left no choice but to euthanize.

I knew my parrot. She was always a bright eyed, energetic little bluefront, who always seemed to be smiling. At the end she was so weak and tired... she looked at me as if to say, "I can't go on", and it was the most terrible decision I ever had to make. I put her down out of love, as her suffering seemed almost unbearable to her, and me as well.

I didn't have a necropsy done, but based on test results and symptoms, I did ask the vet to open her up and tell me what she saw, and she did. I need not go into the details... Her symptoms and condition were the same as described in the above (re-posted) paragragh.

The bottom line here is my non-professional opinion only... I later, did as much research online as I possibly could have and I'm convinced what precipated her failing condition and early demise was my feeding her soybeans once or twice a week over a number of years. I though they were healthy for her. She seemed to enjoy them. If I only had it all to do over again.

I decided to post this for other parrot owners/lovers to consider. Your opinions and experience might not mirror mine, but is it worth the risk?

Regards,
Robert