Probiotics for parrots?

Question

My cockatiel just finished up a harsh antibacterial treatment. I'm looking for a safe probiotic I can administer so her gut flora can recover faster.

I found a children's probiotic on sale at the grocery store called CULTURELLE, so I thought that if it's safe for kids then it's probably safe for my bird. It says it contains both pro- and pre-biotics. It contains a strain called Lactobacillus GG. I started looking it up on wiki and it said this helps make lactic acid. Birds don't have lactic acid, that's why they can't digest milk products. So is this safe for a bird?

Are there any probiotic strains that I can use on a bird? Does anyone know of a common healthy gut flora that most birds have?

Thanks for the help! Please feel free to explain all the details of this confusing subject!

Answer 1

You use lactase to digest milk, not lactic acid, which is a metabolic intermediate product produced in your muscles.  Parrots do have lactic acid.

Parrots don't have lactase, though, and can't digest lactose well, so large quantities of yogurt may cause diarrhea and intestinal distress.  But a small amount of any live culture yogurt should help her establish a normal gut population.  CULTURELLE should be OK, too, but it's probably more expensive.  Lactobacillus GG isn't part of a parrot's normal gut bacteria, which is signficantly different from yours. But that's OK - it isn't part of your normal gut bacteria, either (it generally dies out a while after you take it.  It can still be useful).

Whatever you use, just remember you don't need very much - you weigh about 500 times as much as she does.

Answer 2

Aloe vera is good from my experience with birds.

http://www.aviannetwork.com/articles/alo...

http://birds.about.com/b/2006/09/15/how-...

http://www.wellvet.com/aloe.html

You'll find tons of info on this online.

Wish you and your bird the best of luck!