For parrots and people alike, “gut health” has become something of a buzzword. Whether you’re browsing pellets for your parrot or wandering grocery store aisles, you’ve likely encountered products making nebulous claims about “supporting gut health” or being loaded with pre-, pro-, and postbiotics. 

Here’s the thing: gut health is a critical component of your parrot’s overall wellbeing. But so many of the products marketed toward supporting a parrot’s gut health are misleading, mislabeled, or even misformulated. In this article, we’ll give you the run-down on the parrot gut microbiome so you can navigate this hot topic with ease. 

What do we mean when we talk about a parrot’s “gut microbiome?”

The gut microbiome is a community of microorganisms that live together in a parrot’s intestines. These tiny lifeforms really do exist in a community–they inhabit the same spaces, compete for  similar resources, and play various roles in their host’s body. Although bacteria make up most of the gut microbiome, other microorganisms like yeast and fungi also call your parrot’s GI tract home. 

It’s not just the gut that has a microbiome! Other parts of an animal’s body, including their skin and mouth, have microorganism populations of their own. However, the gut is especially rich with microbial activity, and the condition of this microbiome can have a major impact on overall wellness. Studies in various animal models, including chickens, indicate that the microbiome can influence everything from the immune system to metabolism. 

As a collection of living organisms, your parrot’s flora is in constant flux. Factors that can influence gut microbiome include diet, where your parrot lives (e.g., indoors or outdoors), their sex, and their species. When certain types of bacteria become too scarce or too prevalent, or when new microorganisms are introduced, imbalances can occur and lead to health issues. 

It’s not always easy to know when the gut microbiome is in a state of imbalance, or dysbiosis. Bacteria often can’t be categorized as completely “good” or “bad,” but can either help or harm their host depending on their relative abundance. For example, the Salmonella enterica bacterium is a normal part of a healthy parrot’s microbiome, but can cause serious illness if it becomes too plentiful or spreads from the intestine to other parts of the body. Because of this nuance and the diversity of microbial life in your parrot’s intestines, maintaining good gut health is a careful balancing act. 

Why does a healthy gut microbiome matter for parrots? 

Did you know that your parrot’s gut health can influence their brain? In a relationship called the gut-brain axis, scientists have discovered that the intestines (and the microorganisms living within) can communicate with the brain through hormonal, immune, and nervous system pathways.

For example, certain gut bacteria can encourage the production of serotonin or even produce it themselves. Serotonin is an important neurotransmitter–a chemical messenger that sends “information” between nerve cells–that helps regulate motor function, sleep, and mood. Clearly, a parrot’s gut microbiome doesn’t exist in isolation, but has wide-reaching systemic impacts. 

With this in mind, let’s consider some behavioral disorders common among parrots. Things like feather plucking, excessive vocalization, and stereotypies (e.g. pacing) can cause tremendous stress for birds and owners alike. Certain environmental factors, like a lack of enrichment or an inadequate habitat, can contribute to these behaviors. But a recent study by Czech researchers uncovered a tentative link between parrots with decreased microbiome diversity and common behavioral disorders (Černá, 2023).

In other words, a less robust microbiome may be associated with some of the most common parrot ailments. While these findings haven’t yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, they provide insight into the direction of future research on parrot microbiome health and its connection to disease.

Prebiotics, probiotics, postbiotics–how are they different?

While pre-, pro-, and postbiotics all sound somewhat similar, there are major differences between them. 

You can think of prebiotics as microorganism food–they are types of fiber that animals struggle to digest, but gut microbes happily devour. As “microorganism food,” they fuel the biological processes these microbes perform. Generally, fiber-rich foods (e.g., most leafy greens and fruits like raspberries and bananas) are high in prebiotics. 

Probiotics refer to live microorganisms that, when consumed, join the existing microbiome in an animal’s gut. In order to do this, they must survive the perilous journey through the upper GI tract, evading annihilation by antimicrobial compounds in saliva and the extremely low pH of stomach acid.

All probiotics are not equal! The types of bacteria present in a healthy human’s gut may not be present (or present in different quantities) in a healthy parrot’s gut, and vice versa. Even among birds, different species often have very different microbiomes. This is why it’s so important to select a probiotic product tailored to parrots and backed by scientific research. 

Lastly, postbiotics are the products of microbial activity which benefit both the gut microbiome and the host. This includes the beneficial substances secreted by gut microorganisms in addition to the digested microorganisms themselves. Some common postbiotics include vitamins, enzymes, pieces of cell walls, and short chain fatty acids (SCFAs). 

Why aren’t there more studies about parrot gut health? 

If you go looking for more reading material on parrot gut health, you might discover a great deal of information based on studies performed in chickens, not parrots. Generally, chickens are easier for researchers to access, and findings from chicken-based studies can have practical applications in agriculture. In contrast, parrots are a more niche area of scientific research.

So, can we apply findings from chicken-based studies to parrots? Yes–to an extent, and in certain contexts. Parrots and chickens share many physiological similarities, and a chicken’s gut microbiome is more comparable to a parrot’s than, say, a human, cat, or mouse. When possible, it is ideal to use research conducted specifically with parrots as research models, but studies performed in chickens provide us with a good starting point from which to understand the avian gut microbiome. 

Wrapping up…

Now that you can talk the talk (you know what a gut microbiome is, why it matters, and what we mean by pre-, pro-, and postbiotics), you’re ready to walk the walk. In our next article in this gut health mini-series, we’ll dive into more practical details. What microorganisms could you expect to see in a parrot probiotic? How are these supplements formulated? And perhaps most importantly, how do you choose a good one?

We’ll answer these questions and more. Until then, don’t forget to check out our other articles on every parrot-related topic under the sun!

Sources Referenced: 

Appleton, J. (2018). The gut-brain axis: Influence of microbiota on mood and mental health. Integrative Medicine: A Clinician's Journal, 17(4), 28. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6469458/

Černá, K. (2023). Interspecific and intraspecific variation in gastrointestinal microbiota composition of parrots and its association with incidence of selected disorders.http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11956/185867

Liu, H., Chen, Z., Gao, G., Sun, C., Li, Y., & Zhu, Y. (2019). Characterization and comparison of gut microbiomes in nine species of parrots in captivity. Symbiosis, 78, 241-250. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13199-019-00613-7

Palken, J. (2016, January 29). Prebiotics: What, where, and how to get them. UMass Chan Medical School Center for Applied Nutrition. https://www.umassmed.edu/nutrition/ibd/ask-Nutritionist/prebiotics-what-where-and-how-to-get-them/

Scarpellini, E., Rinninella, E., Basilico, M., Colomier, E., Rasetti, C., Larussa, T., ... & Abenavoli, L. (2021). From pre-and probiotics to post-biotics: A narrative review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(1), 37. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8750841/

Schmiedová, L., Černá, K., Li, T., Těšický, M., Kreisinger, J., & Vinkler, M. (2023). Bacterial communities along parrot digestive and respiratory tracts: the effects of sample type, species and time. International Microbiology, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10123-023-00372-y