Dot, acorns are a safe food for psittacines. There are many instances of wild parrots and feral parrots eating acorns, i.e. Thickbilled Parrots, Quakers, Amazons.

T’would not be unusual for your cockatoo to prefer to eat the acorns right off the limb—foraging is an instinctive and fun pastime for captive hookbills. Besides, if you watch her carefully, she may in fact also be eating the attachment nodes on the acorn stems, a nutritious and preferred part of some fruit and nut clusters. We have had lorileets that did not like certain berries when they were placed in a food bowl, but the pets would gorge on the same berries if they were on the bush.

In addition, those acorns that drop on the ground are perhaps not at the best ripeness for your cockatoo’s taste and trace mineral needs. He may be choosing younger nuts that are still attached because of their tannin level, much as our amazon flock will like semi-ripe fruit or seeds instead of the fully mature ones.

Encourage Perdy, I do not think an adult savvy cockatoo can eat too much of a certain food item as long as it is getting a fully rounded and complete diet from which to choose. Besides, wild-crafted foods are one of the optimum offerings we can give our birds. Try picking some branches with lots of little accorn buds and early-set nuts, and offering them to your smaller psittacines. You may be surprised at the reception!