You have probably forgotten that you recently gave it a scrumptious feed that contained chillis. Parrots love chillis and can tolerate that burning feeling that gives us a profound irritant. If we inadvertently bite into a that small red chilli, we will experience that heavy burning feeling in our mouths, but parrots can enthusiastically bite into hot jalapenos, which will send some of us reeling.
The best cure for burning lips is bathing in milk or yoghurt. This dilutes the concentration of capsaicin, and also prevents it having contact with the stomach walls. Water is not effective, as capsaicin cannot dissolve in it because it is a hydrophobic molecule, repelled by water, but it can dissolve in liquids that contain some fat.
It is the capsaicin in chillis that will produce that burning sensation and the more a chilli will contain, the hotter it will be. Out of the 25 species of the chilli pepper genus, Capsicum, only around five are commercially cultivated. The hotness of chillies is measured in Scoville Heat Units (SHU) and on this scale a sweet bell pepper scores 0, a jalapeno pepper 2,500-4,000, a tabasco 30,00050,000, and a Mexican habaneros 200,000-500,000!
Why chillies are hot
This story is from the May 2020 edition of Parrots magazine.
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This story is from the May 2020 edition of Parrots magazine.
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