Why can't parakeets eat chocolate?

A brief look at the evolution of parakeet gives us our answer.

Most birds arrived on the scene around 150 million years ago however parakeets were late developers and consequently they were something of a 'rush job'.

In order to make up for lost time the parakeet had to choose which adaptations it could take on board and which to leave behind to save time. (An eagle for example has pretty much all available adaptations, hence why it is known as 'Dat Nang' in Tibetan - roughly translates as 'boss of the sky').

One of the major adaptations the parakeet chose to leave out was the cocoa duct (known colloquially as the chocolate hole) which is most commonly found (in the U.K) in the duck family. It made this choice mainly because chocolate is less common in the tropical climates in which the parakeet originates from because it goes all melty too quickly so consequently the duct would be rarely useful.

Despite the popular myth, the parakeet can in fact eat chocolate if its beak is transplanted with that of a mallard. This procedure, though painful has about a 75% success rate and has in recent times become much more popular within the parakeet community due to certain high profile (celebrity if you will) parakeets having the operation done.