Dragon Fruit - Does it `Glow'???

I recently picked up some Dragon Fruit at the local supermarket. It's one of those exotic asian fruits that the young register person always has to ask `What is this?' at the checkout. The next question is usually `What does it taste like?' - to which I admittedly have to reply, `I've got no idea - I feed it to my birds'. I then get the look - you know - the one that kinda suggests you must be nuts if you spend that sort of money on a piece of fruit that you don't even eat and instead, feed it to your birds! It does seem crazy but doesn't it feel great to add some new taste sensations into the food bowl of your birds? I'm not sure who gets the most out of it - them or me. If you really want to know though - it tastes awful (I actually tried it this time). One of those fruits that you might suggest - `Oh, it goes great with ice-cream', in other words, it tastes like dirt on its own and needs a good smothering of neopolitan before its edible :-)

Anyway, here's a question that I'd love to know the answer for... `Does dragon fruit glow?' That's probably not the right wording for that question but it's as close as I can get to what I'm thinking. You see, when I placed a chunk of it in the food bowl of my Amazon parrots they both reeled away in obvious horror. If you look at the flesh of dragon fruit it is a brilliant iridescent white (see pic above), the same sort of white you see on iridescent fungi and other things that `glow' in the dark. Given that our parrots can see colours in the ultraviolet spectrum that we can't, it got me thinking - what does dragon fruit look like to them? It obviously had some sort of `stay away' quality to it - they reacted the same way both days in a row that I tried to feed it to them. After a while, their appetites got the better of them but watching them slowly desensitise to their food bowl and finally take the plunge to grab a piece of less offensive food and make a run for it was an interesting study in behaviour - and perhaps the strength of the predatory defence of the humble dragon fruit!

If anyone knows what the ultraviolet or `hidden' colour spectrum of dragon fruit flesh is - please e-mail me! It also served as a good reminder to be observant of our birds responses to new food items in their bowls. Sometimes a change like that can result in an aversion to accessing their food for the day. No point in persisting with expensive fruit if all it achieves is a stressed and hungry parrot! I'll keep it for the Ice-cream ;-)