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Asked by ciaracarroll to Eileen, Shane, Naomi, Andrew, Aggelos on 12 Nov 2012. This question was also asked by cmd13, ciarabrennan, anastasia97.
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Eileen Diskin answered on 12 Nov 2012:
Flamingos are grey when they’re born. Heres a cute photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/floridapfe/5210506851/in/photostream/
They turn pink as they get older, because of the foods they eat. Mostly they like to eat shrimp and algae, and there are pigments in these foods called carotenoids, that cause them to turn pink.
These same pigments, carotenoids, are in some of the foods that we eat too, like carrots! This is why there is some truth when people say that you’ll turn orange if you eat too many carrots.
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Comments
ciaracarroll commented on :
Thanks for answering!!!! 🙂
ellbells commented on :
aww he so cute :(((((((
Eileen commented on :
You’re welcome!! I do like that one, they’re pretty cute when they’re babies! (And not so bad when they’re older and pink, either!)
Jean commented on :
I’m talking to you from across the zones 🙂 You’ve some great questions here in the Hydrogen zone.
Just thought I’d say that the first bit to turn orange is the tip of your nose! It’s hard to eat so many carrots that you turn orange but when that chemical is used as a colourant then it’s possible coz it’s used at higher concentrations than are naturally present. Don’t worry though, that chemical is not bad for you, in fact it’s good. And anyway, you don’t stay orange.
Eileen commented on :
Thanks for that Jean. You can check an answer I gave to a similar question last week, in which I talk about why we go orange, and in which I gave a link to a funny photo of a baby with an orange nose.
/hydrogenn12-zone/2012/11/15/so-if-i-constantly-eat-carrots-can-i-turn-orange/