In our first article of these series, Good Eats, we introduced you to the general idea of cooking for your parrots, how to make it easy, and gave you some quick recipes to practice on. In this article, we will expand further upon that idea, and introduce some more great tasting recipes for your birds. For this edition, we wanted to focus on non-cooked food items, such as the infamous 7-layer salad, stuffed fruits & veggies, and other healthful concepts.
The 7 Layer Salad
Layer 1 (bottom layer) - chopped greens, which are varied each week. One week, use collard greens and parsley and mustard greens, and the mix it up by using Swiss chard, kale and dandelion greens.
Layer 2 - chopped (1/4 to 1/2 inch cubes) green vegetables, including any of the following: Brussels sprouts, zucchini and other summer squash, jicama, red or green peppers, fresh hot peppers, chayote squash, green beans, fresh peas, cucumber, celery, anise root, etc.
Layer 3 - chopped broccoli and shredded carrots
Layer 4 - dry, uncooked pasta. This will absorb some of the moisture from the mix and soften nicely.
Layer 5 - cooked beans. It is recommended to use a 13 or 17 bean soup bag mix, which is soaked overnight, rinsed, and then bring to a boil and cook for about 25 minutes, then drained.
Layer 6 - a mixture of chopped apples, oranges and whole grapes
Layer 7 - frozen mixed vegetables.
Sprouted Seed
Sprouted seed is an often overlooked or underused method of getting your bird to eat healthier. Sprouting seeds is a very easy, fairly hands off activity that doesn't involve a lot of time at all.
Materials needed:
1. A container to hold your sprouts. A large mouth makes it much easier to get the sprouts out.
2. A square of cheesecloth or other screen to cover the mouth (makes it easier to rinse your sprouts).
3. A rubber band to hold to cheesecloth to the container.
4. A small dish to set the sprout container on.
Pour dry seeds and/or beans into container. Do not fill the container more than 20% -- sprouts will increase in volume up to 5 times as they grow.
Place the cheesecloth over the top of the container & secure it with the rubber band. You can cut the cheesecloth to fit the container mouth, but it must still be large enough to be secured by the rubber band all the way around.
Pour cool water through the cheesecloth and into the container. Swirl it around, and then slowly pour off the water. Refill the container with water, let it soak for a few hours, and then drain. (This initial soaking is to hydrate the beans/seeds. After this time, do NOT leave the sprout container full of water -- they'll drown!)
Set the container upside down on the dish. This will keep the sprouts happy and moist as they grow. Rinse the sprouts twice a day with cool or tepid water. The rest of the time, leave the container sitting upside down on the dish. Within 3 or 4 days...they're ready!
Stuffed Foods
Trying to incorporate more fresh foods into your birds diet, but not sure how to do it? This recipe was submitted by a fellow bird owner, and quickly caught on in popularity.
You will need:
1 skewer
1 fresh fruit or veggie (something like an apple or fresh bell pepper is recommended)
Mix of chopped up veggie/fruit mix
Wash the fruit/veggie thoroughly, and core. Make sure to remove all seeds. Fill core of item with your mix. Place entire stuffed veggie/fruit on skewer, and hang in bird cage. For the 'filling' you can use anything from seed, to chopped fruit/veggie mix, cooked food item, or mash. This provides day long entertainment for the bird as it chews the delicious 'outside' of the fruit/veggie to get to the irresistible inner stuffing! This is great for birds that are considered 'advanced' foragers.
We hope this has been another informational read for you in our Good Eats series. Continue to read, and feel free to print off these articles to stick in your recipe book (if you have one. If not, it's highly recommended to start one!) for future use.
Emily is very active in the avian community participating in numerous websites and online communities for parrot owners. Emily is also a moderator at http://www.BirdBoard.com
She is head writer for http://www.BirdToys.com and online shopping portal for fun and unque bird toys, bird food, cages, and supplies.
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