I am definately NOT a cook. I did try some of the recipes on this site. Was wondering what others have come up with for their birds?? We all want to make them healthy things to eat. Anyone have some recipes out there that work for a variety of parrots?? I have a fussy grey (think they all are) and I provide breakfast of several veggies & fruits and dinner (sometimes what I eat, sometimes something more "bird friendly". I'm particularly interested in baked recipes and recipes that can be frozen into small portions. Share your favorite recipes. I even looked at all the Petstores to try to find a Bird Cook Book!! That could be a real fund raiser for the bird rescues.

cb

cburb,
here is something that my birds like an awful lot...
Take 2 eggs and hardboil them for 15 minutes
let cool
mash eggs, shell and all
add veggies...I use corn, peas and grated carrots
I also add a few Harrison's pellets as well because I know that they will eat them when included in this recipe
then top with sprouts

My birds go crazy for this...the eat it all and look at me like where are my seconds???

I am sure that you will find alot of helpful recipes on this site...to find a book of recipes for birds I would try Amazon.com
Angie

Cleos-Corner

This site is awesome. I try to avoid or substitute anything that is non-organic or that has sugar.

*some* of my parrots enjoy garlic veggies. I simply sprinkle garlic on their mixed veggies and they go nuts for it. It's so good for them too!...but BAD for US afterwards!! <img border="0" alt="[laughing]" title="" src="graemlins/laugh[1].gif" />

I make a huge pan of chopped potatoes, sweet potatoes, bok choy, broc, carrots, sweetcorn chunks, squash, parsnips, rutabagas, turnips, peas, green beans, garbanzos, navy beans, pasta - cook it all and freeze in ziploc bags then mic it every morning for breakfast - saves time. My birds all love toast esp the Cheese bread sold by Kash n Karry in FL. db

Ive just discovered a new one for my birds it smells that good my kids think their biscuts

I uses some wild bird mix
egg white to bind together
wheat germ, rolled oats, crushed egg shell,and some bird vitimans

and i mix all togther and put in muffin trays and bake on low for a hr or so till brown and smell so yummy

One thing I have learned, that was also posted somewhere on this site, is try using smaller portions and make sure your bird can see the bottem of the serving plate, bowl or whatever. When I first got Gil (U2), he ate only sunflower seeds, and at 9 yrs old, that is a bad habit to break. He was very thin and had no down feathers at all. I tried every trick to try to get him to eat healthy, nothing seemed to work. One day, I took a small white salsa dish, and put about 1 1/2 tablespoons of veggies in the dish, and to my amazement, he ate everything out of the dish. I now use the same small white dish for all veggies, fruits or whatever. Sometimes I use a saucer and put the saucer on top of the seed cup, never left unattended as it is some kind of pottery, but he loves to eat off the saucer also.

Dear Lis - You may have "hit" on the problem. I use a Corelle cereal bowl for my grey and put lots of things in it. No way can you see the bottom of the bowl. Maybe he's being to overwhelmed with so much food. I'm going to try much smaller portions for his breakfast tomorrow.

cb

I also discovered that Arfy eats much better if only presented with small portions. On a daily basis he always has his veggie pot, fruit pot and nutty pot in his cage, readilly available for when he feels a bit peckish, but he eats better at the same time as us.

Breakfast - I soak some weetabix in warm water and he has it on a saucer ontop of his cage.
Lunch - I take some of the fruit and veg from his dishes, put on a saucer ontop his cage and he clears the lot.
Dinner - he usually has a healthy assotrment of whatever we are eating, again, on his saucer ontop of his cage.

I have found that making him his own little meal to eat at the same time as us, makes meal times a lot quieter for us. Before, he would scream his little head off for a bit of whatever we were eating, now, he just goes about eating his own meal and lets us eat ours in peace. If what we are eating is not suitable for him, I just boil up some frozen mixed veg with a little garlic puree and he thinks he has got the same as us! Visitors to our house find it really amusing to see me dishing up a little dinner for my 'Too.

I tried one of the recipes from the Food page - bird muffins!! I added everything but the kitchen sink (it wouldn't fit!!) I made a double batch, first mistake - ended up with 24 muffins and two cakes. I have to tell you it looked for awhile like something they'd make people eat on fear factor!! Once baked I set them out to cool - I cut into a piece and tried it (warm) and its not bad. The birds probably won't like it though. Good thing I'm in a bird club - I can take these to everyone there and see if any of their birds will eat it. Oh, and I bought all this "healthy" food at the grocery store - the clerk was amazed at the Healthy selection of foods I picked, until she got to the Ding Dongs!!! (Actually, those were for my sons lunch). When I told her that all this was for my birds she was astounded - finger on the call button to call police in case I went psycho on her!!!! Anyway, I'm going to try it on the birds when they come in from outdoors - wish me luck.

cb

This has nothng to do with bird food, I can't cook for s**t! But, I had a good chuckle at cburb's last post:

My grocery cart is usually loaded with lots of heathy veges. I have to tell the clerks what each one is: kale, sugar snap peas, oriental pea pods, baby bock choy, etc. Then I get the question: how do you fix all these? I don't, I give them to my birds. Then I get the "oh yeah, wacky bird woman alert" look. Fortunately, I've been shopping at this same market since it opened (15 years ago) and they know me real well <img border="0" alt="[laughing]" title="" src="graemlins/laugh[1].gif" /> <img border="0" alt="[laughing]" title="" src="graemlins/laugh[1].gif" />

I am also aware of the funny look routine when out shopping for 'The Kids' (M2, 3 cats & 1 dog)

I get most of my fresh fruit and veg from our local little corner store, been shopping there for 6 years. We (me and other half) will stand in the middle of the shop and say things like 'Ooh, don't forget Arthurs grapes' and 'Shall we get Ted (teddy Bear the cat) some fresh peas this week?' (yeah a cat that loooooves peas!)

After about a year of shopping there, the lady who owns the shop asked us which care home we worked in (residential home for the elderly). I looked at her blank, I really didn't know what she was talking about. Well, she said, we know that Arthurs favourite are grapes, but only green ones and Ted likes his peas and Chloe is just happy with whatever she is given. Henry is partial to corn-on-the-cob and your latest resident, Betsy, hasn't really shown any favourites yet.

Well, Jarrod and myself just fell about the place howling, we had to explain that Arthur (AKA Arfy) is an M2, Henry is a dog and Chloe, Ted and Betsy (AKA Booby) are cats.

Boy, were our ears burning when we left the store! We still shop there now, but the lady who owns it always reminds us if we have forgotten anyone <img border="0" alt="[laughing]" title="" src="graemlins/laugh[1].gif" />

I talk to my pets all the time. When I take them shopping for a treat or a toy I ask them what they'd prefer and hold up various things. People have a tendency to leave the aisle fairly quickly, but I don't mind as I can then concentrate on what the animals are trying to tell me. Obviously I don't get out much. LOL Also, we had to move to a subdivision from the country last year. The houses are built really close together and I talk to the dogs and birds when I'm in the yard. Needless to say nobody comes over for a visit!!! (I'm more of an animal person anyway)

cb