Beans

[Saber]

Hello! I have a CAG (named Scooty). I've had him for 10 years now I suppose...man time flies. Anyway, I have offered him some of those pre-mixed bean/noodle meal/treats you can buy at the pet store. You boil water, then the beans, then the pasta and simmer - all takeing about an hour or so total in cooking time.

Here comes my question: After reading several articles on toxic foods over the years, beans always seem to show up when given raw (which I've never done). My concern is how long should I be boiling my beans until it is considered "cooked"? And secondly, no one really says that there are any specific beans I cannot give so long as they are properly cooked. I have a bag of "mixed beans" in my kitchen that I have no idea why I bought them so I figured if I cook them up they would be fine to give to Scooty.

What are your thoughts on this? I have them already prepared but are just sitting on my counter cooling. I wanted to get some advise before offering now that I'm having second thoughts on how long to cook and what types of beans are ok.

Thank you so much

[Wolf]

Beans should be cooked until tender yet firm, not mushy. /I recommend sticking to white beans as they are lower in oxalates which are bad for birds, Red kidney beans are the worst in this regards. I also feed lentils again cooked until tender yet firm.
As a matter of interest I feed my birds a cooked mixture of whole grains and mixed vegetables and white beans and lentils also I use some whole grain pastas in some batches. This food is fed in the mornings along with fresh raw vegetables and fruit for all day foraging. I then feed a seed mix for their dinner which I remove after they go to bed at night.

[Saber]

Thank you for your reply I'm just going to toss that whole batch out. It wasn't sitting right with me while I was cooking it hence the post. There are kidney beans in there along with a whole host of others. I'll just stick to those ones you mentioned. Beans are cheap and there's no point in taking the risk. Plus I over cooked the pasta in there anyway... I suck at cooking pasta for Scooty as well as myself. Its always overdone or underdone even when I try eating one during the process /shrug.

Well I feel better now lol But Scooty is going to be disappointed...he was watching me the whole time saying "OooOooo" over and over. That's our little game when I cook him up something good. I say "Want some?" and he says "OooOOooo love you buddy!" (that's his way of saying heck yes I do!)

[Wolf]

He shouldn't mind the pasta being a little under done

[liz]

Couse couse is tiny pasta. I put it in my grain mixture. Since it only takes 10 minutes in hot water I just put it in the thermal cup with gain and boiling water for 20 minutes. They prefer the larger couse couse .

[Pajarita]

Mine love raw pasta (crunchy!) and there is nothing wrong with giving them some every now and then because pasta is nothing but grain flour with water and parrots eat raw grains... Just make sure the pasta is 100% whole grain flour and, if you can get the one made with veggies in it, it's even better, but make sure it's organic. You can also give him cooked pasta with parrot spaghetti sauce (carrot baby food and/or pureed pumpkin mixed with a bit of organic tomato paste, some olive oil and flavored with pepper, oregano and a bit of chopped garlic). Mine don't get it often because they make such a mess of it (they are not in cages and the spaghetti sauce ends up all over the place!) but they do love it!

My gloop has small white beans and black lentils but you can use regular brown lentils, instead (I use the black ones because they are like little balls which cook real nice and firm and the birds prefer them). The problem with beans is not oxalates, it's a toxic lectin (it has a long name that means that it agglutinates blood but everybody refers to it as PHA or kidney bean lectin) and it's present not only in raw or undercooked beans but also on ones that were cooked at a low temperature.

[Wolf]

Sorry about the confusion between oxalates and lectin. I have been reading on oxalates lately.

[Saber]

Thanks so much for the info This weekend I'm going to go buy some of that spaghetti mixture....oh man...I bet Scooty will make a huge mess. He dunks everything in water before he eats it too. It doesn't matter if it's his pellets, fruits or veggies...it all gets the ceremonial dunk I love that little weirdo. Maybe that's why we get along so well. He does things in a very routine manner and so do I, sometimes without even realizing it.