What do you feed your bird every day?

[coral]

What kind of food do you feed your bird every day besides pellets/seeds? do you have to keep a variety of food or do you give them the same stuff every day?

[patdbunny]

Every day:
I make a mash out of:
Sprouts - Small yellow millet, white millet, red millet, canary grass seed, oats, flax, rape, niger, chinese millet, sunflower, safflower, popcorn, quinoa, garbanzo beans, sesame.

Cooked mix - quinoa, brown rice, oats, raisins, craisins, rice sticks, chicken scratch, lentils, bean soup assortment, wild rice, veggie pasta, whole wheat pasta, cinnamon, chili flakes - cooked mix ingredients vary depending on what's in my pantry.

Fresh - broccoli, carrots, apples - I run these items through the food processor

Frozen - Veggie assortment (carrots, peas, lima beans, green beans)

And then I get the following for variety according to what's seasonally available or what's on sale:
Bananas, melons, pumpkin, assorted greens, peaches, pears, dried fruits, whatever looks interesting.

The local health food store or ethnic food store are great places to get stuff out of loose bulk bins or weird things that we might not normally see in the store, like jicama and cactus pads.

Keep in mind I'm feeding a truck load of birds. Back when I had less birds that were just pets, I fed similar stuff, I just incorporated all that stuff into our human diets so they'd be eating what we'd be eating. Improves our diet too. I used to make corn muffins and put veggies bits, fruit bits, nuts, etc. into the muffin mix. Those human parenting recipe books that give tips and tricks on how to hide nutritious stuff into every day type recipes are fantastic. Like putting assorted puree veggies into pizza sauce, I love that.

[zazanomore]

Whatever food is in season.

[coral]

wow that must take a long time o.o my birds picky lol so ive still been trying different things, his old owner only fed him pellets so far he likes peas grapes blueberry's carrots and thats about it lol...

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I do sprouts every day along with the dry mix (which has pellets, pasta, spices, dry fruit, seeds, grains, nuts, depending on the bird and what was available last time I mixed it up). I also do a fresh food in the AM which has seasonal fruits and veggies. Scooters almost always has corn and Scotty's almost always has grapes but other than that I try to vary it. Scotty has access to nuts via some kind of foraging setup most days as well.

[patdbunny]

it sounds like it would take me a long time, but I actually only have to make the mix every three days and refrigerate the unused portions. The sprouts take every day attention, but that's only to rinse twice a day so only a few minutes of my time.

I don't want my birds being picky choosy since they're breeders so I run most things through the food processor. Mixed in with the sprouts they eat everything pretty readily. If I only feed the cooked mix, most of them won't touch it.

It does take me an hour in the morning to feed and water and then half an hour for the late afternoon feeding and watering. I rotate the cleaning so I'm cleaning about half an hour ever day. But I have a lot of birds.

Since its a completely relaxing hobby for me, I so completely don't mind. It's like any other hobby that absorbs your attention for hours a day.

[TheNzJessie]

jango gets wetmix and about 3 different fruits a day a long with a few sunlower seeds, rasians, crushed chilli and honey. every seconds say i give him a bellpepper

i recently bought a magic bullet and having a lot of fun with that =p


qwil gets his budie seed mix and he loves spinach and silverbeat leaves so i give him that too

[felix11]

Pony gets a few pinches of pellets into each of her four food containers every morning (they are situated all over her cage. I cover them in strips of paper, little bits of wood, etc, so that she has to forage for her food). She also gets a skewer of fresh fruit and vegetables. Pony is not a picky eater at all - if she sees me eat something, she is eager to try some, so I can feed her a really wide range of fresh foods. She ends up being exposed to one new food a day, on average (so far).

[kaylayuh]

I should preface this by saying that my budgies refuse anything that isn't a seed mix and will completely ignore it.

But, every day I try some whole grain bread, crackers or rice. I try berries, banana, mango, pineapple, apples and dried fruit when I'm eating them. I try jalapeno peppers, dark leafy greens, beans, broccoli, carrots, peas, corn and other vegetables when I'm eating them. I try eggs, chicken, ground turkey, pizza crust and red meat on days when I eat those. Basically, whatever I make for myself to eat, I make some to give to them.

I show them fresh foods daily, but they completely ignore it and I end up throwing them away after about 2 hours depending on what it is and how long I think it's safe for them to have. For dry things like breads and crackers, I tend to leave those in longer. For dried fruit, I've started cutting them into smaller chunks and mix it in with their seed mix hoping that they'll feel froggy one day and nibble.

So far, I've had no luck getting them to eat anything other than seed and millet. I've seen Pigpen drag around the jalapeno pepper, and then I realized she was pulling it from her food dish and throwing it to the bottom of the cage.

[coral]

what is sprouting, a few of you mentioned that?