Feeding Routine for Tiel & Incoming Too

[Elizebird]

Polarn, that's what I like a lot about the goldenfeast and the soak and simmer. They apparently both smell delicious, and you can tell what most of the ingredients are!

Also, what are your opinions on baby food packets? Last year I purchased some Baby Food Pouches from Plum Organics because the ingredients were all healthy, natural, and there were simply some really good vegs and fruits in there for a birdie! I forgot about them, after a while though, but I do remember that my birds liked it lukewarm and not too cool from the refrigerator.

I'll also be looking up some birdie bread recipes, since apparently that's really popular now, and I've never even thought about it. XD (not the best chef here)

Here's one that I got:
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.js ... Id=3756792

[marie83]

You know if your birds will take baby food like that off a spoon and out of a syringe then I would keep it up occasionally because it will be excellent for hiding any medication in if its ever needed. I wouldn't do it too often though, you may as well feed the real things, fresh and unprocessed.

[Polarn]

I occationally make my own mashes, not that often though but it kind of gets the same consistency as oatmeal, they eat it but pretty much takes anything else offered above it. Polarn ate it quite a lot when he first got here though. I don't like "e" ingredients, I'm to lazy to check what they are while shopping my groceries so I never buy caned stuff if I can avoid it. That and that I know I prefer fresh food myself. Like canned shrooms tastes nothing like the real deal! So if I want to make a see less blend of tastes for my little ones I usually make it myself, I know this is somewhat hypocritical since I do use out of the box pellets and haven't started a pellet factory in the garage

[Elizebird]

Okay, that makes sense. And Marie, thanks for your advice! I started sprouting a handful of seeds this morning as a test run, and it seems to be working. I suppose they were just appealing because there was zero work involved. XD

I also offered my birds a couple of soaked seeds to see if it even appealed to them, and they both gladly took it.

Polarn, lol

[Elizebird]

I noticed my seeds sprouting today! I'm going to give them a day more since only about half are just starting, but I fed an ahead safflower sprout to my tiel, who targeted eagerly for it!

I also picked up a kitchen scale at CVS, I think it's the same one Michael has/had, and it worked great for my tiel and GCC plain, but I might need to attach the perch I built for the 'too.

[cml]

I noticed my seeds sprouting today! I'm going to give them a day more since only about half are just starting, but I fed an ahead safflower sprout to my tiel, who targeted eagerly for it!

I also picked up a kitchen scale at CVS, I think it's the same one Michael has/had, and it worked great for my tiel and GCC plain, but I might need to attach the perch I built for the 'too.

Did you submerse the seeds to sprout them, or just a little water? Ive tried a few times without success ^^.

[Polarn]

To Cml and any other who is interested. Try throw some seeds in a pot and within a week it should have started to grow in there. What I do sometimes is that I put a mesh over the pot allowing the birds to pick n eat from what's growing without allowing them to dig around in the dirt completely ruin that pot. Gives em something todo with their time too. Millet spray grows extremely quick in the beginning but I usually mix in a couple of other seeds in the pot as well. Just make sure to use clean soil with no furtilizers etc.

[Grey_Moon]

As far as scales go my girl stands on the top of an average kitchen digital scale.

Food-wise, seeing as I'm the forum's food nerd I've got a couple things:

Fruit n veggie wise the salad idea is great but make sure you're offering plenty of nutritious fare---and be careful to avoid high-sugar or foods high in oxalic acid (which inhibits absorption of and leeches calcium, as well as can cause kidney issues).

Apples (especially those without peel) are pretty much sugar with water and fibre, not being very nutritious. Try deeply coloured fruits like mango, blueberries and papaya.
Lettuce is nutrition-poor and mostly water. Try greens like kale, collard, dandelions or watercress.
Spinach is high in oxalic acid, subject to contamination and should be fed sparingly if at all. Better alternatives would be again kale, collard etc.


As lunchtime is usually nap time for parrots I would not offer food at that time, because they're naturally not going to be interested in it. If they eat, they won't build up a good appetite for dinner and may be picky.


I'm not a big pellet supporter but....at least you know Zupreem isn't good. So I'll leave that alone.

[Elizebird]

For those curious about how I sprouted my seeds (which, btw, I simply took my GCC's store made seed mix, filled my little tupperware with enough water to just cover the seeds, and rinsed / refilled once a day. It took 2 days to get visible results. The seeds I could identify were millet, sunflower, safflower. I don't really know my seeds...but all those seeds definitely kicked in.)
I read this as well: http://www.landofvos.com/articles/sprouts.html

Grey_Feather, yikes, I never knew spinach was so bad! I have gone bird-food shopping and come home with some awesome products, and tomorrow I should go fresh-food shopping for proper foods. As for tomorrow, breakfast will be leftover (relatively unhealthy) lettuce-apple-cucumber that I chopped tonight. It's basically water and sugar, but a pretty flavorless yummy way to get my 'too used to fresh foods. (I have fed him apple before, though.) And to clarify, there will be no meal at lunch as I'm not home. After I give them breakfast, I will leave the birds a bowl filled shallowly with a pellets/driedfruit/nut mix (seeds, for my 'too ATM) so if they get hungry while I'm gone they have snack. Dinner is served when i get home.

He pretty much fits my scale, so I'm leaving that that.

To monitor how much my birds are actually eating I'll be measuring the before and after weights of "Breakfast" Dinner and the free-fed snack. :3

I'll post pics of some of the yummies I got !

[marie83]

I had major trouble getting things to sprout when I first started trying, it usually did nothing then started smelling musty so I thought my supplies were bad. It wasn't my stock, it was the method in the end. If you keep trying different things and it still wont sprout then get new seeds/pulses and stick the old stuff out for the birds or something.

Eventually this is what I found to work best for me.

Rinse seeds/pulses in hot water from the kettle
Put them in an old jam jar without the lid, take the label off to allow as much light in as possible.
place on window cill
Allow to soak (completely submerged) for 24 hours.
Rinse well, this time just leave a tiny bit of water in the bottom- enough to keep them damp but not submerged.
I rinse twice a day to prevent bacteria growth and keep the seeds at the top damp, you may be ok doing it once or need three rinses depending on how hot it is.

Remember different things take different amounts of times to sprout, anything from 1 day - 1 week so don't be disappointed if it doesn't seem to be working straight away.