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Is organic molasses safe?

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Is organic molasses safe?

Postby frozengirl » Tue Jan 02, 2018 1:30 am

Hi everyone,

I wanted to make my birds some homemade nutriberries, and use a very small amount of organic molasses with pellets, pellet dust and seed, water, maybe abit of whole wheat flour, then heating for 5-10 minutes .

Is organic molasses safe to stick the seeds and pellets together? I was thinking very small amount, like 1 tablespoon per 5 tablespoon seed , just enough to make it stick.

I know lafebers uses cane molasses, is that the same thing as organic molasses? I have a cockatiel and two budgies, in case anyone is wondering why I want to make a foraging treat that is bigger then seed for hiding in paper, muffin papers etc.
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Re: Is organic molasses safe?

Postby Pajarita » Tue Jan 02, 2018 11:57 am

Molasses is sucrose, something birds should never eat [the sugar they can eat is fructose and even this should never be concentrated but just the natural content in fresh fruits or veggies]. Don't think that because something is sold as bird food is something actually good for birds because this is not so. The pet food industry is completely unregulated and they can use and claim anything and cannot be even be sued because of it [PIJAC makes sure of that]. The only reason why we now have healthy dog and cat food is because the public put pressure on the manufacturers but this has not yet happened with birds. Why don't you make little balls of barely cooked whole grains [instead of seeds which are not as healthy] and use something like pureed pumpkin to make them 'stick' together?
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Re: Is organic molasses safe?

Postby frozengirl » Tue Jan 02, 2018 6:06 pm

I can't buy puréed pumpkin anywhere in my area and all the dehydrated fruits have sulfites and I don't have a strong enough mixer to grind the fruit to dehydrate my own :(
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Re: Is organic molasses safe?

Postby Pajarita » Wed Jan 03, 2018 11:57 am

Oh, no, no, I would never recommend giving a bird a dehydrated anything! Pureed pumpkin is available online [https://www.amazon.com/Farmers-Market-Foods-Organic-Pumpkin/dp/B000VK5VQW/ref=sr_1_4_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1514997654&sr=8-4&keywords=pureed+pumpkin] and you can make it yourself, too - just look for recipes online and you'll see. But you can also use mashed sweet potatoes, yams... yucca is nice and sticky when cooked - even carrots if you boil the puree to reduce it as much as possible.
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Re: Is organic molasses safe?

Postby frozengirl » Wed Jan 03, 2018 10:31 pm

Assuming I can find purée pumpkin or use sweet potato, how do you hide pellets, seeds inside of a ball inside of paper for foraging , if it's wet ?

I am asking for my cockatiel, I give her three meals a day I just want something she can work on for a treat when I'm not home to occupy her... if something is wet it would sog the paper and spoil within a few hours.
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Re: Is organic molasses safe?

Postby Pajarita » Thu Jan 04, 2018 1:14 pm

You cook the balls, of course. You need something wet but sticky to use as 'glue' for the mashed up pellets, seeds, nuts or whatever, and once you make the little balls, you would put them in the oven to make them dry enough so you can put them in a foraging toy or a paper bag. But, my dear, I have to tell you, cockatiels don't really need three meals a day [they eat at dawn and at dusk mainly]. And, if what you are looking for is enrichment for your bird [and kudos to you for this! :thumbsup: ], there is nothing that can top another cockatiel for that! They are INTENSELY flock oriented and do 10,000 times better when they have, at the very least, a companion of their own species - of course, if you give them a mate it's even better and, if you give them a flock, they are in seventh heaven!
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Re: Is organic molasses safe?

Postby frozengirl » Sat Jan 06, 2018 3:41 am

I have two budgies my tiel can play with, but they are in quarenteen because one of them was sick for two months. Before the quarenteen they seemed abit shy but enjoyed each other's company.

Poncho, the sick budgie , has been better for a month and two weeks, but got fluffy for two days during a molt and had me worried he was sick again. Since my cockatiel is only 6 months old, I do not want to expose her until i am 100 percent sure my budgie is okay, as I read young birds have undeveloped immune systems.. He was on antibotics for 2 months off and on, as he got better then sick again over and over after treatments.

I let the budgies back together again, because they have been in he same cage for almost 7 years together and missed each other a lot. I put the healthy budgie on antibotics for a week also in case, and he never showed signs of illness being back with his buddy for two months now.

Oh and my cockatiel seems to eat all the time, I figured it was because she is young.
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Re: Is organic molasses safe?

Postby Pajarita » Sat Jan 06, 2018 11:48 am

Yes, she is young but do you know for a fact that it's a she? Because all baby tiels look like females... Two months of antibiotic is a bit too much - I mean, even chlamydiosis [psittacosis] which, as far as I know, has the longest treatment is only for 45 days. But, in any case, budgies are never good company for a cockatiel. They are very pushy and can be real nasty to other birds... Besides, if you have a bonded pair, they are not going to look at the tiel twice. You don't have to get her a mate now because she is still very young but you might want to consider it for the future.

As to a 6 month old bird eating all day long... well, I don't know about that but they do need more food, that's for sure! The thing is to give them the right food. I guess that as long as you are feeding a very low protein mix [budgie?] is OK but I would still go with gloop because they end up eating veggies along with the whole grains which is much more healthy for them than any type of seed and it's also the only way I know of making them eat veggies and fruits daily. Some people say they have tiels that eat raw veggies and fruits but I've only had a couple that ate maybe a bite or two of a piece of apple and that was that! The rest would gladly eat their leafy greens [which they LOVE!] but would not touch a raw veggie or a fruit if their lives depended on it!
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Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
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Re: Is organic molasses safe?

Postby frozengirl » Sat Jan 06, 2018 1:10 pm

I feed mine gloop, raw and sprouts every day when I'm home. 3 meals lol.

Here's a video she likes raw veggies but prefers sprouts :)

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Re: Is organic molasses safe?

Postby frozengirl » Sat Jan 06, 2018 1:36 pm

Ive only baked sweet potato to where it got mushy never hard. How will I know when it's hard enough without burning it?

Oh and before I had a rehomed tiel that got a long well with my budgies, they wanted to preen him and woo him, but i would never cage them together.

My budgies seem to be very friendly for budgies. It's just they never had a chance to know my new tiel, after I got her and quarenteened her, they got to meet for only three days then my budgie got sick.

As for the antibotic treatment, I think it was because of the low dosage, one dose of 0.8 ml per day, maybe the vet should have raised it after the first treatment. He got better , then got sick 3 days after I stoped antibotics . That happened twice. The third time he never got sick afterwards, thankfully. I live on an island , Newfoundland, in Canada with no avian vet, so I was going by the advise of the exotic vet.

I got him some probiotics and somehow he pulled through :) I think I got lucky! The exotic vet couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, so did antibotics just in case.
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