Below are the recipes for the fresh food mixes we feed to our birds. We rotate on a daily basis. Remember that these are fresh foods than can spoil so should only be left in the cage for a few hours and then removed. When I first started making mixes I would look at the recipes and think this is a ton of work. It really is not, the hardest part is chopping the veggies and we use a little handheld veggie chopper and it works great. You can also run the veggies through a food processor and save a little more time. You can double, triple or increase however you want these recipes depending on how many birds you have. We make the mixes up once a month taking a couple hours (besides soaking and cooking the beans) and that is it. You can thaw it over a couple days in the fridge or soak the baggie in hot water to thaw. You can experiment to see how much you need to feed, for example we give our Sun Conure pair about 2tbls of the mash mix, 1tbls of sprouts and the diced up fruits which total about another 2tbls. Our Macaw pairs get about 3/4 cup of the mix, 5 tbls of sprouts and 1/4 cup of fruits combined. Also keep in mind that if you have not fed fresh foods you may offer this for a month or more before your feathered friend tries it and begins to eat it. Just keep putting it in daily, early morning and evenings are best, and they will eventually try it. Once they start eating it you will get a good idea of how much to offer daily. Fresh foods are very important and offer many vitamins and minerals that are not available in seed/pellet mixes so don't give up.
Parrot Mash:
Frozen veggies- We get the mixed bags of veggies as long as they don't include onions which are not good for your birds- 8oz.
Fresh veggies- 1/2 ounce of parsley, 1/2 of a sweet potatoe, 1/2 of a zucchini, 2 large leaves of some kind of dark green leafy veggie ie: collard greens, dandelion greens, kale, spinich etc.
Beans- We use the 15 soup bean mix- 1/2 cup rinsed and drained, soak in cold water overnight and then boil them for 10min, simmer for 20 min and let them cool. Use only enough water so none is left after cooking so as not to lose valuable vitamins.
Grains: 2 oz of brown rice, soaked and cooked with the beans.
Seeds: 1/2 tsp of pumpkin and sesame seeds.
Pasta: 1/2 cup of cooked whole wheat pasta.
Egg: 1 hardboiled egg crushed up with the shell.
Nutritional Supplements: 1/4 tsp kelp, 1/4 tsp alfalfa powder, sprinkle of garlic, 1 tsp apple cider vinegar with the mother in it- all of these can be purchased at a health food store.
After cooking the beans, rice and pasta and chopping up veggies mix everything together, put 1 serving for each bird in a baggie and freeze. Thaw in the fridge. When we go to feed we add 3 or 4 fresh fruits, whatever is in season. Some of our birds' favorites are bananas, kiwi, melon, strawberries, blueberries, rasberries, grapes, mangos, apples etc. Always rinse the fruit well to wash off any pestisides.
Glop:
1 small jar of baby food carrots, sweet potatoes or squash.
3 slices of multigrain bread, toasted and crumbled.
2-4tbls of nonfat plain yogurt.
1 hardboiled egg chopped up with the shell.
For breeding pairs you can sprinkle a couple of tbls of handfeeding formula in the mix also.
Mix well and freeze in individual servings. This mix offers a lot of calcium which is very important, especially for breeding pairs.
Birdie Bread:
1 box of cornbread mix (the cornbread mixes include eggs, put the shell in too).
1/2 bag of frozen veggies.
3 tbls of nonfat plain yogurt.
Prepare the cornbread according to the directions, mix in the other ingredients and bake according to the cornbread directions. When cooled cut up into squares, size depends on the size of your bird and freeze. Our Conure pairs get about a 1x2" square and our Macaws get about a 3x3" square each.
Sprout Seeds:
I cannot remember the exact mix we use in our sprout seed but we get it through Herman Bros Seeds which you can google and that will give you their website. They have my mix on file and if you give them my name they can prepare it for you. We order about 20lbs at a time which lasts for a few months. To prepare you will need a mason jar, a piece of fine screen and a rubber band. Put the seeds in the jar and soak overnight. Rinse well 4 to 5 times a day by running water into the jar through the screen and dumping upside down to drain, letting the jar sit upside down so the seeds are laying on the screen between rinses. After about 3 days your seeds will begin to sprout. We let them sprout for about a day and feed fresh. If you fill the mason jar 1/3 to 1/2 of the way with the dry seeds you will have a full jar once the seeds sprout. We add about a tbls for a Conure size bird and about 5 tbls for a Macaw size bird to the fresh food mix daily. We do not freeze these and have three jars going at all times to ensure fresh sprouts every day. If you are feeding one bird you can use just a tbls of dry seeds in a baby food jar and you will have plenty of sprouts to add to your mixes. When seeds are first sprouting they are packed full of vitamins and minerals that are great for your bird. You can also buy kits that are specifically for sprouting, China Prairie has some nice kits and also have some sprout mixes for parrots. There are many other kits available, just google sprout seed kits and you will have several choices available.
Here is a quick list of some of the most recommended vegetables. Vegetables with an * after them are those highest in Vitamin A:
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Fruits
are less important nutritionally to most birds than are vegetables. Some birds
like Caiques, Eclectus and especially lories need a larger amount of fruit in
their diet than others do. As with vegetables it is usually best to feed organic
fresh fruits. Frozen is typically better than canned and you should avoid fruits
that have sugar added to them. Citrus fruits can cause diarrhea in some birds
and some fruit seeds or pits contain toxins.
The following is a list of the most recommended fruits. Those with an * after them are highest in vitamin A:
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