Sprouting Instructions

This site http://sproutpeople.org/sprouts/grow/sprouting.html will tell you all you need to know about sprouting for your birds.

If you do not have an easy sprouter you can follow these simple instructions!

Get you some mung beans, adzuki beans, and anything else you want to sprout. Put a small amount in a collander or strainer and place the strainer in a small bowl. Cover the beans with about 2 inches of warm water. Let stand for about two minutes, then rinse. Repeat two or three times, until the water in the bowl is clear when you lift the strainer out. Rinse and refill. Let the beans soak in the water overnight or for about 8-10 hours. Change the water 3-4 times daily repeat the process. After 8-10 hours drain the beans. Put down paper towels and lay the beans out on them. Dry the beans thoroughly!!! The beans must not be allowed to get slimey. They should be totally dry when you serve them. The beans will be cold and firm, but not slimey or moldy. After 4- 5 days, discard any soaked beans and make another batch. Most of the beans will have started to sprout by this time. Mix with some  brown rice and corn (fresh from the cob or frozen. - fresh stays better), warm and serve.

Sprouted lima beans and navy beans are poisonous - do not use lima beans!!!The following beans are good to use: mung, adzuki, garbanzo or chick peas, lentils, barley, whole green peas not split. Brown rice, wheat, rye, barley, groats, sunflower and safflower seeds are also nutritional sources for sprouts. For more information I love the site: www.sproutpeople.com  they also have great quality products!

Also, I am going to carry a mix of beans, lentils, grains, and more for sale by the pound. If you want to give them a try, just let me know.

FRUITS
Fresh fruits, thoroughly washed and rinsed in order to remove dirt and any chemical pesticide residues should make up a good portion of a bird basic diet. The following are recommended but do not use the pits - many are poisonous: apples, oranges, cherries, pears, nectarines, plums, peaches, whole cranberries, papaya, mango, persimmons, apricots, leeches (seeds OK), pomegranates (the seeds are the best part), bananas, grapes - seeded or seedless, berries - black, blue, raspberries, mulberries, currants are all great. Commercially grown strawberries have the highest level of stored pesticide residues of any fruit or vegetables, so should be avoided. Homegrown or organic strawberries are fine. This is just a basic list, many other fruits can be fed.

NUTS
Nuts are nutritious and are relished by most parrots, but must be fed appropriately according to the fat content requirement for a particular species. There is one generalization that holds true for all parrots. Peanuts should never be fed to any parrot!  Although dearly loved by almost all parrots and people alike, they carry aspergillus spores, which could cause aspergillosis and should not be included in any psittacine diet!  Aspergillosis is a very serious and sometimes fatal avian disease, why expose your bird to it every time you feed it a not very nutritious treat? Peanuts also carry cancer causing aflatoxins. African greys are especially susceptible to aspergillosis, but it has been reported to occur in all psittacines.

Macaws and many other New World parrots require a diet high in fat. Nuts are an important and integral part of their diet. Hyacinth macaws live almost exclusively on palm, brazil and macademia nuts. A captive diet rich in these nuts is great for them, but the same diet would kill a rosebreasted cockatoo or a budgie. Most cockatoos, cockatiels and budgerigars do not adequately metabolize fat from their bodies. They are prone to developing lipomas or so-called fatty tumors around their internal organs when fed a diet high in fats. A seed diet, mixed with nuts is anathema to them. Their nut intake for cockatoos, cockatiels and budgerigars should be very limited, if at all. The following nuts are healthy, again in moderation and according to fat the metabolism capabilities of specific species: almonds, cashews, brazil nuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds, macademia, and pistachios (undyed and unsalted).

*I have begun to go to Costco and buy a 3 lb. bag of Almonds, Walnuts and PineNuts for my birds. Be sure to buy unsalted, natural non-cooked nuts. This saves me money and I know the  quality of the nuts are humangrade.

 For smaller birds I usually chop the nuts up, for large birds I give them to them whole. I offer nuts daily, small birds usually get ½ - 1 nut, medium birds 1 or 2, and my larger birds may get up to 5-6 a day. If you see a weight gain you may want to reduce the daily amount of nuts.

PELLETS
Many good quality commercially formulated pelleted and extruded foods are on the market today. Contrary to many advertising claims, due to the differences in species nutritional requirements, no one pelleted food can satisfy the nutritional needs of all species. Be aware of the nutritional requirements of your particular species and read the labels. Macaws need pellets high in fat, cockatoos need pellets low in fat, African greys need pellets that are high in calcium. See which pellets your bird likes. Not all birds will eat every pellet. You might have to try a few, but pellets should be an integral part of your birds diet.

The following are some of the best quality brands of pellets that might be right for your pet: Harrisons (my #1 favorite for most parrots except the Eclectus parrot) RoudyBush is next in line, then Zupreem natural pellets. Eclectus parrots should not have Harrisons pellets because of the spirulina in it, it may cause toetapping or wing flapping in Eclectus. 90% of my birds are on Roudy Bush pellets. Never use dyed pellets, there is no need in feeding a pellet when the kidneys have to work extra hard to expel the dye. If RoudyBush and Harrisons pellets are not available I would feed Zupreem Natural pellets. These are my choices, I have researched most all pellets and I personally feel these are the best 3.

TABLEFOOD
Most table food is okay for birds in very small amounts , but the following is poisonous!  Never feed: avocado, caffeine, chocolate, rhubarb, sprouted lima, fava and navy beans. Cooked brown rice and pasta (both raw and cooked) have a place in your bird's diet. They can eat eggs occasionally, dairy products, including yogurt, & cheese, as well as meat (fat removed), poultry, pasta, whole grain breads, vegetables and fruits.

BIRDY BREAD
A very nutritious and easy to make bird bread recipe is as follows: Buy a box of Jiffy Corn Meal Mix. Follow the directions on the box for corn meal bread, but add the following: 3 extra eggs (shell and all, crush shell into tiny bits), 1 well cooked, mashed or pureed sweet potato, zucchini or any other fresh veggie at hand, pieces of fruit, raisins, and some applesauce. Seed and nuts are optional according to the species of bird. After the bread is cooled, slice and serve part. Refrigerate or freeze the rest for later use.

FOOD TOYS
Food toys are great for picky eaters. By food toys I mean food presented in such a way that a finicky eater will be tempted to play with and then nibble on it and eventually learn to eat it.

Here are some examples:

Take a carrot or a beet , preferably with the top (greens) still on and make a hole about ¾ of an inch from the thick end. Put a short piece of sisal through it . Take a carrot peeler and peel down the side of the carrot without removing the peels. Do this all around the carrot or beet and you will have a carrot mop that your bird will hopefully play with and sample.

Take a thick woody carrot preferably with the greens still attached, and place it high up in the cage. Notch or wedge the end without the greens between the bars until it is secure, or secure with screw and washers and if it's the highest perch in the cage, your bird is sure to investigate it. Eventually, they usually rub their beaks on their new perch and then bite and chew on it. Chances are once they start chewing on it, they will learn to eat carrots.

Brussell sprouts on the stalk hung in the cage usually winds up as a half eaten swing. In the case of very timid birds, try hanging a fruit or veggie outside of the cage almost out of the parrot's reach. What parrot do you know that won't reach for something it thinks that you don't want it to have? Be inventive! Make eating nutritiously fun for both of you.

SPECIES DIFFERENCES
Until very recently, parrots and their nutritional requirements were lumped together as a group by most experts. Some very well respected avian experts still feel that one or another specific formulated pelleted diet can satisfy the nutritional requirements of all psittacines. This is just not true! Parrot diets in the wild vary as wildly as do their size, coloration and personalities. We should try to take the environment that a particular psittacine species evolved in, into consideration when formulating a diet for each and every individual parrot.

As a breeder of many different species of birds, I have observed firsthand that certain babies failed to thrive and develop normally if the handfeeding formula is not tailored to their needs. Stunted hatchlings are the result of improper handfeeding formula and technique. Baby hawkheaded parrots need a diet that has a minimum of 12% fat. They will not gain weight and grow if the formula they are fed is too low in fat. Many aviculturists are unaware of this and have lost and continue to lose hawkhead chicks. Cockatoo babies need to be on a low fat diet. Cockatoo chicks need to have a low, no more than eight percent fat diet. When cockatoo babies are fed a high fat diet, they develop fatty kidney and liver disease. They are unable to properly metabolize the fat and store it in their organs. Both these situations can be tragic and even fatal if not corrected. Both are totally avoidable by using a little bit of common sense.

By extrapolation, we must modify the diets of our adult birds to be species specific. Your parrot, like a small child, can't tell you what they need. Buyer beware! Do your homework! Do your own due diligence and provide your parrot with the proper nutrition and they will reward you with many years of loving devotion. A varied diet will make a long lived healthy happy companion.

HOW I FEED MY PET BIRDS AND OUR BREEDER BIRDS

Most of my birds eat RoudyBush pellets, and some are on Harrison’s Pellets. I keep fresh pellets in their bowl 24 hours a day. Remember, when the pellets look like dust or sand, trash them, that is leftovers and the bird will not eat them; better yet, dump them outside for the wild birds and squirrels!!

I also feed sprouts daily, I know most people don’t take the time to learn how to do this, but if you decide to try it I’m sure your bird will enjoy them, plus they are the most nutritious living food a bird or person can eat. I try to feed vegetables every day too, especially if I don’t feed sprouts for some reason. Fresh vegetables is of course the best to feed them, but I also keep a bag of fresh frozen veggies in my freezer when fresh is not available. I buy the Food Lion, or store brand of carrots, green beans, corn and peas and feed them. I either let them thaw out in their dish or microwave them for a few seconds. If you microwave be sure to stir so there will not be any hot spots in the bowl. There are also other mixes of frozen vegetables available, try them and see what your bird prefers, and feed him different veggies for variety. 

I don’t feed a lot of fruit, but our breeders do get a small piece of fruit each day. My pets usually get some fruit 1-3 times a week. I feed apples, pears, cranberries, any fresh fruit that I may have on hand. They don’t eat a huge amount of fruits!  Maybe a slice of apple, or pear, 1-2 berries, a small piece of cantaloupe or melon.

At night I give every one a walnut half and an almond. Pine nuts are a great nut for birds but are quite expensive. For a small bird I would give ½ walnut and ½-1 almond at night for a treat. Macaws, full size and mini I would double that amount.