Our Finches And Wheat

[lovezebs]

Atbird

Haah-hahahh......
Got to love that, Anna .....

wheaTTT, really officers, it's only WHEAT !!!

[debbie276]

http://www.finchinfo.com/diet/safe_toxi ... _foods.php

Protease inhibitors inhibit digestive enzymes and, when present in high levels in the diet, may decrease the avian body's to digest proteins and lead to pancreatic hypertrophy. Although these enzyme inhibitors are present to a degree in all plants, significant levels are found in all legumes, corn, lettuce, oats, peas, peanuts, barley, beets, buckwheat, wheat, rice, rye, turnips, sweet potatoes and potatoes (in VERY high amounts).5 Luckily protease inhibitors are readily inactivated by cooking,5 so if any of the above-listed food sources are going to constitute a major part of your birds' diet, you should cook them first.

Other various inhibitors are present in a wide variety of food stuffs. Briefly, they include: amylase inhibitor (in wheat, rye, sorghum, beans), plasmin inhibitor which inhibits blood clotting5 (in some beans), cholinesterase inhibitors (in carrots, cabbage, asparagus, broccoli, celery, radishes, raspberries, strawberries, oranges, pumpkin, peppers, tomatoes, turnips, apples, eggplant, and especially potatoes), and kallikrein inhibitor which reduces antibody formation5 (in potatoes).

There are many more things listed on that link.
Worth a read, everything in moderation

[Rox]

lovezebs Pity it's too late in the season for green seed but start dropping hints to your friend for next season

[lovezebs]

debbie276

Thanks so much Debbie.
Don't know how I missed all this info...... Or an even scarier thought, maybe I read it, but have forgotten it

So as both you Sally, and the article state, everything in moderation.

Thanks again.

[lovezebs]

Rox

I will for sure Roxanne , eventhough next season, is many, many months away.

[cindy]

I wonder how those would be soaked or sprouted? I've never had the chance to have fresh seed like that.

Just think the same thing.... you triple the nutritional by chitting/sprouting seeds

https://sproutpeople.org/wheat-sprouts/ how long to soak it and some nutritional info

[lovezebs]

cindy

Thanks Cindy.

I tried to boil them to soften them a bit, and tossed together with some corn. The kids ate all the corn, nosed around the wheat a bit, but were not too enthusiastic, which is weird, because normally they love boiled seeds.

I'll try to sprout them next, and see how that works.

[Madcat]

Atbird

Pahahahheeeee!!!!!!

[Sojourner]

Wheat isn't a native grass anymore. It just isn't a "natural" part of anybody's diet. But that doesn't mean its necessarily "bad" for them.

I've decided to take all those "what birds can eat" lists with a grain of salt. Oh, some things are right out, like avacados and chocolate. But just what are the criteria for being on that list, where did the info come from, what substances cause some things to be in the "in moderation" category, who has quantified "moderation" and how did they quantify it, and wouldn't some of those plants have some of the same substances, whereas its actually the SUBSTANCES within the plant that cause it to be labeled for "moderate" use so that using an individual plant "in moderation" may not solve the potential problems when another plant has the same substance that triggers the "moderate use" flag?

So say strawberries and spinach are on the moderate use list but have some substance in them in common, so that alternately feeding them means that substance that somebody things for some reason should be offered only in "moderate" amounts is actually being fed every day.

In short, the lists don't include enough information to be very meaningful, outside of one or two substances that need to be avoided entirely.