to mash, or not to mash...

[allgirlsmom]

I'm reading that some of you mash food offerings and others leave whole, slice or shred. Is it dependent on the individual bird, or is one method better than the other for digestion, etc.? I've left most whole, like broccoli florets, orange slices, and leafy stuff. But sometimes, I can't tell if they actually ate some or it dried up and shrank. I guess I should hang out more and watch.

[EmilyHurd]

My finches go examine food more if I cut it up finely and put it in an open dish. I use small paper plates too and spread it out (that way more birds can eat it at the same time too). If you just put a piece of broccoli in there, in my experience, the finches usually won't go peck at it.

However, there are exceptions, like with cucumber, I've never had to finely cut it up, I can just slice it and they'll eat it that way.

For veges and egg food, I bought one of those things that you put the food in and just start pushing it and it goes up and down and cuts the food up for you.


SORT OF LIKE THIS ONE.

[allgirlsmom]

Thanks. I never thought of using my chopper. Tells you how much I use it for human food:-}

[FLAMEonfire]

Most of the foods that they eat, they swallow whole, so for their digestion system I try to make everything I give them as small as possible. That goes for their hard boiled eggs in the morning - to their veggies and fruit that I feed them during the day. Also just a little tip. If you eat TV dinners or bring home food from restaurants - save the plastic dishes the food comes in. I use them for putting treats in - on the bottom of the cage - and from "swimming holes" for the birds to bath in. They're also good to put nesting materials in so the birds can re-supply their nests if they want to. This save me from using up all my plastic ware that should be used for left-overs and such. I started running out of dishes there for awhile - I had all these covers and no plastic dishes to go with them. I also feel better that I don't have to recycle the "birdie dishes" back into family use -auck!! I used to just throw them out - but that get expensive after awhile!