Homemade Seed Sticks?
Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2015 6:04 am
Hey everyone!
Does anyone have a recipe/method for making those honey treat stick things?
My cockatiels love them.
Whenever they have these, they eat them right up and seem to prefer them over normal seeds. They can each go through 1 3-inch stick per day. (They eat them in place of normal seeds.)
Neither is a great eater and this is the one thing they're both super enthusiastic about.
I looked in the ingredients and it seems it's not much more than honey and seeds.
So I'm thinking I could whip up some seed sticks on my own.
Has anyone attempted this?
If so....
- do you have a specific recipe? Just wondering about the honey to seed ratio. And anything other than seeds and honey?
- How do you get them to harden? Do you just leave out in open air? Or put in the fridge?
- What do you use for the "core"? The store-bought ones have a little plastic core. I could re-use those, I suppose. But I didn't know if you had something better. I thought perhaps a simple toothpick may work. I just need some way to pull them out of the mold.
- What do you use for a mold? I was thinking of using cupcake trays with cupcake papers as liners so they pull out easy. I can just pull off the liners before serving.
I tried googling, but couldn't seem to find anything quite right.
But I imagine it's rather similar to making Rice Krispie treats. Warm honey, mix in seed, let is cool and harden. But I'm afraid I'll end up with a gooey nightmare and 2 cockatiels with perpetually sticky beaks and feet. Ick.
The store bought ones aren't sticky to the touch so there's got to be some trick to it.
I was thinking that these might be a good substitute for normal seed, which always seems to be a hard sell for this pair. I always leave seed out, but they don't ever eat much.
Would that be suitable? I can't imagine what would amount to a couple drops of honey per day would cause any harm but I just thought I'd ask just in case!
Does anyone have a recipe/method for making those honey treat stick things?
My cockatiels love them.
Whenever they have these, they eat them right up and seem to prefer them over normal seeds. They can each go through 1 3-inch stick per day. (They eat them in place of normal seeds.)
Neither is a great eater and this is the one thing they're both super enthusiastic about.
I looked in the ingredients and it seems it's not much more than honey and seeds.
So I'm thinking I could whip up some seed sticks on my own.
Has anyone attempted this?
If so....
- do you have a specific recipe? Just wondering about the honey to seed ratio. And anything other than seeds and honey?
- How do you get them to harden? Do you just leave out in open air? Or put in the fridge?
- What do you use for the "core"? The store-bought ones have a little plastic core. I could re-use those, I suppose. But I didn't know if you had something better. I thought perhaps a simple toothpick may work. I just need some way to pull them out of the mold.
- What do you use for a mold? I was thinking of using cupcake trays with cupcake papers as liners so they pull out easy. I can just pull off the liners before serving.
I tried googling, but couldn't seem to find anything quite right.
But I imagine it's rather similar to making Rice Krispie treats. Warm honey, mix in seed, let is cool and harden. But I'm afraid I'll end up with a gooey nightmare and 2 cockatiels with perpetually sticky beaks and feet. Ick.
The store bought ones aren't sticky to the touch so there's got to be some trick to it.
I was thinking that these might be a good substitute for normal seed, which always seems to be a hard sell for this pair. I always leave seed out, but they don't ever eat much.
Would that be suitable? I can't imagine what would amount to a couple drops of honey per day would cause any harm but I just thought I'd ask just in case!
