Oatmeal

[Lucille]

I bought steel cut oats recently to make oatmeal. Decided to give some to the birds (parakeets, zebras and societies) and they liked it so much that I now have some frozen portions for them (steel cut oats take longer to cook that regular rolled oats)..

[Shannylee]

Lucille, steel cut or oat groats are about the only thing my Javas will eat. They LOVE them. Do your birds eat cooked steel cut oats? I haven't tried that.

[Lucille]

Yes, they are eating them cooked. I have made frozen portions of the oatmeal, and frozen portions of cooked egg/greens. Both are received with enthusiasm.

[lovezebs]

Lucille

I have some Ancient Grains Cereal, that I cook for myself, I wonder if they might go for that (?)

[Lucille]

I'm sure they would love it. Try a little and if it is a hit, consider going to a feed store and buying a 50 lb bag of grains.

[lovezebs]

Lucille

Going to have to give it a try.
There is nothing in it that could be harmful to them really.

[Shannylee]

Mine have eaten cooked Lundberg Wild Rice Blend and loved it so I'm sure they would also enjoy cooked oats. I'm going to give it a try!

[lovezebs]

Shannylee

This is a mixture of Ancient grains, not just oatmeal. There's all sorts of good stuff in there. I'll cook up extra tomorrow, and give all of them a tiny bit, to see what they make of it.

[lovezebs]

Shannylee Lucille

Well the votes are in.

The only one that showed any interest in the Ancient Grains, was my Parrot Finch. Everyone else looked at it with mixed levels of horror.

Charlie the puppy, showed a lot of appreciation though

[Shannylee]

lovezebs, thanks for the update. Does Charlie clean up the tossed birdseed? My dog, Bea eats so much bird seed that when I'm walking in the back of the yard, I think "hmmm...what is that? oh...bird seed poo!" She loves oat groats and practically begs for Higgins Vita Finch. She absolutely begs for the egg bread I make for the birds. LOL!

[lovezebs]

Shannylee

Some days, he does better than my vacuume cleaner, lol. He hoovers everything in, seeds, hulls, stray mealworms, tossed greens, feathers, bits of spray millet.... whatever he can suck into his big mouth around.

I can't recall if I mentioned it, but the other day the Mr Charlie himself stuck his big smooshie face into a bowl of egg food (which was on the kitchen table) and proceeded to eat about a third of it (hardboiled eggs, crushed mealworms, spray millet, store bought egg food, cod liver oil, and herb salad) before he was caught at it.

I figure that after he moults, lol, he'll grow some beautiful feathers....

[Lucille]

Shannylee Lucille

Well the votes are in.

The only one that showed any interest in the Ancient Grains, was my Parrot Finch. Everyone else looked at it with mixed levels of horror.

Charlie the puppy, showed a lot of appreciation though

I'm sorry it didn't work out. Maybe it is an acquired taste? Yesterday it was cold outside (I live in Texas near Houston, we don't have a lot of really cold weather). So I decided to defrost some spicy gumbo (I make quantities of stuff like chili and gumbo and spaghetti sauce and freeze single portions in my large chest freezer in the garage). So I made some rice to go with the gumbo and gave some rice to the birds and they loved it. (I realize brown rice might be more nutritious but I use white rice).
Anyway, my birds seemed to have acquired the taste and love cooked oats, rice, etc. They will even peck at pasta- they never eat much of it, one single piece of rigatoni is enough, but they seem to have fun with it.

[lovezebs]

Lucille

I think it has a lot to do with what they get used to when they're young, and what they see other birds around them eating.

I could try a bit of rice, maybe the Java youngsters would be interested. They have big appetites, bur so far appear to favour greens, veggies, and fruit.

I have tried cuscus in the past , with mixed results, and have on occasion simply boiled some of their seed mix to soften it, again with mixed results.

I have sprouted some seeds on occasion as well, and some seem interested, others not so much.

How do you make Gumbo? No, not for the birds, lol.

[Lucille]

Gumbo is a flexible dish, sometimes people use shrimp, oysters, etc. This time I made mine with chicken and sausage. I use Tony Chachere's seasoning. If you have never made gumbo before you are in for a treat, it is wonderful. One caution: it took about half an hour to make the roux, that is the foundation for this and other Cajun dishes and can't be rushed.
The gumbo I made took most of a day to make as I roasted then deboned 10 lbs of chicken leg quarters before even starting the gumbo. I used the chicken fat from the roasted chicken for my roux.

This is one of those dishes that people don't use a recipe for most of the time because it is so flexible, but here is a recipe to start you off:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emer ... ecipe.html

[lovezebs]

Lucille

Thank you for the recipe Lucille. It def sounds yummy, and I will have to give it a try .
I find that you get into a bit of a rut, making the same things over and over, so it's nice to have something new to try .