Dried fruits and Veggies

[cindy]

While at the vet's a few weeks ago with my lovebird I got a chance to discuss some food options with the vet and her assistant (who raises javas, one pair is 10 yrs old). I mentioned to the assistant that I had a horrible time getting some of my finches to eat veggies, some will some won't. Some of the finches (especially the RCCB's) will sit on a perch above the bowl and stare at it like the bowl will eat them! I get tired of tossing veggies in the trash. I have the same issue with boiled egg, some pick at it others ignore it. I hate to be wasteful. I basically given up on the boiled egg since they all eat the dried ABBA egg food. I even added wheat germ oil to the veggies and eggs and they won't eat it. They like wheat germ oil mixed in a little seed, even the Red Headed finches eat that.

Anyway...she suggested taking a regular box of muffin mix (cornbread) and adding ground veggies to it. I cam across some sites that sold dried veggies and fruits, they also sell the powdered form.

They have powdered dry carrots, broccoli, spinach, beet. I figured this could be added to the breads, maybe mixed into the dried egg foods a couple of times a week.

Has anyone done this?

http://www.barryfarm.com/veggies.htm
http://www.synergyproduction.com/pages/ ... wders.html

[CandoAviary]

The thing about cooking (heat destroys) any fresh fruit or vegatables is that most of the vitamins like C, A, etc. are destroyed.
Processed foods powdered/pelleted are a cooked product. You still get the fiber and iron, calcium, etc. but the whole point of feeding the fresh fruits and veggies is to provide those vitamins in a way that the bird can take them up and utilize. The processed foods have been vitamin fortified. Not the same as obtaining vitamins the natural way...through the foods they eat.
It is the same with us humans, a fresh raw salad especially if home grown and just picked after a full day of sunshine (highest vitamin count time of day) is so much more packed with vitamins, chlorophyll, etc. than steamed, baked, or dried stuff.
My birds eat dried fruits, also a baked bird bread... but these will never replace fresh organic grown greens
Since you live in sunny FL, you can easily grow greens year round. This would cut the cost and wast down. Most greens/herbs can be grown in a flower pot/through with minimal effort. I have found that my birds will gobble the homegrown stuff but many times will turn their noses up at store bought hydroponically grown stuff.

[cindy]

Candace these are freezed dried, some aired dry and some are drum dried (that one involves a low heat) barryfarm does all three...and as far as pellets go I'm done having that discussion. Let's just agree to disagree and be done with it. As far as a garden goes it is out of the question.

[CandoAviary]

Candace these are freezed dried, some aired dry and some are drum dried (that one involves a low heat) barryfarm does all three...and as far as pellets go I'm done having that discussion. Let's just agree to disagree and be done with it. As far as a garden out of the question.

Hunh I feed pellets...zupreen, abba pellets, pretty bird and rowdy bush ...no debate here I also feed fresh. I didn't say garden ... grow in a flower pot. I grow spinach, watercress, fancy lettuce in a regular flower pots. They do great and you can pick the greens to feed or just sit the whole pot in the aviary and let them munch/crop
Just trying to explain why keepers go through the trouble of getting there birds fresh greens and offering them even though they don't always eat them.... simply because fresh is the best/healthiest for them. Just trying to be helpful... interested in the bread recipe you will be making.... I may try this too. I have made the cornmeal bread with sunflower kernels, cranberries and raisins for my grasskeets... they love it

[nixity]

Cindy just out of curiosity have you ever tried grating the egg?

This is the ONLY way my birds will eat it, and they still don't really devour it by any means, but they do eat it.. especially when they have newborns.

Well, I should say some do, some don't

I have one pair that will go through two plates a day, and my societies will eat it.
The CBs nibble at it but don't eat it like they do mealies if I give them.

But if I try chopping/grinding it they won't touch it - none of them.

Also with the veggies, I pulverize them in a food processor (the bullet express, to be exact, which is a GOD SEND!!!), and this way even Critter devours the greens when before she'd pick at a leaf but it'd be all wilted by the end of the day.

If I chop them in the processor like this (each piece is literally the size of a piece of a piece of oregano seasoning!) and mix them with sprouts, the birds pick every piece of greens out of the sprouts.

I've started giving them whole saucers of the greens and it's 100% gone by the end of the day.

Not sure how you were offering, just a few suggestions
My birds prefer Kale over anything.. but they also like Collards this way, too.

[cindy]

Tiffany,

I have chopped the egg, served it in quarters, mushed it with cornmeal, wheat germ oil, mixed greens finely diced carrots and herb. Some like the owls will dive in but the GB, RCCB all look at it like "no way"

I've tried kale, collard greens. I have three different food processors, one finely grind the other chops or grind and the other one minces. Tried everything..it is like getting a kid to eat something he does not want to eat...so I want to get sneeky about it. My poor daughter can tell in the morning when she sleeps in that I am trying to feed the birds greens, I have the food processors going. At least I wait until 10 am to run them!!!!

I did see an egg biscuit recipe that I need to go back and find, it had lots of good things in it. I wish they would eat the egg since my husband has sentinal chickens and can get eggs for me anytime from work. I also want to do the bird muffins like the vet suggested.

tiffany..they all including the GB and especially the RCCBs love Herb Salad...that is green!!!!!

Oh the one thing my mom used to do is take a portion of a romaine leaf and clip it inside the cage, most of the finches loved tearing at it, she did the same with de-skinned apples and oranges.

[nixity]

Tiffany,

I have chopped the egg, served it in quarters, mushed it with cornmeal, wheat germ oil, mixed greens finely diced carrots and herb. Some like the owls will dive in but the GB, RCCB all look at it like "no way"

What about boiling a single egg and taking a cheese grater to it just as an experiment? - for the CBs especially. When you do it this way it looks like little worms and this very well may be why mine suddenly got curious about it.
To be fair, they still do not consume it in the quantities I was hoping or how others say theirs do, but they do nibble at it and I'm persevering hoping that once their eggs hatch their interest in it will increase.
I mix it with Laraine's "Egg Meal", Orlux or Miracle Meal so it's a bit more crumbly. I'd say for 1 egg I use 1 tablespoon of one of the above. I switch it up because some of my birds prefer one mixture over the other (like Saki and Gadget prefer the Miracle Meal, the Socs prefer the Egg Meal, and my pair Rachel and Astley only touch it when I mix the Orlux in).
But I am not making THREE different kinds so I just change it up to please them all ;)

I've tried kale, collard greens. I have three different food processors, one finely grind the other chops or grind and the other one minces. Tried everything..it is like getting a kid to eat something he does not want to eat...so I want to get sneeky about it.

Have you tried mixing them in sprouts/soaked seed? Do your birds eat soaked seed? This was how I got mine eating them chopped up
I keep forgetting you don't have Goulds, so this could also be why.. my CBs don't really eat the fresh greens, either.
But I would think your Shafties and Owls would love the greens

[cindy]

This is odd the parent shaftails don't touch the greens or boiled egg foods but the young from the first clutch will. Oh..all my zebras eat anything, the owls have them beat.

I have not attempted the soaked seed but the next order from Hermans I will include that in it. We have done sprouts before but not with the finches...

I am just going to have to get clever!

[Sally]

The one thing I've found having a variety of birds is that they all have their own preferences. I'm like Tiffany, though, I don't have the time to fix meals to order, so every cage gets the same plate of eggfood, with veggies on the side, with the only difference being some get the freeze-dried bloodworms or live mini mealworms. Waste is just something that comes with the territory. When you have a mixed aviary, it is much easier, because the fussy ones will get curious about what the others are eating. When they are in a cage by themselves, they don't have a teacher bird.

I did find that my CBs increased their veggie intake tremendously when they were feeding babies, and now the babies are really good about eating their veggies.

Tiffany, I think I am going to get one of those 'Bullets' to try. I also think it is Misty that grates her veggies so the pieces look like little worms, and then her birds eat them.

Cindy, if you have any finch mix that is mostly small seeds, millets, and no colored vitamin pieces added, you can soak or sprout that for now, it doesn't necessarily have to be a special soak mix.

[cindy]

Sally, I ordered a really nice mix from Herman Bros that has 5 different millets in it, aniise and canary grass seed. I will read up on the how to's and try it out.

I've seen the Bullet on TV, can you get them in the stores now?

[CandoAviary]

What about boiling a single egg and taking a cheese grater to it just as an experiment? -

This is exactly what I do, have been for years. Except I boil more than 1 egg at a time I have recommended this to others that tried it and so far 100% success rate in getting their birds to eat egg
I took these pictures a few days ago to send someone to give them an idea of the diameter of the grated eggs. You grate the egg to look like mealworms...they preferred white worms that have just shed I could not find any of the white meal worms to put with the darker matured ones.
Birds recognize their food by site and if it does not look right... they will avoid it. I learned a long time ago to mimic natures foods. With my goldbreast I started adding a few slivers to their mealworm dish. Soon they were fighting over the white ones Now they will swarm the plate before I can set it down in the aviary. Below the pics of my egg worms.






Also with the greens... when they are grown and look natural the birds seem to flock to them. Maybe try and grow some of your bird seed as grasses... you can do that on your window sill.

[dfcauley]

I have always grated my boiled eggs with a cheese grater. This is the only way my birds will eat their eggfood. It looks like little worms and they love it that way. I have the cuts on my hands to prove it.

[Sally]

Don't know if you have Kohl's department store, but they carry the Bullet now.

Sigh--grating 12 eggs a day sounds like a lot of work! Mine get their eggs put thru the food processor, and I tell them what my mother used to tell us--I'm not running a restaurant here!

[cindy]

I have never grated just chopped. I'll try it now and have band-aids on stand by!!!

Sally, we have a new Kohl's right near us! Thanks.

[CandoAviary]

Those bullets are great for pulverizing eggshells and cuttle bones