The Kitchen Physician ~ Greening the Diet!

[cindy]

This article is an in depth discussion regarding feeding veggies, their nutritional values...it talks about feeding hookbills but this can be adapted for our finches and canaries as well.

"Wild parrots spend their lives in the greenery of the rain forest canopy. Not only do they use green trees and plants for camouflage and bathing, their colorful, lofty home contains a huge variety of edible green plants. Greenery provides leaves, buds, sprouts, shoots, blossoms, and stems, as well as nuts, seeds, fruits and berries. It is thought that fibrous green foods make up the majority of the wild parrot's diet, while protein, also derived mostly from vegetable matter, and fats make up a small percentage of the total diet. Compare that to the high-fat, high-protein diet with very few green foods that most parrots in captivity consume. One can easily understand the problems of Amazons and other parrot species that are prone to obesity. Somehow, we birdkeepers have failed to emulate Mother Nature's generous buffet of green foods. Birdkeepers rely more heavily on grains and seeds and many companion parrots are lucky to get green food once a week. Their wild counterparts eat mostly green food every day of their lives. Captive parrots should be offered one or two green foods daily, and the more variety, the better."

to read more in regards to what some veggies/green foods offer nutritionally go to.... http://www.landofvos.com/articles/kitchenxiii.html

[lovezebs]

Thanks for another excellent article, Cindy.
It just goes to prove what I have always believed. My birds have always enjoyed a variety of fruits and vegetables. I think they would be quite shocked if a day went by without their platter of yummies. Frankly, I love watching them dig in with good appetites.

My little couple of green singers ( with me for only a few days now ) haven't quite caught on yet. They will only eat things that are hanging up in the cage and won't go down to the cage floor if their lives depended on it. The rest of the crew however have no such qualms.

[Rox]

Great article Cindy, thanks!

It's quite amazing how much the birds do enjoy their greens, especially if it's fresh plants. I have 2 aviaries. The first one is now just dried brush, as the canaries kill all plants I try to plant in there. All of these birds (finches and waxbills included) devour plates of chopped greens and fruit daily.

My other aviary has no canaries and is planted with safe and edible plants. At first I dished up the same amount of fresh food for these birds as I did for the other aviary, expecting them to eat roughly the same amount. I now only give one dish, with a sprinkling of spinach and sprouts for the gouldians and everyone else, including the gouldians, eat from their 'garden'. Even the diamond doves eat off of the plants

[cindy]

I find that if soft food is given daily the less seed is consumed.

This is a topic I started recently with some of my fresh foods and chops included:

http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=28120

[lovezebs]

Funny you mention that, Cindy. I have noticed the exact same thing with my guys. More veggies, fruit and eggs, less seed consumption. In fact, most days when I put in their breakfast, they go to the veggie platter before the seeds.

Lovezebs

[cindy]

this is today's post on my chop feast topic:

"Today's dinning experience....cooked quinoa, finely chopped yellow squash, carrots and celery (de-rib if using bigger pieces), Roudybush pellets, seed and a sprinkling of AviTech Cal-D-Solve on each serving."