Eggfood question

[Louys]

The breeder from whom I bought my birds sold me some eggfood. It seems it has a lot of sugar (not that I have tasted it and some crumbled cookies kind of things. My canary seems to be picking only the dark yellow stuff, which I assume is the egg. My finch barely touches it. Isn't it more nutritious to make home-made eggfood?
I am enjoying being part of this forum, must say!

[lovezebs]

Louys

Home made egg food, is easy to make , relatively inexpensive, and most birds love it.

My egg food recipe consists of hard boiled eggs, crumbled Spray Millet, pulverized freeze dried meal worms, and a bit of store bought egg food .

Boil the eggs, peel them (save the peels)
Put the eggs through a garlic press
Add crumbled Spray Millet
Add small amount of pulverized freeze dried meal worms
Add small amount of store bought egg food mix
Toss with fork into a crumbly mixture.

The egg shells once dry, can be crushed and offered to the birds (a very good source of calcium )

[Dave]

There are as many egg food recipes as there are bird owners.

Mine is just hard boiled eggs, plus a tablespoon of quick oats per egg. The oats dry the mixture out a bit. I leave the shells on the eggs and mash everything in a food processor until it is crumbly.

You can add anything to your egg food that you're not already giving, in another way, to your birds.

If you are not giving vitamins and minerals already, these could be added to the egg food. But don't double up on vitamins and minerals, as these can be dangerous if too much is given.

[debbie276]

I also just add handfeeding formula to hard boiled eggs to up the protein, nutrition and dry out the egg a bit. I wouldn't add lots of filler foods that will lower the protein but most anything can be added to your eggs.

[Louys]

Thank you all.

[xz_zebs]

Definitely make your own egg food & bird bread - even if you use commercial egg food in your mix, it will be much cheaper in the long run.

There are tons of recipes out there and you can cater to your bird's likes/dislikes.

My typical mix is:

• 1 part Greens (usually lacinto/dinosaur kale or broccoli tops)

• 1 part Whole boiled eggs including the shell (actually steamed - much better than boiling)

• 1 part Commercial egg food (I use Volkman's Featherglow) or home made bird bread crumbs or pellets

• Vitamin & mineral supplements (F-Vite, E-Powder, Turbo Booster) if not using pellets

I use a small food processor and grind the greens and egg separately. If I try to grind them together the mix ends up pasty. I then whirl the vitamin & mineral supplements with the commercial mix in the food processor to make sure it is evenly distributed. All the ingredients get dumped into a container after their time in the food processor and mixed gently.

There are probably even more bird bread recipes - the old school ones tend to use boxed Jiffy Corn Bread mix. You can google "bird bread recipe" or "birdie bread recipe" and find one that works best for you. The advantage of bird bread is that it doesn't go bad after a few hours out of the fridge like fresh egg food.

My birds don't like frozen and thawed egg food, even though other people have good luck with it. I usually make just enough for a few days.

[Sojourner]

It's really only cheaper if you have lots of birds, due to waste of leftovers. I don't know for sure whether or not you can freeze it as I've not tried it (my birds will only eat dry commercial egg food) but unless you can freeze it, it won't last more than 2-3 days once you've made it up, and I won't leave it in the cage for more than 2 or 3 hours - and that may actually be too long from the point of view of spoilage.

For me, with only the 2 birds (who won't eat moist egg food anyway) it just doesn't make sense to make it. OPMMV, obviously! LOL!

EDIT: OOOOH, I got beat out on the freezing thing, LOL! Somehow I managed to miss that part of the post.

[slwatson]

I really enjoy making my own egg food, but I do add some commercial egg food to help dry it out. I usually do two dozen eggs at a time and freeze what I don't use in a container. Since I add so many things to my egg mix to dry it out, it can sit for longer periods of time without spoiling. I don't like mixing the boiled eggs with the shell on anymore because I can't get the shell pieces as small as I would like. I've also finally discovered that if I boil the eggs, and then place them directly into the fridge over night, the shells come off much easier! Then I dry the shells out a little, and use a food processor to make them even smaller. The only issue I'm having is finding something that can mix 24 eggs at one time without turning it into paste. My mixer doesn't really work very well with that. I guess I need a LARGE food processor. My ninja chopper is too small!!

[Sally]

slwatson Even with a larger food processor, I find that if I try to do too many eggs at one time, the mix tends to get pasty. I just do lots of batches, as I usually boil about 3 dozen eggs at a time. I mix 4 eggs, about 1 1/3 cup dry commercial egg food, and some of my vitamin mix at one time. This makes up an egg food that is nice and crumbly, and fits perfectly in some containers I found at Costco that stack well in the freezer. (Or I used to use 1 quart containers.)

@Sojourner I have made up birdie bread, and that can be frozen quite successfully. I use one box of Jiffy corn bread mix and 12 eggs, following the recipe at www.finchaviary.com.

[slwatson]

Sally

Thanks Sally...that's what I should be doing. I guess I was just trying to find ways to make it go quicker!

[Spreckles]

Cool thread. I made the jiffy bread, cut it into chunks and froze the chunks. When I need it I defrost the chunk and put it in the food processor. It's crumbly not pasty. I process small batches. I like to pulse process fresh kale & broccoli, it comes out just right size and the really eat it. The advantage to the jiffy bread is the spoilage issue. I wish it didn't have sugar in it. When I baked it my family wanted to eat it!

Karen

[Sojourner]

Sally

So is corn meal ok for finches then? I guess it must be or you wouldn't have mentioned it, LOL! I'd been avoiding it as my experience with it in the past is that its been used as a cheap filler for wild bird seed.

[Sally]

Sojourner

There should be no problem, I use the Jiffy boxed mix.

[GouldieFledge]

Louys

I do what pretty much everyone else has said here--hardboiled egg with a little commercial eggfood in it. I usually boil a couple of eggs for the week and make it fresh. I use a fork to mash mine apart, including the eggshell. For vegetables I usually use broccoli, cauliflower, and carrot, though I'll change it up and give cucumber, spinach, romaine, etc from time to time. They seem to really love the broccoli. I sort of half-mix the vegetables on one side of the plate into the eggs on the other side of the plate.

I use Miracle Meal dry eggfood that I order online and mix a little bit in, in order to dry it out so that it can sit out all day without spoiling. It took several tries for my gouldians to taste it, but once they did they couldn't get enough. The only downside is the stench of egg (which I really don't like)!

[ac12]

Sally,
I use cornmeal to help dry my egg.
I boil the egg (3 eggs), then shell it, then leave 2-1/2 it in the fridge for 8 hours to let the fridge dry out the egg (my wife get the white from 1 egg).
Then I cut the eggs and add a spoon of corn meal, then chop it in a mini-food processor. I use the pulse feature, as that give me more control, so I do NOT make egg paste.
If I don't have time to do the 8 hours in the fridge, I put 2 spoons of cornmeal in the egg when I chop it in the food processor.
I put the egg into a plastic bowl with paper towel on the bottom and one on top of the egg. The top paper towel needs to be replaced after a couple days, as it absorbs moisture.

I keep my veggies separate, since the veggies have water in them. That way the egg does not get mushy with too much water.

I serve them the eggs and veggies similar to GouldieFledge, egg on one half of the dish and veggies on the other half, with crushed egg shells sprinkled in the middle.