New Idea

[Jenny]

I'm sure many of you have already thought of this...but I hadn't until I went to the grocery store to buy some baby foods for the birds and coudln't believe how expensive they are. Well, what I've been doing is getting alot of fruits and vegetables & beans etc. and putting them in the blender on "liquify". Today I cooked some sweet potatoes and scooped the insides into the blender. Then I threw in grated carrots, tomatoe slices, whole leaves of lettuce (the dark green kind), apples, green beans, bananas, cooked kidney beans, rice, flax seed oil, blueberries, grapes, squash, and a whole lot of other ingredients. In the end it was a very fine liquid, which I scooped into yogurt containers to freeze. I tried out the mixture today on the birds and every single one of them loves it! It's the easiest way I've found so far that gets them to eat helalthfully everything that I want them to. I also dried out alot of it in the dehydrator in little drops about the size of a nickel (mostly for when I board the birds over Thanksgiving and don't want the people taking care of them to have to chop up alot of stuff each day), and they especially love it that way. I know some of your birds don't like really mushy stuff, but if they do and they're picky eaters, then try this. You can also mix it in bread crumbs so it thickens a bit, which I've also tried with good results!

['too crazy]

Thanks for the idea Jenny. As you know, I'm having a rough time with my G2. I'll give it a shot.

[dlaura]

Great idea Jenny - I can't what it must taste like with all of those ingredients. Missed you on Bird Chat last night.

[Squawksx3]

Wonderful idea, Im glad you posted it Jenny. We put natural, healthy stuff in the blender for the birds all the time. They even say its healthier doing this for skin babies instead of the proccessed baby food.

[Jenny]

Diane, I couldn't seem to get the BirdChat to work again, plus I've been very busy lately. Squawks I definitely agree that it would be healthier for skin kids too! Much cheaper as well. At the clinic I met a lady who grew all the veggies for her iguanas' meals and would stick them in the blender and freeze the extras, and they are the healthiest iguanas ever. I'm thinking about growing a garden just for the birds this summer. Does anyone else grow food for their birds? I meant to ask this in a new thread, but has anyone tried growing millet? My grandpa grew this purple colored millet this year that I cut and gave to the birds, and they really seemed to like it, though I'd rather grow the golden kind.

[Mrs.Birdy]

I am not sure I would mix ALL those different ingredients, but I agree the process is good and certainly more economical.

[Jenny]

Why wouldn't you think it'd be good to mix all those ingredients? At least how I look at it, the more variety of foods they eat the more necessary nutrients they're going to get, and unlike humans who have many taste buds, birds have few in comparison and don't mind eating such "weird" combinations of foods, well, mine don't anyway. ;)

[crazeemama]

and if you keep the quantities of various colored veggies about the same, you don't have to get over that food recognition things every time, too! Much better for the fids than the jarred stuff. Plus it is much cheaper!!