home-made bird food

swanwillow · Post by **swanwillow** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:19 am

I'm in the process of getting and eclectus. (yea for me! hehe) and they don't do well on pellets. Now, I ran out of pellets yesterday (I CAN go get more, the thing is, I don't think I want to!! read on) but was making up a batch of ekkie food.

the ringnecks LOVE it. Its base is beans and brown rice. LOTS of variety. Fruits, veggies, greens... Next batch (in about a month) I'll add citrus to it too. its a freezer mash type of food, you mix it all up (took about 2 total hours, plus 6 for the beans-4 soaking, 2 cooking) and freeze in individual portions. I did 1/3 cup sizes, cause one ekkie should about equal two ringnecks.
I'd feed my lory it too, but too much roughage in it for her. heres what I did;

2 bags 15 bean mix
1-2 cups rice (these are soaking-its BROWN rice)

1 large sweet potato
half a dozen carrots (they didn't have tops)
lb of radishes, left some tops on those for greenery
3 peaches, skinned and pitted
4 med/small apples
raisins (3/4 of a bag)
2 bananas
5 corn-straight off the cob
strawberries-peeled first, theres only 3 of them in there
2 roma tomatoes
parsley... a good bit of it too

organic store;
sesame seeds
pumpkin seeds (they weren't kidding when they said expensive!)
almond slivers
organic unsulferized golden raisins

next time, I'll be adding 2 oranges, more tomatoes, some garlic, different types of squash, and cranberries.

but, its a hit at my house! I think I'll give the ringnecks pellets at the end of the day, so I'm going to the store to get some later.

BUT they are eating it ALL! for some reason, the males going for the sweet potato first!

Post by **Lauren** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 11:39 pm

Woohoo.. Congradulations on your Ekkie!

Yum Yum.. that sounds tasty! Thanx for sharing your recipe with us.

swanwillow · Post by **swanwillow** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:38 pm

hmm, I'm not sure about the amount of beans though!! its a LOT of beans.

:lol:

not that theres anything wrong with being beany!

total cost for what I made was $30, and I figure that will last me a month for the three birds.

Elizabeth · Post by **Elizabeth** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 6:26 pm

your on the right track! you can also and some couscous.

You may find your birds love the cous cous and pick it out of their food before anything else. I get the savoury one with hebs and lemon juice so it gives some flavour to the whole dish of foods.

swanwillow · Post by **swanwillow** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 2:32 pm

they all already pick through it, they don't like kidney beans out of the mix!

nil · Post by **nil** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 6:02 am

hi swanwillow
how do you prepare this meal?

Post by **Lauren** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 9:44 pm

Its a 'mash'. Just mix it up and freeze. :wink:

nil · Post by **nil** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 2:39 am

Without blending before?

kylie · Post by **kylie** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 8:08 pm

I never blend any of the foods I prepare for Sunny. She get's it all, big and small, light and heavy, rough and smooth, dry or moist etc. Otherwise it's not that exciting for a bird..

swanwillow · Post by **swanwillow** » Wed Oct 03, 2007 5:05 pm

well.. start with one bag instead of 2 of a bean mix, and a cup of brown rice.

I soaked mine for 4 hours, then cooked in a crock pot for 4.

while it soaks and cooks, start chopping! The sweet potato has to be slightly steamed. Raw is good! just watch out for sulfurized dried fruits and veggies from stores, such as raisins. NOT GOOD. and go organic if possible.

I have just about everything cut down to bean size. Blending if you consider mixing it all together with a big spoon in a HUGE bucket! no blending, as... I got rid of pellets.. BORING> how fun would it be to eat those day in, day out.. bleh.

Its just a guideline. Next month, I'll probably do more greens- mustard, kale... something like that. More tomatoes... and variety. You can add anything to this mix. For most birds, I'd add more of a seed mix also; grass type seeds, NOT sunflower which is pretty high in fat! Nuts are good too, lots of protein. But the beans do that soo...

I freeze it in 1/3 cup portions, which is enough for one feeding out of teo for two ringnecks. in other words... 2 ringnecks get 2 bags, each bag 1/3 of a cup. A day. I made 110 bags of mix with the exact recipie above... Feeding my 2 ringnecks and an ekkie will last me one month. For $30.

Next month, I may add more, add less, I dunno... Cost varies on avalibility, and what goes into the pot varies due to seasonality.

nil · Post by **nil** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 1:33 pm

it looks great
ill try it, thank you

Melika · Post by **Melika** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 1:41 am

Looks good enough for me to eat...

Do you visit www.landofvos.com ?

It's a great ekkie site and the home of much research when I was planning on getting a male vos (before Hane, my IRN, entered my home).

Many good recipies there, for any parrot.
But macaws need more fat, so in with the sunflower seeds for them...

I love mashes since you can change it often and customise the mix for your bird.

:!:

Every month or so I make a spicy mash by adding cayenne pepper and dried chillis to the mix. The FIDs love it!