Post subject: Re: Is this edible and/or good for them?
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 8:41 pm
Parrotlet
Posts: 429 Joined: Sep 2014 Gave happy chirps:1 time Got happy chirps:25 times
Ok, I'm going to add that to their mix of food tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. I also have a small cilantro plant in Coyote's cage that was on sale at the supermarket. He looooooves it. I don't know if he's ingesting it, but he loves picking at it.
tielfan
Post subject: Re: Is this edible and/or good for them?
Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2015 9:16 pm
Site Admin
Name: Carolyn
Posts: 7987 Joined: Jun 2008 Location: Arizona Gave happy chirps:201 times Got happy chirps:725 times
Eating cilantro is a regular event at my house. I have that and several other "tiel salad" greens growing in flower pots on my back porch.
It's rye grass season in Tucson right now. I have a bunch of it growing in my yard and I didn't even have to plant it - either the wind or the wild birds must have brought it in. This is another excellent cockatiel vegetable. Coyote grew up munching on lawn grass. It needs to be clean and chemical free of course.
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Jan
Post subject: Re: Is this edible and/or good for them?
Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 1:39 am
Cockatiel
Posts: 1688 Joined: Dec 2013 Gave happy chirps:33 times Got happy chirps:159 times
Sounds like good healthy foods for your birds...
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tielfan
Post subject: Re: Is this edible and/or good for them?
Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 7:16 pm
Site Admin
Name: Carolyn
Posts: 7987 Joined: Jun 2008 Location: Arizona Gave happy chirps:201 times Got happy chirps:725 times
London rocket is all over the place now too, aka wild arugula. It's a nice edible weed. You can look online for pictures, then compare an actual plant to the online pictures to make sure it's a good match. The younger leaves are supposed to be better.
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Cloudy skies
Post subject: Re: Is this edible and/or good for them?
Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2015 7:48 pm
Parrotlet
Posts: 429 Joined: Sep 2014 Gave happy chirps:1 time Got happy chirps:25 times
Oo, I think I have a bunch of that arugula growing in my front yard (which is in desperate need of attention, hence all the weeds). I'm worried that I'll pick the wrong thing though, since so many of the weeds look exactly alike. I'm gonna take a closer look.
tielfan
Post subject: Re: Is this edible and/or good for them?
Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2015 5:37 pm
Site Admin
Name: Carolyn
Posts: 7987 Joined: Jun 2008 Location: Arizona Gave happy chirps:201 times Got happy chirps:725 times
What I did was pick one and bring it in the house so I could sit in front of the computer with it comparing it to the pictures. There's another plant with sort of similar looking leaves and I don't know what it's called or whether it's safe. But the leaves are more delicate and lacy looking, it has small purple flowers not yellow, and it doesn't seem to get very tall. I'm not always sure whether a small plant is that one or a young London rocket, but it's easy to identify the bigger plants.
I've been using a "weeding by feeding" approach to yard care. When I see an edible weed I pick it and give it to the cockatiels. Young tumbleweed is supposed to be a nice edible plant but I don't think I have any.
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Cloudy skies
Post subject: Re: Is this edible and/or good for them?
Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 8:18 pm
Parrotlet
Posts: 429 Joined: Sep 2014 Gave happy chirps:1 time Got happy chirps:25 times
The little cilantro plant I bought was torn to it's final shreds today. Today, the budgies caught on that this might be good to eat so they all wandered their way into Coyote's cage and by the end of the day, I had a little pot of soil. So, I sprinkled some of my special organic sprout seed mixes on it and I have it sitting in a window sill. I'm hoping everything will sprout and grow long enough so they can have another treat out of it... the little pot it came in is the perfect size for the holder thingy that fits in the cage. If the budgies go crazy on a plant like that again, I'm going to have to get one setup for their cage.
Peach's Mom
Post subject: Re: Is this edible and/or good for them?
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2015 6:21 am
Parrotlet
Name: Steph
Posts: 370 Joined: Feb 2014 Location: Saratoga, NewYork Gave happy chirps:71 times Got happy chirps:33 times
Peach is having kind of a dry spell on yard snacks. All we've got outside is snow. I'm going to look in the market though.
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Peach's Mom
Post subject: Re: Is this edible and/or good for them?
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2015 6:22 am
Parrotlet
Name: Steph
Posts: 370 Joined: Feb 2014 Location: Saratoga, NewYork Gave happy chirps:71 times Got happy chirps:33 times
She does love steel cut oat though.
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tielfan
Post subject: Re: Is this edible and/or good for them?
Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2015 6:59 am
Site Admin
Name: Carolyn
Posts: 7987 Joined: Jun 2008 Location: Arizona Gave happy chirps:201 times Got happy chirps:725 times
You can plant birdseed too. Or get human quality grains from the bulk bins at a "natural foods" store and plant those. It's a lot cheaper than those little pots of 'pet grass' that you see at the store, which are usually just wheat grass. I like the selection of grains at New Life Health Center on Speedway. They have more kinds than Sprouts does. I think they have more than Whole Foods too, and I know for sure that their prices are better. I threw some of these grains out in the yard hoping that the wild birds would miss enough of them for me to get some seed heads for the tiels. But mostly I don't plant them, and lightly sprout them instead for the birds' breakfast.
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