|
My budgies and Coyote the 'tiel like my birdie bread. I started with the Cute Little Birdies recipe and just sort of add whatever sounds good whenever I make it. Here's a basic recipe, but it changes every time and the amounts are all eyeballed and never exact.
1-2 eggs, with shells mixed with a tablespoon or two of olive oil and 1/2 cup water or so - mix in 1/2 cup or so of pellets (I usually use Harrison's) so they have time to get soft while you're cutting up veggies and stuff.
For veggies, I've used sweet potato (cooked in skin until soft in the microwave is the fastest, easiest way), baby food veg purees, grated carrots, finely chopped broccoli, kale, spinach, any kind of pepper, cilantro or any kind of green herb, sprouted bean mix, whatever sounds good in whatever amount looks like it will work (as in, not so much that you make a loaf larger than your oven).
1/2 cup to 1 cup of cornbread mix (I like the Trader Joe's mix, it has bits of corn in it and the birds seem to like it). Use more if it seems too runny or the veg amount requires more cornbread mix to make it a "bread".
1/2 C or so of whatever seed mix I'm using.
Mix everything and add water if needed in order to make a thick batter that requires you to actually spread it into an square cake pan.
Bake at 350 for around 45 minutes until a butter knife or toothpick comes clean and let cook for about 15 minutes. Then flip it onto a cooling rack. Once it's totally cooled down, cut it into appropriate size cubes and put it in a freezer ziplock bag and throw in the freezer. I nuke 2 pieces at a time and give 2/3 to the budgies and 1/3 to Coyote. Just make sure you touch it to make sure you don't have any hot spots before serving.
I feel like the nutrition in this is pretty good because I do use a lot of veggies and with the pellets and seed mix, it is a full meal. None of them seem to like it when it's still in cube form so I always break it up and spread it out in a bowl so they can pick out the stuff they like. Even if they only go for the seeds, since it's all baked together they end up with good stuff attached to it whether they like it or not.
If you're feeling particularly fussy, you can also crush pellets and mix it into the defrosted "bread" as well as some probiotic powder. I've also mixed in fresh veggies as a means to convince the budgies that carrots (for example) are not, indeed, axe murderers.
I used to feed it every day but since I've learned more about hormone stuff, I now only feed it 2-3 times a week.
|
