Recently I have bought some mangoes at the a grocery store for my birds & when I cut into them they were icky inside & had brown patches. I thought maybe I just didn’t know how to pick good ones at the store, so I asked a couple coworkers & they chuckled & said they are not in season now. I said I want/need them to feed to my birds. One of them suggested when not in season that I buy frozen mango, she eats frozen mango when fresh not in season. I had never thought of that so the next time I was getting groceries I got frozen mango for my birds.
I also got frozen blueberries & frozen peas to see if my birds would eat them. I take out a little out of the freezer the night before & thaw in little covered glass dishes. I am feeding 4 birds so I think about how much I will need & thaw just that much. This actually may be a great thing for those who are only feeding 1 or two birds on a regular basis. Unless you eat the foods you are feeding your birds you might waste a good amount of fresh foods. I have written other blog posts directly about birds which are posts #’s 4, 10, 13, 28, 53, 59, 77, 83, 87, 90, & 95. There are things in my other posts that can be helpful to bird owners as well.
I give an amount of fresh that they will consume in a few hours, my larger birds get more of course & pieces kept larger. I have learned my birds will eat less if there is too much in the bowl. I don’t know if they get overwhelmed or think there is a lot so I have plenty of time to finish it. Obviously they don’t realize it is going to be taken out in a few hours. I have had birds since about 1986, so have had a lot of experience & with a variety of birds. It can take some work & experimenting to figure out what will work for your bird(s). They definitely have different preferences in food & even the size & shape they are served in. I found if raw carrots are sliced round my birds are less apt to eat them, but if I cut them in an uneven wedge they will eat them. This is for my larger parrots who use their feet to pick up food, where the smaller ones need the food cut to no bigger then lets say a sunflower seed.
I am trying new things all the time to see what gets them to consume more fresh foods. Fresh foods are so important for a healthy birds (like with humans). Vitamins from fresh foods are far better than synthetic ones from supplements, if a bird won’t eat fresh foods a supplement is a good alternative. I still recommend you keep trying to get them to consume fresh foods. In my blog post #4 I wrote suggestions of ways to get your birds to eat more fresh foods. It is easier if they were fed fresh from the time they were weaned, but not all breeders do this. I would add baby food to my birds hand feeding formula when I was hand-feeding baby birds. This helped them to recognize the flavors when they were fed fresh foods. The bird above is Lazarus & he is approx 22 yrs old & has been with me about 3 years. He was not fed a diet that included fresh foods, so I keep trying & found he was more apt to eat it if I put it where his water dish was in his cage. It also helps him to eat more if I add sprouts to his dish. Some days he eats fresh & sometimes won’t touch it, but I don’t give up. I give fresh foods to my birds Sun, Wed & Fri each week.
I use a tea strainer (pictured above), it has a chain so it hooks on my kitchen faucet. I put in some red & white millet seed (I buy the seeds separately & keep some in a jar in a cabinet). I put about 1/2 an inch of seed in the tea strainer & then rinse & rinse it for about a minute. I let in hang on the faucet & 1 or 2 times a day I run some water over in for 10-15 seconds. After a couple days if it is good seed it will sprout & I place a little in with my birds fresh foods. If they are birds that don’t eat fresh well then I’ll put it on top the first few times then I start to mix it in. I figure when they are digging around for seeds they will get some fresh foods on their beaks & maybe realize it tastes good. It takes patience & time to figure out exactly what your bird will eat & how they like it cut.
Not all were fed fresh from a young age like this baby bird above, but don’t give up, keep trying. It is for their health which leads to a longer happier & healthier life for them.
My birds surprised me that they liked the thawed mango & the blueberries (they do not like fresh blueberries). I buy unsweetened blueberries & I read the labels & make sure the fruit or vegetable is the only ingredient in the bag. I am going to try some other frozen fruits & vegetables to see if they will eat them. They eat the peas as well, well my smaller birds are hit & miss on a lot of it. When I had my Canary “Woodstock” he would eat pretty much any fresh foods I gave him. The gentleman I bought him from fed fresh foods to all his birds so they were used to it & I plan to get my next canary from him as well.
I just bought frozen sweet potatoes,so will find out tomorrow if they will eat them, of course I never give up after only a few times. I will try it on & off for a good month before I decide to go a different route. My birds don’t like fresh broccoli ,so I plan to try frozen. I try & feed a diet high in vitamin A, but more vegetables than fruit as fruit is sweet making it high in natural sugars. I am searching for frozen papaya, but it’s hard to find, I think a store I shop at that says online it carries it was sold out of it when I looked.
I hope this has been helpful & maybe like me you never thought to try frozen foods for your birds when fresh wasn’t in season or maybe like my birds they will like frozen blueberries, but not fresh ones. Most of all I hope it encourages you to try some new things for your birds, which gives them variety & keeps them from being bored. Birds are intelligent animals & can get bored easily if not stimulated,eating a variety of foods & forging through a dish of fresh foods helps with boredom as well.
In the spring maybe consider having a garden (in the ground, in pots or a raised bed) & grow some fresh foods for your birds. Most greens are easy & you can snip off a few pieces to feed as needed. I will grow spinach, mustard greens, Swiss chard & some other foods this year. Some for me & some to share with my birds.
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Echoing Great Pet Care 