It was a wonderful day at the local farmers market. Kale (from Maple Creek Farm) and bok choy (from Cinzori Farms) are in season and it is gorgeous! And I got a long-waited for item!

Dinosaur Kale

The varieties of kale I saw were Lacinato or “Dinosaur” (looks like lizard skin), Red Russian and White Russian (tender, mild and sweet taste). The Scotch kale (curly) is not in yet. Kale is easy to grow and some of the purples look great in the garden. Kale is a wonderful vegetable that is in the Brassica family (related to sulfur vegetables like cabbage and collards). The sulfur containing phytonutrients (chemical componds occuring naturally in food) of vegetables like kale are being studied for their detoxifying effect that can aid in cancer-prevention. My birds enjoy kale, especially my cockatiel, Hubble. He likes a whole leaf to wrestle around. My quakers like to play with a whole leaf, too. Sparki bites holes in the center while Kuiper nibbles at the edges.

Bok choy

Where last weekend I bought tender, sweet baby bok choy, the bok choy I bought today was just HUGE! Bok choy is another vegetable in the Brassica family, sometimes called chinese cabbage. The stalks are thick and juicy and a thrill for my African greys to chew on. If I clean the stalk bases really well, I can give the whole bottom part to the greys to have fun with. Where they like the stalks, my little guys like the greens. I really like bok choy myself, so I will be making a good stir-fry tonight! Yes, I will share with the birdies!

Sunflower

The long waited for item was a huge load of Organic Gray-Striped Sunflower Seeds in the shell. Big, chunky ones! Hampshire Farms planted them as a new crop he hadn’t done before. I have been waiting for them to process these for a few months. It was worth the wait! We only include a small amount in our mixes because birds love them so much that they would fill up on them! Moderation is the key to serving a tasty morsel like this. A little is beneficial, a lot is a fat bird! Sunflower seeds are high in vitamin E (anti-oxidant), magnesium (for bone strength and activity) and selenium (for detoxification and muscle building). The gray-striped variety have a lower oil fat content than the black oil seeds, which is why we prefer these. I know these big, orgainic sunflower seeds in the shell are pretty hard to find right now, so order away! You can always request a larger size bag, if you would like.

A nutritious diet can help your bird live a long, happy and healthy life. A diet that is lacking in complete nutrition can cause immediate and chronic health problems that can shorten a bird’s life. Birds eating all seed diets have more health problems than birds eating fresh, whole foods and pellets. Changing thier diet for the better takes some observation and work.

The most important thing is to make sure your bird is healthy before changing the diet. Make an appointment with your avian veterinarian to assess your bird’s health and consult about diet change. Your vet can do a blood test to determine any problems. Your vet may have specific recommendations based on these tests or based on his/her experience with birds like yours. Your vet may suggest a diet of mostly pellets, based on the “average” bird owner’s knowledge and time. If you want to pursue a whole foods diet, most vets do not have a problem helping with that, as long as they know you will do your research, are committed to taking the time it requires, will be observant to your bird’s eating habits and that you will be consistent. Pellets have lengthened many birds’ lives with their uniform nutrition. But if you and your bird find pellets boring, you can get help to build a nutritious diet from fresh, whole foods.

Changing your bird’s diet can be frustrating. Exercise patience. Changes should be made gradually. Birds can get comfortable with what they are used to and apprehensive of new things. A bird may not recognize a new food as being edible and may shy away from strange shapes and colors. Understand that you *will* waste food as you let them get used to its new looks, textures and tastes.

Do not let your bird go hungry. The idea that birds will eat what’s in front of them when they are hungry is not necessarily true. Birds can be very, very stubborn. Present new food items in the morning when a bird is most hungry. If after a while (say, an hour), you see the food untouched, please let them have what they are accustomed to. Eventually they will become curious. To make them more curious, you can eat what you are feeding them while they watch. Many birds need to “follow the leader” to learn to be brave. It may be a natural flock behavior. Eat it and comment to them how good it is. Make a drama of it and see what they think. Cockatiels are notorious for being picky, but if you have a plate of food and you tap at it and push it around with your finger and peep happily while YOU eat it, that tiel is going to be curious and eventually want to see what the big deal is about.

What attracts birds to food? Taste, size, color, texture and temperature all play important roles in getting your bird to eat. Some birds like strong flavors, some prefer bland foods. Some birds like itty-bitty pieces, while others like big chunks to hold in their foot and gnaw on. Some like long shreds, some like whole kale leaves or whole ears of corn. Some birds shy away from the color red. I have a conure that will not reach into her bowl if something dark is in it (like a raisin or dark purple kale). Others pick out a certain color and eat it first. Some birds like crispy foods, like crackers. Others like the texture of bread. Others like mushy foods, the messier the better. You have to experiment a LOT to find out what your bird prefers and ease him into new foods using his tastes. For example, to feed sweet potato there are many ways to offer it: raw in chunks, raw in shreds, cubed and lightly steamed, cooked and mashed with applesauce, sliced thin and dehydrated as chips, chopped small and lightly cooked or mashed and frozen with a popsicle stick to hold it with.

Get creative and have fun! It can be very rewarding when you see your hard work pay off when the birds dive into their bowls in health and appreciation!

Canary seed (annual canary grass) is mostly grown for the bird food market. The farms growing canary seed at present are not organic farms. Most are in Canada, Hungary and Argentina. The organic farm we used to deal with in Canada is no longer in production.

From what I have found out, “Annual Canarygrass seed is similar to oat in mineral composition. The caryopsis is higher in ash, oil, and phosphorus but lower in fiber than concentrations common in corn, pea, or fieldbean. Canarygrass caryopses have higher concentrations of all eight essential amino acids than does wheat or corn, and are higher in sulfur-containing amino acids than pea or fieldbean.” This info is about 10 years old, but gives me something to shoot for in using quantities of replacements in our mixes.

The downside to the information I found is that it doesn’t address why organic canary seed isn’t currently available. In my opinion, it must not be lucrative for farms to grow organic canary seed for several reasons.
1. It’s not a human-consumed product, so there’s not a huge market for the product.
2. Not many farms growing it, so not much competition to keep the price worth it for the farmers.
3. Harvesting needed special equipment as canary seed grows with itchy little hairs on it that must be removed. These hairs are dangerous to be inhaled and can be cancer-causing.
4. Canary seed plants get overrun by weeds easily.
5. Canary seed is sensitive to higher temperatures and drought. Global warming can’t be helping.

In my understanding, it seems canary seed is sensitive to herbicides because it is a grass. And it isn’t very attractive to bugs and diseases. Perhaps, conventional canary seed may, as a result, have few pesticide and herbicide residues.

But, I will not use canary seed in our mixes unless I can find a certified organic source.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/cangrass.html

Question:
I received an Easy Sprout kit. Hardly any of the seeds germinated (about 1%). There’s different time frames for different seeds according to the directions that came with the Easy Sprouter. Can someone clue me in on making small batches of sprouts (1/8 cup). Can under soaking can cause stomach problems for birds? They each tried the softened seeds & I am mixing them with brown rice. Do you always have to use sprouting seeds or can one use regular organic seeds as well?

Big Long Answer (As I’m good at giving TOO MUCH information!!):
There are different time frames for different seeds. The Parrots on the Porch Good Stuff Sprout Mixes contain a blend of grains and seeds chosen for their sprout timing and what parrots seem to like. We make a separate mix of legumes because they require longer soaking and sprouting times. It is okay to feed the grains and seeds after an overnight soak. This gets the seeds germinating. Millet and quinoa seem to be the quickest to sprout. Sometimes the coarser grains just barely start showing a white tip, and that’s okay. It is just starting to sprout and this is how my personal birds seem to enjoy them most. When the tails get too long, my birds don’t like them. There is a varying time for full sprouting, but the grains and seeds we chose seem to work pretty well together.

Let me go over what I do:
1. Rinse the seeds well, then place in a jar with the seeds covered with lukewarm water overnight. Set in a dark area.
2. In the morning, I rinse the seeds well and feed them. What I don’t feed that morning, I keep on the counter for the day to continue sprouting.
3. In the afternoon, I can see some of the seeds growing tails. I rinse them again. (Twice a day rinsing is fine, and maybe 3 times a day in the Southwest or in summer’s hot, humid weather) After I feed my evening meal, I refrigerate them to slow down the sprouting process.
4. I can feed these for 3 days, then toss (but I usually use up all of what I make).

I have not used an Easy Sprouter, since I have good luck with jars and strainers. But I know many people with Easy Sprouters love them.

Some reasons for not sprouting can be due to environment. Your room may be too chilly. I found someone who had put theirs on a windowsill and it just couldn’t get warm enough to sprout. Sprouts shouldn’t have direct light either. They like to “think” they are underground until their roots get long. You may have problems if you store your sprout mix in a freezer. Freezing can affect some sensitive grains and seeds if the temp goes too low (a deep freeze freezer that goes to zero or below can damage seeds, regular refrigerator-freezers don’t go that cold).

Older grains don’t sprout as well. Grains are just harvested once a year, so make sure you get your batch from the latest harvest. We get many of our grains straight from farms that grow them, so we know they are fresh. It’s great to create your own blend, and I will always encourage people to take the most active role in your bird’s diet and do it yourself! Just make sure to check on your store’s rate of turnover of grain supplies. I have success buying directly from grain farms. For example, I frequent a Farmers Market that has a farmer’s booth that carries sprouting and bread-making grains.

Soaking for too long (over 12 hours) can drown some smaller seeds, although I have forgotten once in a while and they have been fine. I suggest trying to sprout in lukewarm water. This mimics a good warming spring rain and that can help them along quicker.

Here’s a hint about how I teach beginners: Try sprouting raw, hulled sunflower seeds. They are the easiest seeds to sprout. You can practice on them in different temps of water and putting your Sprouter or jar in different locations. When you have luck with those, you know that the conditions are right for anything to sprout. I don’t know many birds that refuse the sprouted suns either! (And they are good on salads for people, too!)

I haven’t heard of under-soaked grains and seeds causing stomach problems in birds. They eat dry grains and seed just fine and don’t have digestive problems. Under-soaking just may not get the grains and seeds germinating. Over-soaking can “drown” them, but if rinsed well, they shouldn’t be a digestive problem, either. There just isn’t as much nutrition in dead, stale seed. I understand under-sprouting being a digestive problem with legumes (beans and lentils) — these must have a tail at least as long as the bean before feeding. But grains and seeds are okay with an overnight soak.

All my birds love sprouts and it is a staple of my quaker’s (Sparki and Kuiper) diets. They like courser grains than my tiels and lovies. They have had great checkups. Once you get the hang of sprouting, your birds will do great. Sprouts are lower in fat and carbs than regular dry grain and seed and have many of the qualities of fresh vegetables. Many seed junkies are transformed by sprouts.

Hope this helps!