Banana oat cookies

I tried a new recipe last week: Banana Oat Cookies! These were very simple to make- mashed bananas, applesauce, dried oats, flax seed, chopped nuts (I used pine nuts this time). Mix together well,  form into little balls and bake. They come out, soft but dense, and my bigger birds really like them! These will definately be made again.

1 and 1/2 cups mashed banana (organic is best)

1 tsp cinnnamon

3 c raw quick cook oats

1/2 c chopped nuts

1/4 c applesauce (organic is best)

Pumpkin Bread

I admit I don't feed as much bird bread as many people I know seem to. Not because I don't like it, but I just can't seem to keep the freezer stocked with it. My birds do get other baked-type goodies, though, so don't worry about them missing out! :)

This batch of bread turned out so beautifully, I may try to keep making this so we can always have some in the freezer. I started with a natural cornbread mix from the health food store. I mixed in egg, water, canned pumpkin, frozen corn, chopped fresh parsley and blueberries, and red palm oil.

All three of my "bigger" birds LOVED it!

I mixed some in with Violet the cockatiel's special seed mix for dinner, I'm hoping she might accidentally eat some and like it......

Think outside the box for foraging!

This is a dishwashing basket, sold in the baby section of grocery stores, target, etc for cleaning pacifiers, etc. Today I filled it with: carrot, pepper, raspberries, tangarine, bird bread muffins, cabbage, parsley, brussel sprouts, and pellets wrapped in paper.

It's a bit big for my little guys, and would probably work better with amazons, greys, etc. But the caiques still have fun, and manage to get some goodies out!

Sweet Potato Mash Balls

I found this recipe on a forum I frequent, and this has now become a constant staple in my household!

http://video.about.com/birds/Sweet-Potato-Mash-for-Birds.htm

It's a very simple recipe. Boil a mixture of chopped, peeled sweet potato, carrot, butternut squash, pumpkin, etc in just enough water to cover. When veggies are soft enough to mash, use a slotted spoon to pull them out and set aside for mashing. Add enough water to the leftover cooking water to equal 2 cups, and bring to boil. Add 1 cup quinoa and cover, cook until soft. Remove cover and let cooking liquid cook out. Mix in with the mashed vegetables. Add in some chopped greens (I prefer cilantro, or kale, etc). I also like to mix in flax seed, chia seed, organic coconut flakes.

Roll into little balls. In a seperate bowl, add dry flaked oatmeal. Roll the little balls in the oatmeal, and then you are set! These freeze great!

Green for Halloween!

Quinoa, lentils, fresh carrots and spinach, and frozen peas and corn. Cooked with ginger, red palm oil and lots of avi-greens supplement. Looks really gross, but the birds liked it!

For one dinner for the caiques, I cooked the base part of a butternut squash, and stuffed it with some of this mash, with a seed mix, organic coconut flakes, and pomegranite seeds. Yum!

Two new foraging toys

I made some new foraging toys tonight, a new style I haven't made before. I took two hollow cholla logs and stuffed them with paper wrapped treats and shredded paper. I gave one to Perry (he has been chewing on a choola perch so I hope he likes this!) and one for Violet and Tonka to share on the playgym at work. I hope they encourage lots of chewing and foraging!

Another marathon foraging toy session!

Lots and lots of shreddable foraging fun!

Dinner tonight

I took a bulgur/red quinoa mix, added some ginger, garlic, crushed red pepper, frozen mixed vegetables, frozen sweet potato, and chopped chard:

And then mixed in red palm oil and chopped raspberries!

YUMMY! (No videos of Violet, she is staunchly opposed to anything fresh. I mix her special seed mix into her meals to at least get her interacting with her food, but she only picks the seeds out. But I persist!)

Found a great new food product

At HEB, a texas based grocery store:

I cooked up some of the five grain mix, with carrots, broccoli and purple cabbage, cumin, garlic, cinnamon and ginger.

Yummy! And so quick!

Home-made Foraging Toy-Making Session!

Tonka can go through several of these a week on a good week! A year ago she wouldn't chew paper at all, now she blazes through toys like this! :D

Now to teach Perry!

Freshly updated Etsy Shop

I will admit I am bad about adding toys to my etsy shop. I rarely sell toys through etsy- most of my toys I sell through my local parrot society. But I did just update it yesterday with a few toys!

Available at http://www.etsy.com/shop/Pollyoopiepettoys?ref=si_shop

Home-mixed cockatiel seed blend

While my cockatiel Violet took to eating her pellets right off the bat, she has been much more stubborn about eating ANYTHING else besides millet and seeds. I limit her pellets, since the info out there seems to point to tiels not doing so well on a high-pellet diet. And cockatiels need more seed in their diet than the big birds, but also can/should eat veggies, cooked beans, grains, bird bread, even a bit of fruit. Violet won't have anything to do with this *yucky* stuff! I continue to feed her a warm mash/cooked grain type meal every day with the big birds, but wanted to have a super healthy seed type mix to feed in the meantime. But I was really aiming for more of a whole foods, high nutrition mix, than just a bunch of seeds.

I started with a base of Higgins Sunburst Cockatiel, but I picked out the big chunks of dried fruit and nuts first and put those aside for the bigger birds.
http://www.higginspremium.com/SunburstIntro.htm

To that I added a bit of Goldenfeast Petite Hookbill blend, and Goldenfeast Gardenflora, and Gardenflora II.
http://www.goldenfeastfoods.com/online/products-page/small-birds/cockatiel/petite-hookbill-legume-blend/

http://www.goldenfeastfoods.com/online/products-page/small-birds/cockatiel/gardenflora-blend/

http://www.goldenfeastfoods.com/online/products-page/small-birds/cockatiel/gardenflora-blend-ii/

Then I mixed in some of the smaller bits from Phoenix Foraging's Unpellet Mix- full of herbs, spices, etc.
http://phoenixforagingrolls.com/UnPellet-Mix-011.htm

Next went in Just Tomatoes brand dried peppers, tomatoes, carrots, peas.
http://www.justtomatoes.com/jtstore/pc/Just-Veggies-3p157.htm

After that, I went on an "everything but the kitchen sink" spree to see what I had in my cupboard. I added:

Bob's Red Mill 5 grain cereal mix
steel cut oats
quinoa
barley
kamut
fennel seed
crushed red pepper
bee pollen
flax seed
chia seed
mustard seed


Whew! This mix is SO pretty, and smells great. Violet is really liking it, too. She doesn't eat everything in it yet, but will spend whole minutes at a stretch grubbing through it, obviously enjoying herself! I usually feed it out of foraging toys, as opposed to a bowl, as well.

Sunshine!

When I talk to folks who wander into my store, I find that many parrot owners don't realize how important full spectrum lighting is to their birds! Getting a good strong regular dose of sunshine helps keep a bird's feathers shiny, and their bones strong. The vitamin D helps their little bodies process and use calcium (and it seems to me that MANY pet birds have calcium deficencies due to poor diet).

It can be hard to get in regular sun-time during cold weather (or seering triple digit heat like here in TX). So it is recommended to use a good full spectrum light bulb by your parrot's cage during the day. It's not as good as sunshine, but it's much better than incandescent lighting!

Sunshine is the best though!

Make sure you supervise very closely- racoons, rats, possums,cats, hawks, etc are all very dangerous to our birds!