Category Archives: Recipes

Blog, Recipes

Grapes Are Neat and Turning up the Heat

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As Mango is settling in here at the perch, we are trying to make sure that he gets used to (and fond of) having fresh foods in his diet. Parrots, just like us, need fruits and vegetables in their diet in order to enjoy a good nutritional balance.

Here Mango is enjoying 1/2 of a grape. He ended up licking this more than eating it, so I cut it in quarters and he was able to chew it much more easily. In many instances, if your bird does not enjoy a larger piece of fresh food, you can make it smaller and they will readily eat it!

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Many bird owners also do not know that parrots can eat peppers (even the hot ones!). They have very few taste buds and are seemingly unaffected by the capsaicin in peppers, which is the chemical that produces the hot taste. Just to put this in perspective…

Birds may be able to eat peppers because they have so few taste buds: Chickens have just 24 taste buds, and pigeons have 37, Pidgeon says. Humans have close to 10,000 taste buds, and rodents and other mammals likely have a similar number…

-https://news.wisc.edu/curiosities-why-can-birds-eat-hot-peppers/

We haven’t given Mango the ultimate taste challenge yet (hello, Ghost Pepper and the like). Hower if you would like to see a fun pepper challenge, you can watch this one:

Hope everyone has a great week with their birds!!!

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Blog, Recipes

Our Birds Get Sushi

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In running a YouTube channel about birds, one always thinks about content. Content. Content. Content. What do I post about? What do my viewers want to see? What will make my stats get better? I realized, in my most recent contemplation, that I had sorely neglected sharing recipes with my audience. Bird recipes are so fun and often easy to do. Alongside a little research into what’s appropriate to feed birds, there exists an endless number of possibilities for birdie treat diy projects.

So this week, I decided to try bird sushi! I personally have a huge love affair with sushi, finding it both beautiful and very pleasing to the palate. Although I couldn’t fix my birds a lobster roll or a spicy tuna, I did find that there are several ingredients that birds enjoy which would make a really mean looking sushi roll. So I “rolled” up my sleeves and played around in the kitchen with some turnip greens, peppers, cucumbers, carrots and brown rice. Here’s what I came up with! The birds really enjoyed it, and you can check out our YouTube video featuring the birds eating their new treat and also ending with bonus footage of our conure inspecting some of the ingredients. Keep being creative out there!

Blog, Recipes

Fruity Fun

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I am so excited because I recently received some stainless steel skewers I ordered for my birds.

These things are AWESOME!

They can be used to skewer different fruits and vegetables so that they may be hung in the cage and enjoyed by birds as they get in the mood to snack. Since it’s very important to include fresh foods in birds’ diets, this is a great addition to any birdie lovin’ household.

As far as what can be placed on the skewers, the possibilities are endless.  You can add a big chunk of one type of fruit (like papaya) or cut fruit into smaller chunks and make a fun, colorful kabob (apples, pears and bananas are a fun combination).

Just make sure to remove seeds from the offerings, as these can be very bad for budgies!  Here is Soma, enjoying his first kabob!

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Make sure the food on the skewers stays fresh in the cage.  Once it gets brown, wilty, gooey and/or yucky, you’ll want to toss the fruits/veggies in the trash (or better yet, the compost pile…your flowers will thank you).  It’s also important to clean skewers properly in between uses to keep things santitary!

If food becomes boring, you can also try adding some toys or things for your budgies to play with.  Paper, wood and other things can make great toy components, as long as they are safely used!

It’s so important to give our birds a variety of things to keep them healthy and entertained.  Skewers can be a large part of this…how creative can you get with them?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blog, Recipes

Pop! Corn. It’s for the birds.

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One of my favorite forms of enrichment for my budgies is …popcorn!!!  It’s fun to make, the birds love it, and I can sneak in a few nibbles myself when no one is looking.

You’ll want to make it in the microwave in a brown paper bag or a microwave popcorn popper, as that way you can make it plain.  Don’t add anything like butter and salt, since these are ingredients that are no good for budgies.

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To save time, I make a pretty big batch and store it in the refrigerator!  It keeps for quite some time and is very handy for a quick treat!

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Make sure to not give your bird large quantities of popcorn at a time, and only give the popped kernels.  Although it’s fun for most birds to explore and eat, it doesn’t supply any real nutrition for your feathered friend(s), so you still want to keep them motivated to eat their more nutritious regular diet (I only give about three kernels at a time to two budgies).

I will leave you with a picture of our Segoe hanging on to his little fluffy kernel of corn.  How cute is that???  I hope you enjoy sharing this fun treat with your bird(s)!

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Blog, Recipes

Goodness Grapes

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an apple, grapes and kale

Here at the perch, we get a lot of questions about what fresh foods budgies can eat.  There are lots, and they are a great addition to your bird’s diet!  Instead of just listing them off, however, we thought it would be much more fun to start sharing some fast and easy recipes utilizing fruits and veggies budgies can eat.  The first is for a fun salad we have named “Goodness Grapes.”  We just had to start with a tribute to grapes, since it’s a favorite of both Siri and Soma.

Goodness Grapes Budgie Salad

Ingredients:

Grapes

Apples

Kale

Directions:

Wash all fruit and kale thoroughly. If you can buy organic, it is better for your bird(s).  Then take the seeds out of the grapes if necessary (or buy seedless….hello!) and cut a pretty good sized chunk of apple which has no seeds in it.  Next, cut each ingredient into very small portions.  As you can see from the photo below, the pieces need to be pretty tiny for a budgie.  Mix even amounts of each ingredient and serve.  You can give it to your bird(s) in a bowl or scatter it on a surface, if your budgie(s) like to forage.  Also, don’t become discouraged if your birdie doesn’t try it right away, or even on the same day.  Parakeets can sometimes take a while to warm up to something new.  Keep experimenting with ways to present the salad and be patient!  I like to keep a few large leaves of kale to serve whole, as my budgies like to bathe and nibble on them!  If that is the case with your bird(s), you can try sprinkling the salad around the larger pieces of greens to entice them.  Enjoy!