# Your birds' soft food favorites



## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Would you please share some recipes or just tell me what they eager to eat when they have babies to feed... I need to expand their menu but they are picky. 
My breeding tiels eat bread, green veggies, they just discovered sweet corn and peas (from frozen), my hen would nibble on boiled egg but I can't say she actually eats it, she tried cooked oatmeal and seemed to like it but never came back to it. She also tried baked sweet potato - never came back. I forgot to mention good quality tortilla chips with low sodium. They also started eating sprouted seeds but I would say our 3 month old babies are mostly those who are seen eating sprouts, unfortunately not the parents. 
What else can I try? I offered noodles - no luck. 
Talking about rice and oatmeal - what kind of them should I cook?


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## Phoenix2010 (Sep 15, 2014)

I made up,the soft food balls from this website and froze them but I found my feeding parents didn't take to them but went crazy for peas and corn (bought frozen), uncooked rolled oatmeal and any fresh greens I could give them. I feed in 2 main feeds and put in fresh seed last thing at night so they have access to food before I get up in the morning. I also give other treats like millet. Our birds have a seed based diet and I buy the best quality I can. My adult birds are normally reluctant to eat veges but while feeding young eat an enormous amount. the babies born here have always had treats so accept them well.


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## urchin_grey (Jun 23, 2014)

Mine don't seem to be too picky (at least not while they're feeding babies) but if you have a blender, you can mix just about any food with a puree. I've even gone so far as to puree high quality pellets with all sorts of different vegetables and then mix with rice. Mine also seem to like red pepper flakes for flavor (I've also tried cinnamon but that didn't go over as well).

Oh, and if they like chips, they may like homemade ones! I make homemade baked fries for myself often and instead of tossing the peels, I bake those as well and give them to my tiels.


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

urchin_grey said:


> Mine don't seem to be too picky (at least not while they're feeding babies) but if you have a blender, you can mix just about any food with a puree. I've even gone so far as to puree high quality pellets with all sorts of different vegetables and then mix with rice. Mine also seem to like red pepper flakes for flavor (I've also tried cinnamon but that didn't go over as well).
> 
> Oh, and if they like chips, they may like homemade ones! I make homemade baked fries for myself often and instead of tossing the peels, I bake those as well and give them to my tiels.


let's see. You mix pellets with veggies, process this in the blender and then mix with cooked rice, correct? 

Are you talking about regular potato chips? any oil when you bake them (for birds)? I guess no salt?


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

Phoenix2010 said:


> I made up,the soft food balls from this website and froze them but I found my feeding parents didn't take to them but went crazy for peas and corn (bought frozen), uncooked rolled oatmeal and any fresh greens I could give them. I feed in 2 main feeds and put in fresh seed last thing at night so they have access to food before I get up in the morning. I also give other treats like millet. Our birds have a seed based diet and I buy the best quality I can. My adult birds are normally reluctant to eat veges but while feeding young eat an enormous amount. the babies born here have always had treats so accept them well.


mine also ate green veggies like crazy with the first clutch, they even attacked my husband once, when he happened to open a container of the store bought chicken salad with lettuce. Cuddles landed right into dressing, this was funny!
But with this clutch, they don't even nearly eat as much veggies as before. I don't know why.


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## urchin_grey (Jun 23, 2014)

Chipper&Trillie said:


> let's see. You mix pellets with veggies, process this in the blender and then mix with cooked rice, correct?
> 
> Are you talking about regular potato chips? any oil when you bake them (for birds)? I guess no salt?


Yep, blended pellets are what I'm spoon feeding my babies right now too because they're *almost* weaned.

If you use parchment paper, you shouldn't need any oil at all.


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## vampiric_conure (Jul 8, 2012)

My stinkers go bonkers for rice and bread. If you are introducing pellets, you can puree them in a blender and sprinkle it over the bread/rice. Out here we have instant cous cous that **I** love. Heeheee  Gonna try it with my breeders and see if they'll take it, as the instant cous cous comes with carrots and stuff in it.


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## urchin_grey (Jun 23, 2014)

Oh yeah, any small grain works. I've cooked rice, cous cous, quinoa, oatmeal, etc. all together and they seem to love that. And if you cook with veggies, they'll still get at least some of the nutrition from them, even if they mostly pick around them.


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

I have Roudybush Tuscan Recipe Soak & Feed, but my birds ignored it previously. Maybe they would take it while they feeding the babies.


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

urchin_grey said:


> Oh yeah, any small grain works. I've cooked rice, cous cous, quinoa, oatmeal, etc. all together and they seem to love that.


did you cook all the grains all together or separately and then mixed them together? They probably have different cooking time? You must be extremely good cook, I would probably ruin it if I cooked all of them together


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## urchin_grey (Jun 23, 2014)

Chipper&Trillie said:


> did you cook all the grains all together or separately and then mixed them together? They probably have different cooking time? You must be extremely good cook, I would probably ruin it if I cooked all of them together


Oh no, I'm not patient enough for all that... I just dump it in altogether. lol


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

I cooked brown rice and hard-boiled egg, mixed together rice and yolk, then brushed broccoli crown in it (just the tops). My hen LOVED it! But I wonder how long this can be served? They go eat on and off. What you guys think? I know some people think egg can't be offered longer than 30 minutes, while mine was there ...... longer (not the whole day of course). 
I know nothing going to happen to humans if you hard boil egg, keep it in the room temperature in the shell, and eat it the next day. We traveled when I was a child over several days without fridge, and cooked eggs would be always an item we packed.


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## CloudySkies (Jul 11, 2014)

Chipper, you can try making birdie bread too. I make mine with Trader Joe's corn bread mix. In a bowl I throw in a couple of eggs (smash up the shells a bunch so they're in tiny pieces and not all stuck together), put in half a cup to a cup of water and a bit of olive oil and throw in half a cup or more of pellets to sit and soften up. I then add in cut up veggies (you can do whatever you want, grated carrots, cut up peppers, chopped up greens, peas, whatever you want your 'tiels to eat and what you think they may like). I also usually throw in a jar of baby pureed vegetable. Then I throw in half a cup or so of seed mix and then enough of the corn bread mix to make it the right consistancy. Depending on how much stuff I have mixed in, I alter how much mix I add and I may need to add more water to thin it out a bit. 

Pour (squish) it all in an 8x8 pan and bake at 350 for 35 min or so until a toothpick or butter knife comes out cleanish. Let it cool, then cut up in cubes. You can save some of the cubes in a ziplock bag in the fridge for a few days and serve from that, or just save it all in the freezer and just microwave what you're going to feed that day (just make sure you touch it all to make sure you don't have any hot spots before you feed it).

I especially like to use this birdie bread when I am introducing pellets, as since half of the bread is basically pellets, they get used to the taste. It's also nice to know that they're eating veggies even if they're not great veggie eaters. I like to serve it when my birds are molting, since I sprinkle in a store bought molting additive for molting birds and it sticks to the moistness of the bread, so I know they're consuming it. You can also add in fresh veggies with it, once they start liking the bread and use that as a vehicle to introduce more foods to them.

Works well for me and is really very little effort if you go super lazy and find pre-chopped veggies and stuff. Cough, cough. I mean, if someone WOULD be that lazy, of course (looks over shoulder).


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

thanks, Cloudy skies. I also have 4 bunnies, and I have to buy TONS of green veggies to feed them. When we open fridge, bags of green stuff fall out on us! (kidding, but true sometimes)
We don't have Trader Joe here but I think any cornbread mix would work (all natural one).
I should certainly try to make a bread. I can't complain that birds are not eating. They are eating like crazy - all 6. Different things.
I mix cooked grain with egg yolk and broccoli crowns. 
How much and how often can they eat boiled eggs? 

What your opinion about conventional green veggies for tiels? OK or not? I buy some organic, but not all. Having bunnies, I would spend a lot buying all organic.


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## CloudySkies (Jul 11, 2014)

I'm no expert by any means, I just sort of make it up as I go along. Basically, what veggies end up in bird bread depends on a) my motivation level (do I really want to chop up a bunch of things into teensy weensy pieces? If so, how much?), b) money and c) motivation. Again. This last batch of birdie bread contained a chopped up bunch of "broccoli slaw" that was cut into thin strips... broccoli, red cabbage and carrots I think. I just threw a big handful of that (rinsed off) and chopped it into smaller pieces (time spent, 1.5 minutes). I happened to have a jar of pureed baby food carrot which I poured into the mix and some frozen peas I found in the freezer. Mixed with a couple of eggs (with shell), a little olive oil, water, pellets, seeds and enough cornbread mix to make it the right consistency.

Other versions have included lots of chopped peppers, green leafies, herbs and such. Honestly, as long as it's not on the no-no list and if it's chopped small enough to be edible, anything goes for me. I like using the jar of baby food because it adds some moisture that isn't just water. I use a lot of pellets in the mix, some soaked for a while in the egg/water mixture so it gets soft and then I throw some in at the end so there are some crunchy bits. Basically, I try to make it so that no matter what part they choose to eat, it's healthy. I like to add in that Kaytee moulting mix (it's mostly egg powder with some seeds and I don't know what else) when I serve it, along with their favorite seeds, and a bit more fresh pellets. When I'm particularly motivated, I will add in more chopped veggies or sprouts. You can use heartier sprouts in with the bread mix as well or use more tender sprouts as a mix in when serving.

I'm terrible at serving actual veggies and I'm trying to get better about that. The bread makes me feel better because it's almost half veggies when all is said and done so I don't think I'm doing too badly.

I mention this birdie bread idea to you since you've mentioned that your birds are bread fanatics, so I wonder if they'd take to this more nutritionally balanced version of bread instead?


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## Chipper&Trillie (Sep 1, 2013)

but the veggies would be cooked, right? raw are more useful, certainly. 
I might try it, thanks. I have one stubborn bird who doesn't eat much more than bread and seeds.


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