Here are a few simple things that you can do to enrich your parrot’s life and learn more about them.

1. Set your timer for 10 minutes. Give your bird your undivided attention for that time. Give scratches, go for a walk in the house, toss a ball, dance, sit quietly. What ever your bird likes to do.
2. Eat a healthy snack and share with your bird. For Example: Blueberries, carrots, apple, pear etc.
3. Make a quick toy. Be creative but safe! Offer up a wooden tongue depressor- hold it and talk to them while they destroy it. Cut up pieces of cardboard and weave through cage bars for them to chew on.
4. Sit close to the cage and read them a children’s book. Show them the pictures!
5. Listen to the radio together or leave it on when you are not there.
6. Teach them to forage. Put a loose paper over the food dish, wrap a nut in paper towel and let them work to get the nut. It might take a little time to teach. Let the birds see you set up the foraging goody. If they don’t get it peel away the paper the first few times!
7. When you change the paper in the cage put an extra layer for playing or chewing on. Rotate the toys to different spots in the cage.
8. Having a salad with dinner? Take out some for the birds before you put the dressing on.
9. Talk to them.
10. If you can’t take them out of the cage give them scratches through the bars. It is better than nothing!

These are some things that I do for my birds. Post a comment and tell me what you and your parrots do!

Your Birdie Friend,

Christa

The deal is that one of the bushes should start producing right away and the other will wait until Fall.

We will have lots of blueberries!!!

I sure am looking forward to this fresh fruit. Blueberries are very healthy and a good addition to anyones diet. These guys have lots of antioxidants, phytonutrients, fiber, Vitamin C, and Vitamin E. One cup is only 80 calories.

One of our favorite ways to eat blueberries is in hot cereal. Make some steel cut oats or 10 grain cereal. When cooling add a handful of frozen blueberries. Stir gently. This will warm up the blueberries and cool down the cereal so that it is edible. Yum!

Fresh by the handful is good too. Each parrot gets one. We get the rest in our hand.

Don’t forget to add blueberries to your fruit salad. Remember to take out enough for the birds before you put any sweet dressing on for yourself.

Click on Photo for recipe.

References:

WHFoods Blueberry Nutritional Profile

Blueberry Nutrition

Facts about Blueberries from NutritionData

I first soaked a cup of Tropimix and 1/4 cup of Veggie Mash with 2 cups almost boiling water. I let that sit for 20 minutes.

I then mixed in the two boxes of Jiffy mix. Grease an 8×8 glass pan and bake for 25 minutes. Bread is done if a knife comes out clean when poked into the middle of the bread.

When done flip the bread out on a rack to cool. Cut and serve.

I am not really a fan of the Jiffy mix it is really junk food. A better idea would be to make your own corn bread mix using quality organic ingredients. There must be an organic equivalent at your local organic grocer.

This is a recipe that my mom and my father in law both used. We love the corn bread but have made some changes.

Here is a recipe for you to try:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour - you could try amaranth or some other kind too!
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup millet

Put this in one bowl.

In 2 cup glass measuring cup put

• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 of apple sauce
• 2 eggs or egg substitute

Beat with fork and add liquid to flour bowl

Pour into greased 9×9 pan

Bake at 425 for 20-25 minutes

Family Favorites not bird related.

My husband tilled the garden and planted today too.

We started with kale, spinach, peas, leeks and garlic chives. That bin is our compost area. We just toss the leaves, branches and appropriate kitchen left overs right on top. Then my hubby occasionally turns over the pile with a pitchfork. Nice stuff!

The soda bottles that are cut in half are being used to keep the seeds protected. They will help keep the moisture in and protect from birds and a freeze if it still happens.

Per Shorty’s our local garden store, these are things that we can plant now! I am looking forward to fresh food and food for the birds too. I know right off that the kale, spinach and peas are ok for them. I will be checking into the others.

There is room for at least three more rows of produce. I will write about them as we plant. This is a nice and easy way to save money and still get good fresh food for us and the parrots!

Quaker parrot gets an award for saving a toddlers life!

Click Willie’s picture for story and video.

ABC News Video

The Amnesty day is being held in Florida where they are used to seeing all sorts of unusual and exotic animals.

Click here for an article from the Florida Fish and Wildlife. I sure wish more Fish and Wildlife offices in other states would do the same!

Here is the news story I just watched:

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Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The next part of the mash is the grains. I think it would be great to get 3 at the store and mix them up and keep them in a container like the beans. You can change out what grains you use each time you buy them. Go to your local organic/whole food store and check out what is in the bulk section. Or if you can find coupons Kashi would work. (my personal opinion).

Here are some recommended grains to use:

• Millet
• Quinoa
• Amaranth
• Whole oats
• Hulless barley
• Spelt or Kamut
• Brown or wild rice
• Buckwheat

Shauna recommends to always use either Quinoa or Amaranth or both. These grains have great nutritional value and both have an unusually complete protein source. They also have high protein, essential amino acids, and vitamins.

I have linked to information about each grain.

Like the beans the grains also need to be soaked for 8 hours before use. Then you can cook by bringing fresh water to a boil and then turning off the heat. You can also sprout them too.

If you are curious about each grain plug them in here:
Get the NutritionData Food Search Widget widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox!

Beans are an important part of the mash recipe. Of course we should use the beans that are more easily digestible by our birds.

These beans are:

• Azuki
• Mung
• Chickpeas
• Lentils
• sprouting peas

Shauna suggests that it is really easy if you buy a little of each and combine them all in a container. When you are ready to fix beans take out a scoop and soak it over night. After the soaking rinse and add clean water. You can boil for 10 minutes and simmer for 20 more. Or sprout until the lentils have 1/4 inch tails and the others 1/2 inch. Sprouting will take about 3 days.

Azuki Mung

Chickpeas

Lentils

Here is a great tool that you can use to find out nutritional information.
Get the NutritionData Food Search Widget widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox!

I tried a bite of today’s mash. Pretty good! Tasted nice and healthy. Probably would not have hurt me to eat some.

She started out with a mixture of grains and legumes. Then to that she added fresh veggies and fruit that had been run through the Cuisinart . This prevents too much picking out of favorite foods by the birds. All items are in relatively uniform pieces all ready for consumption.

Some of the items added where:

• purple kale
• hemp powder
• flax oil
• wheat germ oil
• a bit of pineapple
• a bit of mango
• lightly steamed broccoli and cauliflower
• some pumpkin seeds
• mixed organic baby greens
• Quinoa -red and white sprouted
• barley sprouts
• carrots
• small amount of red bell pepper (watch the solanine)
• some fresh beets

All sorts of good stuff! I am sure I have forgotten a few things too. Shauna has been researching food and how it pertains to parrots for quite awhile now.

Talk to you soon!

Christa

Dania awarded me a Proximidade award. I want to return the kindness.

The official rules of the Proximidade Award are:

“This blog invests and believes the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly written text into the body of their award.”

My Awards Go To:

• Flitting on Fiction
• Recovery Rocks
• Stretch Your Dollar
• Stitching Life Together
• Green Not Mean
• Read Worthy News
• Mother For Life
• Eclectic Witch

These today members went out of their way to chat with me in the forum and or leave posts on my blog. THANK YOU! I really appreciate the time you took to make me feel welcome.

Christa