Spouts in lieu of veggies?

Hi guys!

I am going to foray into the world of sprouts today! Especially as my hen wants to nest and lay right now (hopefully she's done the laying part today at 4 eggs!) I want her to have some great nutrition on board. I found the thread on here about how to clean them (gonna use abit of white vinegar to disinfect) and soak, sprout etc. Great thread BTW!

I bought regular cockatiel seed to sprout since I couldn't find anything else without pellets etc in it. I hope this is ok?

My birds REFUSE to try the fresh veggies I offer daily - and lately Peaches takes the lettuce and such and uses it as nesting material - so yeah, not good, as it starts to rot!

I wanna ask if I can offer the sprouts in lieu of the veggies since they don't seem to want to EAT them??

I understand that even seed-junkies as hard core as my pair will eat em up! So, eager to try!

I would offer both. I would chop the veggies in small pieces instead of just giving a leaf of lettuce. For my linnies I grate carrots and chop those up. Same with squash etc. The greens I offer I chop up into bite sizes.

If your birds will eat sprouted seeds, it would be amazing for their health! Sprouts are probably the healthiest thing they can eat.

If they do eat the sprouts, it might help them transition into eating fresh vegetables, though. I would keep offering them.

Selestine said:

If your birds will eat sprouted seeds, it would be amazing for their health! Sprouts are probably the healthiest thing they can eat.

If they do eat the sprouts, it might help them transition into eating fresh vegetables, though. I would keep offering them.

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Feeding sprouts is something I've been wanting to try, how do you recommend going about doing it?

This was the thread I found in the parrot diet forum. Great Thread to read for trying sprouting. I also googled it.

http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-food-recipes-diet/47342-sprouting-questions.html


I hope the thread link works......

Phew! It does!

TweeterKat said:

This was the thread I found in the parrot diet forum. Great Thread to read for trying sprouting. I also googled it.

http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-food-recipes-diet/47342-sprouting-questions.html


I hope the thread link works......

Phew! It does!

Click to expand...

Thank you! Anxious to give this a try!

Sprouts are baby plants, so they are vegetation. They are in the anabolic stage of their life cycle, right at the moment when fat (from seed) is transformed into energy. They are busting with energy and nutrients and can be fed freely. Mixing tiny shredded veggies and greens as The Karens suggested is also an excellent idea after sprouts are accepted. There's a bit of a learning curve when sprouting, but it's easy to figure it out. Lots of videos on YouTube about sprouting as well as info in the web. Trial and error will guide you to that perfect moment when they're at their peak, and different sprouts come up at different times. The tiny ones tend to come up at the same time, the bigger ones at they're own time. Two sorts that arent suitable for jar sprouting is chia seeds and flax seeds...they produce psyllium, which is a heavy slime that makes it impossible to drain. Once you get the hang of it it's super easy, just don't get discouraged by the occasional bad batch, it happens, especially if you let them sprout for too long. 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 days seems to be the best time to refrigerate in my experience with them (with the sprouts I use).

Sprouts are fantastic for nutrition, and the link shared above includes my instructions as well as those from others. I mix my sprouts with finely chopped veggies, but sprout make up the base and on some crazy days that is all they get. I take comfort knowing that no other single dish could be so nutritious. It is really REALLY important to remember to keep everything fresh though, or it will spoil and be rejected by your bird, and make him sick. All my birds are on sprout based diets, but especially my breeding pairs NEED the nutrition of sprouts. It is also a lot cheaper than feeding veggies alone and is a great "gateway food" for veggie haters.

Thanks for the info everyone! I started some, but wasnt able to keep up with the rinsing on day one and scrapped them. Had an unforeseen circumstance pop up. Will try again in a few days when things settle down