How do you give your birds leafy greens?

hannah7733 · Aug 24, 2019

My birds are pretty good at eating their fruit and veg, some of them like it more than others but that's not the problem. With leafy greens like kale and spinach, I've tried putting it in a regular food bowl (cover on and off), tried getting a bunch and wedging between the bars, and putting it in a large shallow bowl on top of a cage... whatever I do they always pull it out while eating it and drop it on the floor where it gets hoovered up by my rabbit lol. Do you have any other suggestions on how to keep it in one place?

Gemster · Aug 24, 2019

My bird’s receive their chop through a food processor so that they can’t miss any vegetable. I love to have my vegetables finely chopped so that one bite includes every ingredient and they can’t eat around kale for example in your situation.

chris-md · Aug 24, 2019

Echoing gemster for sure. A lot of people will put the leaves through a food processor to get them really small so they aren’t picked out.

But try different plants too. My Ekkie won’t touch kale, but turns out he loves whole Swiss chard so he gets that whole occasionally, but any other green gets processed.

Also play with the prep. My boy loves celery so I’ve experimented with separating the leaves from the stems, processing the leaves and just chopping the stems up into small segments. Sorta works but not often.

Laurasea · Aug 24, 2019

Use a fishing line, tie it so it hangs right at face level , annoyingly right at there favorite perch. It will in the very least make them bite and manipulate the leaves. This is how I got my shut down bird to touch manipulate and start playing and chewing toys.

chris-md · Aug 24, 2019

Laurasea said:
Use a fishing line, tie it so it hangs right at face level , annoyingly right at there favorite perch. It will in the very least make them bite and manipulate the leaves. This is how I got my shut down bird to touch manipulate and start playing and chewing toys.

Oh devious, I love this!

Doffy · Aug 24, 2019

I have a mesh ledge in my boys' flight cage. So just lay them out. They tend to favour the stalks/leaf veins though.

And native branches for more greens just layed on top of cage. But this is messy. Young tiel is fond of picking off leaves and dumping over the edge, it is a game to him.

Smaller veg in bowls, on same ledge

hannah7733 · Aug 24, 2019

My birds will eat everything I give them, I just want ideas on how to keep it in one place instead of getting thrown about everywhere. With other fruits/veg its easy because I can wedge a chunk in the bars. But with leafy greens they always end up on the floor where the rabbit eats them.

KawaiiTori · Aug 25, 2019

Doffy said:
I have a mesh ledge in my boys' flight cage. So just lay them out. They tend to favour the stalks/leaf veins though.

And native branches for more greens just layed on top of cage. But this is messy. Young tiel is fond of picking off leaves and dumping over the edge, it is a game to him.

Smaller veg in bowls, on same ledge

Tori is also a big fan of the “crunchy bits”! She generally likes her leafy greens chopped into little bite sized pieces...the only time she shows any interest in whole leaves is when I hold one for her...then she will tear into it and chomp up the bits no problem! I have also done the devious thing of rubbing her peppers all over a leaf...it seemed to work as she showed much more interest than normal.

fiddlejen · Aug 25, 2019

I use clippies. I found a really good green one that claims to be a millet clip, works GREAT for holding lettuce, broccoli, sweet potato slices, Bell pepper etc. (Thankfully, I bought several because next time I found some, they weren't the same, didn't work as well.)

Also I use Sunny's ring-a-bell, a rubber ball with hexagon holes & a Bell in middle -- to hold her green beans. She does have as much fun pulling them out as eating them. I don't have a bunny to eat what falls, so some does go to waste. However this means I see the leftovers every night, & I know she eats a reasonable amount too.

Along with those few great "millet holders," I mainly use Hair Clips. I have bunches of them, in various sizes. (You want the ones that are like a little claw, they usually come in shades of brownish.) Any drug store, dollar store, grocery store has them. (In their hair-care Dept, of course.)

hannah7733 · Aug 25, 2019

fiddlejen said:
I use clippies. I found a really good green one that claims to be a millet clip, works GREAT for holding lettuce, broccoli, sweet potato slices, Bell pepper etc. (Thankfully, I bought several because next time I found some, they weren't the same, didn't work as well.)

Also I use Sunny's ring-a-bell, a rubber ball with hexagon holes & a Bell in middle -- to hold her green beans. She does have as much fun pulling them out as eating them. I don't have a bunny to eat what falls, so some does go to waste. However this means I see the leftovers every night, & I know she eats a reasonable amount too.

Along with those few great "millet holders," I mainly use Hair Clips. I have bunches of them, in various sizes. (You want the ones that are like a little claw, they usually come in shades of brownish.) Any drug store, dollar store, grocery store has them. (In their hair-care Dept, of course.)

Thank you those are some great ideas. Some of my birds like their veg more than others, and the one that likes it most is a bugger for chucking it on the floor so I worry that by the time the fussier ones have ventured over that it's all been thrown to the bunny lol.

How do you give your birds leafy greens?

hannah7733

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