Whole sunflowers

[coral3]

Hi all,

I did a bit of a search, but couldn't find any info on this...

I'm wondering if giving a bird (alexandrine) a whole sunflower to pull apart would be too much sunflower seed all in one go? I understand that sunflower seeds generally need to be limited in their diet - but I was imagining the fun a bird could have ripping apart a fresh, whole sunflower & am considering growing some this summer just for this purpose. Or is it not a good idea? Would love some advice from those in the know!

 

[lene1949]

I think someone on this forum is growing them for their birds... but having trouble with wild birds eating them...

 

[paulhanlon]

I would normally give striped sunflower seeds to my birds but with amazons being prone to obesity I have had to change from the seeds to millet spray as I'm due to bring home my blue front in a week or too and i don't want him getting over weight

 

[wenz2712]

I have grown Sunflowers, but the Birds outside just pull them apart!

 

[Mook]

Perhaps you could grow a different type of flower for them to play with. There is a list of parrot friendly flowers here: Free Foods for your parrot

 

[paulhanlon]

I'll give it a look thanks

 

[henpecked]

That's a good list of flowers you can feed. Mine love hibiscus flowers and stems (grow wild around here). I also give mine the flower stalks from the basil ,makes the whole house smells like basil,LOL . My problem is the bugs in the sunflowers, if they don't eat them before they're ready to pick then they eat them in storage. That and don't want to cive them a whole head at one time. I grow the smaller ones and give them to the birds when still alittle "green", before the seeds mature and the petals fall off.

 

[wenz2712]

Codie loves Hibiscus and Nasturtiums

 

[coral3]

Perhaps you could grow a different type of flower for them to play with. There is a list of parrot friendly flowers here: Free Foods for your parrot

That's a great list - thanks for the link Mook!

I've got seeds for some of the smaller-flowered sunflower varieties to plant, so I'll go ahead and grow those, plus I'll try a few other flowers from that list - thanks! I've also got some spinach seed to plant (if the bird doesn't like it I'll just eat it myself!) and thought I'd grow a little patch of peas too. Would LOVE to grow hibiscus, but unfortunately the climate is just not hot enough where I live.

 

[henpecked]

Can you grow "okra" down under? Summer time here, loves the sun but needs water. Most of the zons like it.

 

[lizardsmells]

When I went to pick up this week's CSA the farmer gave me two cut sunflowers (he had buckets of them and wasn't asking if we wanted two, he was just insisting we take them ). The flower heads aren't mature, so there aren't any seeds in there. Are the flower, stems and leaves ok for Kazi? I hope so because he's had a great time shredding several leaves and eating a few petals. I can't find anything online or in any of my books that says they can't have them, but I figured I better check elsewhere too.

 

[henpecked]

Depends on if pesticides were used ?

 

[lizardsmells]

Absolutely not. This is an organic, granola hippie farm No pesticides are ever used on his farm, he's an old hippie and all 'back to the earth' and stuff.

 

[henpecked]

Then munch away.!!!