A tip, buy some dried beans and sprout them! But-but-but, some sprouted beans are poisonous to the both of you! Kidney beans is one! Lentils are good.
I know sprouts are delicious and healthy for people and birds, but they are also considered a fairly risky food. I know tons of people who sprout (I sprouted my own for years), but if you are going to sprout, you should be aware of how to do it as safely as possible (it is never risk-free entirely).
The issues I found are: 1.
beans in a bag (like lentils) that you just buy at the store in the soup/rice aisle are not intended to be eaten raw, so they are not held to the same standards of cleanliness as other foods that would be eaten raw. The same is true of white flour (you shouldn't eat it raw, and I never knew this, but while eggs often get blamed for food poisoning in dough, raw flour also is risky for the same reason raw beans are)..E Coli and salmonella risks are much higher in raw beans NOT intended for sprouting (those they expect you to boil).
SO, Flboy--while that is what I did when I first started sprouting, it's not a good idea as far as food safety is concerned.
Beans and seeds etc sold with the purpose of sprouting in mind are handled differently, which does make them slightly safer when growing your own. The quality control and contamination cautions taken with these= much higher than with the other beans intended for cooking. That is why you should always sprout beans specifically labelled for sprouting (your can find online or at most health food stores). I would NOT ever get these from a "scoop your own" situation either-- due to the risk of germs on other people's hands.
That having been said, ALL the seeds and beans themselves (including the "special" ones) can still contain bacteria
internally, which has nothing to do with how they are treated externally.
Last thing, if you sprout, you are creating and ideal climate (wet, dark, warm) for bacteria to grow. As I said above, the seeds and beans themselves can contain internal or external bacteria, but you also have to consider the process of sprouting involves a lot of human hands and repeated draining/rinsing of the sprouts...lots of added opportunities for new bacteria to enter and thrive...bacteria that was on the beans/seeds, bacteria that was IN the beans/seeds and bacteria ON your hands/in the jar/ in the water.
SO, I guess what I mean to say is, do this at your own risk, but
the risk can be reduced by buying seeds and beans sold for sprouting, rather than sprouting bags of dried beans/lentils from the soup aisle (which are not handled with the same care, due to the assumption that they will not be eaten raw). Make sure your sprouting jaw is washed extremely well, that your hands are impeccable and that the water you use is safe.
In conjunction what Flboy said, some uncooked beans contain toxic lectins. There are certain cooked beans that are safe for humans but still contain enough of the toxins to harm parrots (post cooking). Kidney, navy, fava and pinto are a few that shouldn't be fed to birds even if cooked (but there are others too). Sprouting does not reduce the lectins enough to make them safe.
