...But if you can go the full sprouting procedure for a couple days, then cook for 20 minutes you will release a ton of very healthy nutrients that otherwise wouldn’t be available.
All the sprouting without the bacterial question marks.
Are you saying that cooking for 20 minutes (at what flame? Low, medium?) will release even
more nutrition from sprouts than would feeding them living and uncooked? Or just that the tradeoff is worth it for eliminating the "bacterial question marks"? I haven't really heard/read much as regards cooking sprouts.
Heedless, sorry I'm a bit late to respond to this thread. I'm glad you got rid of the junkier foods and colorful pellets. From what I've heard, Tops tends to be among the better pellets for ekkies if you're going to go the pelleted route. Personally I feed my birds mostly fresh foods. Here is a copy and paste of what I feed my Eclectic Duo, as always edited to reflect changes in my approach:
I tend to provide between 6 and 8 types of food per feeding (2 meals per day), weighted heavily toward the veggie side as only 1 of the food selections in a given meal is a fruit.
Various sprouts, carrots (very important due to the high content of beta carotene - precursor to Vitamin A), bell peppers (red, yellow, orange and green), jalapeno peppers, Jamaican Scotch bonnet peppers, chili peppers, squash (butternut, green and yellow), pumpkin (also high in Vitamin A), blueberries and pomegranates (both among the most nutritious of fruits), snap peas, broccoli (high in calcium), cactus pears, persimmon, starfruit, bananas, grapes, kale, turnips, radishes, brown rice, quinoa, cucumbers, endives, dandelion (nutritional powerhouse offered at every meal when seasonally available), sweet potato (cooked), red swiss chard, granny smith apples, papaya (don’t go too heavy on this, as it is a diarrhetic), African horned melon, hominy, oatmeal (sans sugar or flavoring), kiwi, barley, calendula flowers, fennel, chocho beans and garbanzo beans, as well as Volkman's Fancy Soak and Simmer for the majority of their legumes and grains.
For food accents I'll add one or two types of the following as well: star anise, milk thistle, elder berries, rose hips, hibiscus, bee pollen and chamomile flowers.
Twice a month, I'll give some hard-boiled egg (
with the crushed shell for calcium). Slightly more frequently during a molt.
For their training treats they get an assortment of unsalted nuts (one to three per bird in a given day, broken into small pieces and fed as rewards during the training sessions). And for their "goodnight treat", up to a teaspoon or two of seeds.
