Questions about soaking and sprouting

[sebas77]

Hi,

I recently started to be interested in sprouting and I have some questions about it:

1) can all the sprouted seeds human eat, be eaten by parrots? I have bought some microgreen mixes before I started to read information specifically for parrots and some seeds are not listed among the ones to give to parrots.

2) I want to try to use a hydrophilic/absorbent cotton (not sure how you call it in English) medium to sprout the seeds, which means I cannot rinse them regularly (although I guess I could revert back to paper which is easier to replace). This probably will allow growing bacteria, this is why I am thinking to freeze the sprouted seed. I probably would freeze them anyway for safety. Thoughts about it? (I know what happens during the thawing process, so I am asking more about people who tried it than the theory) Note that I didn't try this medium yet, but I suspect I won't be able to recover the seeds anyway from it hence will be just greens so probably good to eat.

 

[Littleredbeak]

I sprout organic sprouting seeds and give micro greens. I’ve personally found I don’t do well sprouting in a mason jar. I spray my seeds with vinegar and rinse For at least a minute. the seeds soak for 24 hours before I sprout them. After the seeds soak I either put them in a coffee filter or a paper towel and fold the paper towel over the seeds. I clean and rinse the seeds throughly normally once in the morning and evening and always before I give them to the birds. I clean and rinse the seeds in a strainer.
I buy my micro greens from WF and clean the micro greens with vinegar and water. Sometimes my seeds will grow little micro greens that I will give them. I buy Handy Dandy organic sprouting bird seed.

 

[sebas77]

I am perplexed about the safety part. I believe that bacteria is not a relevant factor if I don't feed the seeds themselves, so it's more than sprout, it's at microgreen level.

however if it's just about sprouting, so serving the seeds as well, I am not sure that any of the current techniques are really safe especially since sprouting seeds are supposed to be given mixed with chop. However it may also very well be that there is too much fear around the bacteria factor and in normal situations is not a big problem.

 

[Littleredbeak]

Depending on what type of bird you have, having a little seeds is essential in their diet. Laurasea started a thread called Ornithology and posted this pretty interesting article http://www.royalbirdcompany.com/diet research amazon parrots.htm.

I clean my sprouted seeds very well and don’t feed anything I feel is potentially germy including my store bought micro greens. I don’t feed my sprouts with chopped- I feed them their sprouts fist thing in the morning - sometimes mix a little avian herbs or mirco greens with their sprouts. If you can grow microgreens I think that’s even better than store bought!

Potential bacteria I think you have to do your own risk and benefit analysis and decided what’s best for you and your flock. Knowledge is power

 

[noodles123]

You should not try to sprout seeds that are not intended for sprouting.

 

[Moxie]

I have to agree with noodles 123 trying to sprout seeds that aren't intended for sprouting isn't a good idea. Seeds for sprouting would be cared for differently than just plain old bird seeds.