Tops Chatter

Peanuts contain a lot of nutrition and I have not seen one parrot, which does not love them.

On the other side, if they are not organic, they are heavily sprayed with herbicide, fungicide, pesticide and I don’t know what else. I don’t want to put these chemicals in my parrot food.

So, what about organic peanuts? They might have aflatoxin, which is a fungus found rather frequently in Nature. A healthy body would not have any problems if exposed to small amounts of this Aspergillus producing toxins. The FDA has set limits on how much aflatoxin foods, which are prone to contain them, can have. The problems is, nobody checks this amounts between they are measured and finally reach the consumer. It seems peanuts contain more often higher amounts than most other foods. And if the immune system is already compromised, aflatoxin can cause aspergillosis. 

I was looking into the recall of peanut products at the beginning of this year and was flabbergasted how many products were affected. 

If you want to have a look at it, here is the link to the FDA: 

http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/index.cfm

Peanuts are not in the menu of my parrot food, because there are so many other nuts, which are saver. Though everybody has to decide this for her/himself.

Usually when we hear the word nettle, we do not think about parrot food or food at all. Though, the sting of the nettle is but nothing compared to the pain that it heals, is an old saying in Europe. Through centuries of experience people knew that nettles are very useful plants.  They contain a high amount of chlorophyll, more then most other plants. The young plants are also rich in protein, Vitamin A, C and D, first class calcium, and a variety of minerals. It has been proven that nettles provide impressive results in treating rheumatoid arthritis, because they neutralize uric acid. They are also known for their immune stimulant and anti-inflammatory actions, strengthening of the adrenals and are said to restore youthful flexibility to blood vessels.

If you want to use them fresh, boiling or putting the leafs in hot water removes the sting. Young nettles prepared like spinach or made into a soup are quit delicious. In spring I sprinkle them fresh over the bird food. The rest of the year I use them dried.

One of my favorite foods is fennel. I eat it raw and cooked in many different forms. Added to a salad it gives a delicious flavor. I also often ad it to my parrot food.

Though, it does not only taste wonderful, but has many healthy components. One of them reduces inflammation and helps prevent the occurrence of cancer. The high amount of vitamin C found in fennel bulbs is antimicrobial and helps the immune system to function proper. There are many more nutritional advances of fennel, which you can read at the following site:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=23

And here one of the parrot food recipes I use it in:

Cook a ¼ cup of quinoa in ½ cup of water, until all water is absorbed.

Cut 2 carrots, ½ fennel and ½ yellow pepper in cubes and mix in the still hot quinoa. Done. Buon appetito.

As experienced parrot owners know, taking good care of a feathered friend takes serious commitment. Parrots resent being cooped up in tiny cages; they prefer to climb around and fly if possible. It’s therefore best to provide them with a home that’s suitably tall for their particular species. Bigger birds such as macaws, Amazons and cockatoos will require particularly large spaces to explore. But space isn’t the only essential element you’ll need to provide for your bird.

Parrots thrive on a diverse and sophisticated diet. Seeds, nuts, fruit and other plant material all factor into their dietary habits. For this reason, a parrot seed mix is ideally suited to the bird’s liking. An effective seed mix should include a number of wholesome grains such as rice, barley and buckwheat in addition to sunflower seeds and other typical bird fare.

I love it when customers share how they use Totally Organics parrot food. A friend and customer of mine was so exited how easy it is to prepare the All-in-One Soak mix that she took photos and shared the process with her list. She was so kind to allow me to share them here.

Here the start:

¼ cup of dry seeds put in a canning jar and filled with water:

After 24 hours of soaking:

The dry seeds and after soaking:

And mixes with some veggies:

Mo thinks it’s yummy

It would be great if we could find out more about, what our parrot’s food would be, when they lived in the wild. Researchers have caught parts of their eating habits. But so far there seems to be no way of following them around and watch what they consume over a period of a year, or at least some month.

I remember a story, somebody who traveled to many places where parrots live, was telling me once. He lived at a place in Costa Rica with an almond grove nearby. Once a year when the almonds were ripe, a huge flock of scarlet macaws came. They stayed until they had eaten  all the almonds and then disappeared until the next year. Nobody ever knew where they spend the rest of the year, because this was the only time they were seen.

I wonder if flocks have places where they know certain foods will be ripe and eatable at a specific time or if this is a single case.

There are many ways to feed our parrots. And there are many very experienced and knowledgeable people, who share their view on parrot food. I am a curious person and always anxious to learn, so I read what they have to share. Sometimes I find something that makes total sense to me. But then my birds show me that it might not. 

Recently I was reading that a bird should not be feed the same food more often than once a week. At the same time my African Grey Gilmore started to pick the carrots out of his breakfast. He left everything else in the bowl. So, I started to ad more carrots to his food. He kept eating them for about 5 days. Then he stopped eating the carrots. Did not touch them anymore and ate only the other things. 

I really do think variety and moderation is the best way to feed our parrots. And birds, which are used to a wide variety of foods, seem to be able to make right choices. Probably Gilmore needed more Vitamin A at this time and took the right food out of his mix. When he had enough, he started to eat other things and left the carrots. I see similar eating behavior quite a bit with my birds.  Sometimes they pick one food or eat more pellets or more seeds and after a while go back to the other foods.

 It is good to learn as much as we can. But every bird is different. And I think it is important to watch our parrots and learn to see what they need at any given time.

I just got an invitation for a seminar where professionals will discuss the past, present and future of Santoquin. I am reading things like: it has given feed producers and nutritionist peace of mind, protecting feed from oxidation and other good things. I never heard this name. But I am a curious person. So, I went to the Internet to search what that could be. It looks like it is another name for ethoxyquin. On the site of the University of Oregon it says:” A yellow liquid antioxidant and herbicide. It has been found to cause liver tumors in newborn mice.”

Years ago the late Alicia McWatters wrote an investigative report on ethoxyquin. If you are interested on reading it, here is the link:

http://www.naturespet.com/flintethox.html

Another one from Gillian Willis, a pharmacist and toxicologist:

http://www.parrothouse.com/ethox.html

 Ethoxyquin was one of the reasons Totally Organics came into life. We just did not want any chemicals in our parrot food.

Several weeks ago I wrote about the way cooking sometimes turns out for me. I start to prepare one parrot food recipe and somehow end up with something totally different than I intended. After that little story I got an email yesterday from a Lara, asking for the omelet recipe, which I did not do that day. I don’t have really one recipe, because I use whatever I have around. But here is one way I do it:

Put one clove of garlic with one tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and fry over low medium heat until garlic is looking glazy.

Take 2 eggs, ad ¼ of a teaspoon of grated parmesan cheese and wisp them.

Cut 1 tomatoes in small cubes

Chop a handful of arugola, some basil, peppermint and/or lovage leafs.

Mix it all together with the eggs and put into pan and fry over medium heat until lightly brown. Turn around and fry another few minutes……….. and ready.

If you have fewer parrots than I, just ad some salt and pepper to the part which is too much for your birds and eat it your self. It is really yummy

Enjoy your parrot food .

You might wonder about such a ridiculous title.

A customer just told me that she went to a bird store to buy parrot food and ask for TOP pellets. I don’t know if they did not have them. The sales person showed my customer another, multi colored branch of parrot pellets and said: this ones are really good; smell them, yummy, like fruit loops.

This Totally Organics customer feeds organic foods to her birds and does not want any artificial colors and other chemicals in her parrot food. But how many parrot owners don’t know much about nutrition and rely on their bird store for information about what food is healthy and which could harm their bird? I am just sharing this story to show that it looks like we have to educate ourselves, when we want to avoid certain ingredients in our parrot food. I know there are great stores with knowledgeable sales personal. But there are the other kinds too. I hope you have a great one in your area.