Blackberries? and other foods

[Suz Stickville]

I was wondering if it would be OK to feed my cockatiel (Tweety) fresh blackberries out of my yard? I grow EVERYTHING organic and they have not been sprayed with anything other than water from my well I also have read/heard here about wheat grass trays in cage, would it be OK to do same with winter rye? I have seeds left over from this winter and my green manure crops..... BF is having good laugh over planters of kale, swiss chard, broccoli and brussel sprouts that I have started/growing around my garden tub so that Tweety can have these veggies fresh with no chemicals during the summer. What about mints...spearmint & peppermint?
I also sprout lentils for my own consumption... would it be OK to feeds these to Tweety also??? Yeh I know, questions..questions.... but I'm just tryyyying to make shure of what I CAN feed him fresh that is OK........ I have finally convinced him to try almost anything fresh that I put into his treet cup
I saw suger cane in a store sold as birdy treets... would it be alright to give Tweety small amounts of peeled fresh (grown local and sold at local produce market)?
Any and ALL feedback would be greatly appreciated....

[Monica]

Here's a big list of foods from the Healthy Bird Cookbook you can feed your sun!

Grains, Breads, and Muffins
Corn bread
Graham crackers
Mandel bread, soaked
Matzoh
Matzoh balls
Mini bagels
Oatmeal
Pastas
Rice
Rice cakes
Rice Chex
Rice Krispies
Sweetened corn cereals
Sweetened oat cereals
Toasted bread
Unsalted crackers
Unsalted, unbuttered popcorn
Wheat cereals
Whole-wheat or multigrained bread
Zweibach toast, soaked
Other grains

Vegetables
Beans
Beets
Broccoli
Carrots
Corn
Green beans
Jalapeno peppers
Lima beans
Mixed vegetables
Okra
Peas
Potatoes
Summer squash
Sweet Potatoes
Winter squash
Yams

Fruit
Apples
Bananas
Berries (all kind)
Grapes
Kiwis
Mangos
Melons
Oranges
Papaya
Pears
Star Fruit
Winter Squash
Yams

Other Foods
Hulled seeds
Millet spray
Monkey biscuits
Peanut butter sandwiches rolled in millet
Pellets
Scrambled eggs
Hard-boiled eggs
Sprouted seeds


Foods to avoid
Chocolate
Avocados
Sugar (too much is a bad thing... best kind is natural sugars)
Old Seeds
Mayonnaise products
Unwashed Fruits or Vegetables
Rhubarb (contains oxalic acid, as does spinach - feed only in small amounts)
Fruit Pits
Nuts (brazil nuts, almonds, imported nuts that have been polished/dyed)
Dairy Products (birds are lactose intolerent-feed small amounts-cleaned/cooked eggs and yogurt fine)
Mold
Caffeine
Salt
Alcohol
Food Dyes
Sulfites (found in dried fruits and veggies to help preserve them-only from health food store)




And for what's not on the list, winter rye, lentils, and mint... The lentils sprouted are fine, although for a bird the sprouts shouldn't be longer than 1/4 of an inch to 1/2 an inch (smaller if possible). One site indicates rye berries (or just rye) safe to sprout. As for peppermint, it's used in herbal remedies. Spearmint? Well it keeps moths away.... but beyond that can't find any hard proof saying that the mints are safe.

[tielfan]

Cockatiels are generally not big fruit eaters, and I recently heard someone say that they don't recognize fruit as food. Even my new little tiel who eats almost anything hasn't warmed up to fresh fruit yet, although she enjoys freeze-dried fruit. It's fine to offer him well-washed fruit and if he likes it that's great, but for tiels it's generally recommended that not more than 10% of the diet should be made up of fruit. The emphasis needs to be on feeding vegetables. My little veggie-lover's special favorites are fresh corn and fresh peas.

Sprouts are wonderfully good for birds, and my tiels get fresh homegrown sprouts every day. The time of maximum nutrition is when the tail is just beginning to emerge from the seed. I sprout their regular bird seed, whole grains from the natural-foods market (wheat, kamut, spelt, quinoa, buckwheat groats, mung beans, lentils, etc) and 'sprouting seeds' meant for use on human salads (alfalfa, radish, broccoli, red clover). The main thing you need to know is that most kinds of beans need to be cooked before they're safe for birds, even if they've been sprouted. Sprouted mung beans, lentils, adzuki beans and garbanzos are the kinds that are bird-safe without cooking.
Individual birds will have their own preferences and Tweety might not go for every single type of sprout you offer him, but there's probably something in there that he'd enjoy.

Natural sugar cane has nutrients that you don't find in refined sugar, and small amounts ought to be harmless and maybe even beneficial. This doesn't sound like something he should be getting every day though. You could leave the peel on if you like - cockatiels are chewers and he might enjoy gnawing on it.

[CrazyBirdLady]

All I want to add is that if your tiel does eat the blackberries, remember that they may cause his/her poop to change color, so don't panic when you see a red or blackish poop.

[Willow]

Also berries can make them seem like they have a bloddy foot when it is just stained from the juice!

[bekfreak]

My tiel liked blackberries. :) He liked Rasberries and those gold colored ones too. They're a seedy fruit so it was more to get to the seed than the actual fruit. He'd try desperately to get to the blueberries when they came into season. :) Sweet tasting peas.