the cooked based diet

[Sarahpercy]

Hello everyone, just wondered if i could ask some advice? as im new to this lol
Have had my first parrot for 2 months now and i have just bought an african grey (not here yet tho will be home in 8 weeks) and i love them so much i really want to make sure im doing my best when it comes to diet and nutrition.
My parrot i have at home, Percy, is 2 years old and the family i adopted him off had never given him fruit, veg or anything like that so iam slowly trying to introduce foods to him- and he is getting better at trying them now.
Ive bought lots of books on parrots and been doing lots of research and i bought the book "parrots for dummies" which suggests "the cooked based diet" which is a cooked mixture of beans (black, kidney, black-eyed etc) whole grain rice, quinoa, amaranth, couscous, whole grain pasta with some veggies and things. It says to make a batch which can then be divded into 7 and frozen so its ready for him each day.
My question is (sorry to sound stupid) it doesnt explain how you cook it. do you cook it all together like in a big pan, or do you cook each ingrediant seperately then put it all together when its cooked? also does anybody else give this to their babies?
Like i say iam still learning- but all my parrot has ever known (from the other family) is seed. I really want him to have the best diet and am willing to any effort cost into it, as long as he is happy / healthy so any ideas or tips would be greatfully recieved!
Many thanks

[Scritch]

Don't know about the recipe in that book particularly, but I do a bean/grain mixture for my birds sometimes. The beans take the longest and need to be soaked prior to cooking:

Beans | Bean Recipes | Bean Facts :: Cooking with Beans

I add grains like barley and split green peas in with the beans for boiling. Pasta only needs to boil with the rest for the last 10-15 min, while couscous can be thrown in right at the end to soak in the hot water a few minutes. Basically, follow the cooking instructions on the packages (or look up instructions online) and cook them the same way you would for people. You can do it all in one big pan, just throw in different things at different times, depending on how much cooking they need.

A lot of people do "mashes" or "chops" with cooked beans & grains, plus finely chopped veggies and whatever else you want to throw in -- make up a big patch, parcel it out into daily portions, and freeze.

I don't do this as often as I used to, most of the stuff can be fed raw and fresh and my birds seem to like it that way just as much. The only exceptions are the large beans (kidney, black, pinto etc.) which MUST be cooked before eating, they screw up digestion otherwise. When it comes to cooked foods, mostly I just share what I eat with my birds, these days. I'm a vegetarian and *usually* eat pretty well, lots of veggies, so this works out. I would probably do more cooking for them if I did less for myself.

If you're looking for diet tips, I HIGHLY recommend sprouts, google "sprouting for birds" for some articles, or this one's good:
ParrotChronicles.com

I started sprouting for mine a few years back and I can't say enough for it... when I started I had a lot more birds, and all the birds just looked so much better after a few weeks on the sprouts, it was amazing. Plus they love 'em, they're great for seed junkies who don't want to touch other foods, and they're easy to do. I just sprout a plain bird seed mixed with different seeds and grains from the grocery store.

For your grey, don't worry as much about too much fat in the diet as you might with your rosella. They need a bit more fat and oils in their diet... a nut or two a day is a good treat, especially almonds because they have a lot of calcium, which greys also especially need. My little girl Lolo here also likes pumpkin seeds.

[Sarahpercy]

Thanks for your reply!
That sounds a lot simpler than the book im reading lol
I will try all of those tips :)

[Angelsmum]

I cook grains, beans, quinoa all separately in big lots, freeze flat in a zip lock bag and break off amounts as needed. I have about a months supply at a time. That is then used as a base to mix in fresh, cooked, raw or thawed frozen veges. "Big" though is relative, I have 2 tiels.

[maggy]

I do fresh food every meal, but I don't feed the grains in the same way as Dusty's diet is based on sprouted grains. So she gets, her basic sprout mix (buckwheat, wheat, mung beans, adzuki beans, rice,and a selection that varies of celery,spinach,radish,alfalfa seeds). Then at meal time I cook a mix of either freshly cut veg or reay made frozen veg in the microwave and when its cooked and rinsed in cold water, mix the two. I also add two drops of wheatgerm oil. She also gets low fat pellets and a tiny spoon of budgie seed with pumpkin seed in a bowl for the day. The sprouts are served twice a day to stop her eating spoiled food and she gets cooked veg only at evening meal time. If you are interestedin sprouts see Reliable Servers - Dedicated Hosting | Virtual Private Servers | Colo as she supplys them but also has all the information about how healthy sprouts are for birds. Oh by the way I buy my seed from the healthfood store so they are human grade.

[Angelsmum]

I overnight germinate...that or sprouting further are fantastic nutrients.

[pi77]

sarah, you were me 6 months ago.

i have 2 parrots. a lb and a wfa. i got my lb 8 months ago and my wfa 7 months ago.

i went to the library and read a bunch of books including the parrots for dummies.

here is another link that is from one of the mods here that may help you as well.

Is Your Parrot REALLY Eating A Good Diet?

whatever you feed them, make sure you wash the fresh produce over n over again to remove the pesticides. while peanuts maybe ok i pass on peanuts just because. some peanuts have some kind fungus that will ruin a bird's liver. while not all peanuts have this fungus id rather not take chances.

for a quick meal i thaw the vegitables out of a bag of frozen veg mix. (corn peas beans and carrots) i just put them in a small bowl of water. once the water is at room temp i give fred his treat. you can also take a sweet potato and cube it an freeze it also. fred loves sweet potato which is supposed to be very good. i microwave the sweet potato so that it is about half soft before i freeze it. just because.

good luck to you.

i think that i am going to try the seed/sprout thing and see what happens. sounds easy enough.

[Angelsmum]

Seed sprouting is very easy, I just use a small wire strainer and a bowl and plastic wrap.
My journal may help give some ideas to try.

Completed journal of my battle to get a stubborn tiel to have a good diet.