Birdie bread

[hiriki]

Hey all, I see the birdie bread sticky and will be reviewing it shortly, but wanted to ask real quick:

My vet (or rather a vet tech at my vet's office) suggested making birdie bread to "trick" my birds into eating pellets. It seemed like she was suggesting slowly weaning my conures off of seed (my gcc is on higgin's sunburst, as that was what he was weaned onto by the parrot store where I bought him a few months ago, and my jenday is on nutriberries) by gradually replacing it with birdie bread, and then once they're used to the flavor of the pellets in the bread I'd start giving them pellets. This is all in combination with fresh food chop, of course.

My question is, is this a good idea??? I worry that birdie bread is going to have a lot of filler ingredients and grains, so the result is going to be even LESS healthy than seeds?? What do you guys think lol?

TIA!

 

[hiriki]

If it matters, I think I'm going to try a (slightly modified) recipe I found in this thread: https://www.parrotforums.com/threads/making-birdie-bread-for-the-first-time-need-help.22708/

This is the note that I made for myself to reference while shopping tomorrow:

preheat: 325 degrees

ingredients:

☆ 1 cup ground pellets
☆ 1/2 cup corn meal
☆ 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
☆ 1 cup ground nuts
☆ 4 whole eggs
☆ 1 1/2 cup processed veggies

directions:

1. Mix ingredients together with water to create firm dough
2. Roll into small balls and place on lightly greased cookie sheet (or use muffin tin?)
3. Bake for 20-30 minutes

 

[Vampiric_Conure]

An easy way to make birdy bread is to use waffle/pancake mix and just toss in whatever you want into the mix.

 

[hiriki]

Aaaaaaand the results are in!!! *drumroll* The birdie bread is a success!

In light of my experience searching for a recipe, as someone who is by NO means a baker, I'm going to post my notes!

preheat: 325 degrees
ingredients:
☆ 1 cup ground pellets
☆ 1/2 cup corn meal
☆ 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
☆ 2 tsp baking powder
☆ 1 cup ground nuts *
☆ ~1/2 cup whole pellets
☆ ~1/2 cup whole nuts
☆ 4 whole eggs
☆ Veggies **

directions:

1. Mix dry ingredients together in mixing bowl
2. Beat eggs and add veggies to separate wet ingredients bowl
3. Combine wet and dry ingredients
4. Add water, a splash at a time, if mixture is too dry
5. Use muffin liners in muffin tin, fill each muffin liner with small spoonful of dough
6. Bake for 20-25 mins
7. They should fall right out of the muffins liners, allowing liners to be reused without greasing the pan at all!
8. Let "muffins" (they look more like cookies) cool and store in a ziplock bag. Freeze and thaw as needed.

* An entire cup of ground nuts is a really expensive ingredient and kind of high in fat, I don't know what I was thinking when drafting this recipe! The recipe I referenced had a cup ground almonds which is probably where the thought came from. Anyway, maybe 2/3 cup nut butter of some kind would be a reasonable sub? Or removing entirely (though that would remove significant volume from batch)
** 1 can (15oz which is a little less than ~2 cups) pumpkin purée was used in pilot batch and also provided moisture/texture, with dry veggies you may need to add water for dough consistency

Here's some pics!

Dough:

Ready to bake:

All finished and cooling on the rack!:

Let me know what you think!!!!

 

[hiriki]

I tasted it myself, first tin that came out was quite dry so I added a splash of water to the second, maybe a bit more moisture will be good (but I don't think my birds will care one way or the other).

Regarding future batches, I kind of realized that the various dry ingredients, except the baking powder, could probably be mixed and matched with other dry ingredients? Like I don't think these exact proportions are serving a purpose in terms of like chemical reactions or whatever. It barely rose as it is so I mean idk.

Anyway, I think I might:
1) Consider replacing the corn meal volume in the dry mix with various other types of gluten free flour, not sure it matters but corn feels like a very "filler" ingredient!
2) Maybe add oats or granola? For instance, replace that massive volume of ground nuts with oats/granola/wheat germ instead?

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Hey all, I see the birdie bread sticky and will be reviewing it shortly, but wanted to ask real quick:

My vet (or rather a vet tech at my vet's office) suggested making birdie bread to "trick" my birds into eating pellets. It seemed like she was suggesting slowly weaning my conures off of seed (my gcc is on higgin's sunburst, as that was what he was weaned onto by the parrot store where I bought him a few months ago, and my jenday is on nutriberries) by gradually replacing it with birdie bread, and then once they're used to the flavor of the pellets in the bread I'd start giving them pellets. This is all in combination with fresh food chop, of course.

My question is, is this a good idea??? I worry that birdie bread is going to have a lot of filler ingredients and grains, so the result is going to be even LESS healthy than seeds?? What do you guys think lol?

TIA!

Birdie bread can be made with all the good ingredients you want your bird to eat. Harrison's makes a great birdie bread mix.

 

[TulsiBlueVana]

An easy way to make birdy bread is to use waffle/pancake mix and just toss in whatever you want into the mix.

I just yesterday used a cornbread mix, threw in some of the chop I made a few days ago for the freezer, baked it, and it turned out good. I usually don't use premade mixes but we were out shopping so I decided to try it that way first. Both Tusli and my yorkies love the bread! Hahahaha- and now the girls (dogs) got some veggies!