I bought it, now what?

[wildheart]

I made notes from here Feeding the Companion Parrot by Pamela Clark and here - gloria's bird bread - http://www.holisticbird.org/pages/drecipes.htm and went surging for it the whole of yesterday. I managed to find some of the ingredients but not all and I think the things have different names here in SA. (Had to hide the till slip from hubby.:54

Most were bought from the health sections, do you think I can try and sprout some of these things - or wont it work?

Mostly, what on earth am I now suppose to do with all these seeds if I cant sprout them, do I soak the seeds, give it as is, cook them for how long?

I wanted to bake the bread but I couldnt find the dry ingredients of gloria's bird bread. The recipe says I can substitute, but I dont know if it will be ok with the things I have.

Here is her dry ingredients:

• ground flax seed - 1/2 cup. ( tip: grind while processor is still dry before making wet mix. Do not get flax seed wet until you are ready to add the wet mix to the dry mix because it is high in muco-polysaccharides, which form a sticky gel when moistened.)
• ground nuts - 1/2 cup (walnuts, pecans, brazils, almonds)
• whole wheat flour -
• two cups oatmeal -
• one cup wheat germ -
• one cup corn meal -
• one cup whey protein or soy milk powder -
• one cup soy flour -
• one cup unprocessed millers bran -
• one cup soy lecithin -
• 1/3 cup oil - 1/2 cup (do NOT use fragile oils that are easily damaged by heat, like flax, borage, evening primrose. Best oils to use would be coconut or olive oil. Safflower, sunflower, and corn are high in Omega 6 fatty acids, which birds already obtain from their diets and have been implicated in exacerbating some inflammatory diseases.)

Here is what I have:

Nutty wheat
Digestive Bran
Almond nuts
Brazilian nuts
wallnuts

Sunflower seeds - organic
wheat germ
white sesame
quinoa
golden flaxseed
pumpkin seed
crushed wheat
split peas
barley
lentils
groats
whole wheat pasta
oats
Olive Oil.

Please bare with me here, from my list the only things I have EVER bought before was the oats and olive oil!

Thanks for helping me out. I am really - TRULY not a kitchen person and I know that if I had to throw things together out of my own head that Sterretjie wont talk to me for a month cause she will think that I tried to poison her.

 

[boabab95]

Honestly, what I would do (and have done) is just mix the dry ingredients and serve as is. i've done tis and it's just as good, and I think kiwi actually like it better not cooked...

 

[wildheart]

To be honest, I dont want to give it to her as is. It was really expensive and I want to make 100% that she does get it in her tummy, so I was really hoping to bake the bread. I am just afraid that my flower types are maybe wrong and what must I use to substitute the things that I dont have.

Or what other type of thing can I make with it?

I must say that I do not have a problem with Sterretjie's eating habits, she loves food and I really want to give her the best nutrition possible.

She gets veggies, fruit and greens everyday and according to the websites she lacks beans and nuts - well, everything that I bought.

 

[Spiritbird]

Oh my you have a big project here. I do make up dinners for Rosie but I ad lib so to speak with ingredients that are available.
Then I freeze it in small containers. I would just go ahead with the substitutes. You will just have pieces of a dry mix cooked which you can freeze also. I did try one of these types of bird bread and Rosie refused to eat it so I doused it with carrot juice and she did eat it then. Now I stick to my ad libs mixes which turn out as a soft mush of various things plus I use some of the mixes on avain naturals.

 

[Mel]

I also adlib my bread. I start with 2cups wholemeal flour, 1 cup of oats, 3 whole eggs including shells then add anything in my fridge and cupboard the girls like including spices, seeds, nuts, F & V and mush it all together. If I need more liquid I sqeeze in OJ, if I need more dry I add more oats or quinoa. bake it at about 180*C until firm. Some turn out better than others but the girls love it.

 

[wildheart]

Ok thanks, at least I know now that I did not buy something that she is not allowed to eat - that was my biggest worry.

Instead of a bread that she might not like, I think I am going to make muffins and then put something else in each muffin. Some muffins will only have F & V so that Forest can also have some.

I am actually excited about this project! Thanks!

 

[Mel]

Muffins are a great idea, like you said you can put different things into each.... i might steal your idea

If you get another Iguana you'll have to call it Griffin

 

[Birdamor]

I have to tell you that my birds do not like muffins. I tried and tried when I lost one of the paddles of my bread machine but I had no success. My birds love my birdy bread but the bread is very dense and solid while the muffins are soft and airy and I guess they did not like that but other people's birds seem to like them so go ahead and try. Only thing is you cannot use regular baking powder with birds, you need to get the kind without aluminum.

My birdy bread recipe varies according to what I have in my fridge, too, but the basic part of it is always the same:

1 1/2 cups of wholewheat flour
1/2 cup coarse corn meal
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 envelope of dry yeast
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup of organic apple sauce
2 coarsely grated carrots
1/4 cup oat groats
1/4 cup of wheat kernels
1 tablespoon of RPO

Then, if I am making a sweet one, I add about 2 tablespoons of honey, 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts/almonds or whatever other nut I have at the time plus dry apple chips and/or dry pineapple/ and/or dry papaya and/or dry mango and/or raisins and/or currants and/or chopped dry figs and/or chopped dates, a bit of cinammon and/or ginger and/or grated lemon or orange grind BUT if I am making a spicy one, I add things like drained canned corn, chopped sun-dried tomatoes, dry sweet peas, dehydrated chopped red and green peppers, dry green beans, dry beets, grated fresh zucchini and chopped spicy peppers (jalapenos, habaneros, etc) with a bit of chopped garlic.

Then I add enough water to make it the righ consistency (you need to start the machine to mixing and then add the water) and voila! A nutritious birdy bread! I make the sweet one much more often than the spicy one because I love it myself but I don't eat spicy food. And it doesn't really matter if you don't get the consistency right because the birds don't really mind if it's a bit harder or a bit softer.