Need help preparing some veggies

[bill_e]

Hi All,

I went shopping this morning for some organic veggies for my parrot and have no idea how to prepare them.

Foods in question are Summer squash, sweet potato, collard greens and green peppers.

I tried the green pepper raw but she doesnt seem to be interested...I tried than they are delicious Do you feed raw or steamed?

Same goes for the other veggies, raw or steamed/cooked. And what about seasoning...any?

Thanks
Bill

 

[Amanda_Bennett]

Raw is best, but that being said my girl is super picky about what she will eat raw. (can you say spoiled?)

I steam lightly, no seasonings. Sweet potatoes & squash can be cooked in the microwave then cooled and served. You could add Cinnamon or Cayenne Pepper to the sweet potato or squash, but my girl will usually eat it if she thinks I am eating it.

I like to make "chop" and freeze in portion sized baggies for easy mornings

Zilla loves pasta, rice and beans, so cooking those and adding some chopped or grated veggies gets her eating even the ones she doesn't really care for because the small pieces stick to the other things.

I usually serve a portion of warm chop beside a portion of raw veggies, then toss in a grape cut in half or a few berries (Zillas favorite are blueberries)

It takes time, patients and perseverance to get a stubborn parrot to start eating veggies & fruits. It took me several months to get my girl to eat some veggies (like Broccoli) I am still trying to get her to eat it, but so far it's only good to toss at her cat...LOL

 

[ZephyrFly]

Same here, make chop, freeze portions. We have less of a bean variety where I am so I use a mix of red, black, and green lentils.
Most veg is good raw, if we can eat it raw then its better for them raw.

No salt, no licorice. Garlic in small controlled amounts (once a week). Ginger (good for travel sickness), cinnamon, cayenne pepper, edible chillies in general. Chamomile is good for stressed birds.

Plenty of seasoning if you want to, i gave Pazu some cinnamon and ginger in his chop at christmas, he seemed to like it and he smelt lovely

 

[Psittaciformes]

When I had Kiwiberry she'd eat raw, except when I bought dehydrated mango pieces she'd get some of those too lol
I never used any seasoning though, I never even thought about it so that's something I'll be looking into!

But anyway, sometimes I'd freeze a batch but usually just give her fresh stuff 'cause well, she was a small bird and it took about 2m to prepare her stuff.

 

[chris-md]

One of the most common ways to serve them up is in what's called chop, which is essentially diced everything. Many birds are known to be picky eaters but when the food is chopped up a really small they can't disregard individual bits of food as easily

It would be a really good idea to try serving, for example your green peppers, in different forms: Sliced, diced,chunks, whole, room temperature, Hot, cold.

For stuff like sweet potatoes you can actually mash them.

 

[Psittaciformes]

Even with chop they might be really picky; then you can make some mash with oatmeal and veggies.
You don't have to use oatmeal though, it was just an example. I think I used something else as well, I just can't remember what it was right now, but I'll update this when I do lol

EDIT: Rice! You can mix it with rice, not really mash but you could mush it all in there and make it into that though.

 

[Terry57]

I usually cook squash in the oven. I cut it in half and put it on a bakers rack in a pan with some water in the bottom.I flavour the water for squash with cayenne and cinnamon.
Darwin really loves corn, carrots and green beans. I used the frozen and just thaw it under warm water and then heat it a bit and it is her favourite. She also loves cooked brown rice flavoured with red pepper flakes.

 

[bill_e]

Thanks all, so I did also buy brown whole wheat rice and whole wheat pasta. I will try a mash with the sweet potato and one with the rice. Nike is quite fussy, my Orange Wing would eat about anything raw I put in her cage....so different.

I also received a shipment from Amazon today with some small bags of Nutri-berries...Senior, Garten and Avicakes..

She was on seed and I'm mixing in some Zupreem fruit pellets which she seems to prefer over the seed...go figure.

 

[Terry57]

Darwin LOVES her Zupreem Fruity too!
Let us know how Nike takes to her veggies

 

[rosembers]

You can blend the fresh fruits/veggies into a birdie smoothie. I do that a lot and it has been my most successful method to get our fids to eat their greens! As long as I put some sweet stuff (orange, banana, berries, cherries without the pit) I can add any veggies like kale, broccoli and spinach, and they will eat it. Our birds seem to like the texture too, more than chopped fruits and veggies. You can even put it into ice cube trays and make them little smoothie ice cubes. Our birds like steamed sweet potato too. And for peppers, the mini sweet peppers seem to be a hit (they even like to eat the seeds).

 

[Allee]

Cooked quinoa and sprouts added to finely chopped veggies is usually a good incentive for a picky parrot. Another trick that often works is a touch of coconut oil added to warm chop. If all else fails, pretend you don't want to share the yummy treat with your parrot.

 

[Weezerj]

Tons of good information here!

 

[bill_e]

Thanks all. She does like the sweet potatoes. I ground some of her Zupreem and put that in a few "cubes, and some chopped up green peppers in some other's.