Raw or Cooked?

[torrap]

I was wondering how you serve things like squash (spaghetti squash), Brussels sprouts, etc. to your birds.
I bought Spaghetti squash today with the assumption to cook it for myself and share it with my fids, but I tasted it raw, and it's not bad.
So........cooked or raw?

 

[GaryBV]

Hi torrap - I would generally prefer to give my birds their food raw. Brussels sprouts I just cut up the leaves raw, carrots I shave because they are particularly hard. The only things I really cook has been gaba rice and different kinds of beans. I havn't fed my birds any squashes but if I did I'd thinly cut it raw, and see how that went, but then again, cooked could be great too. I did read recently that the beta carotene was more easily absorbed in lightly cooked carrots than raw. One thing I"ve never fed my birds, and never heard anybody else feeding their birds, was potatoes - is there a reason for that? Sweet potatoes yes, white potatoes nobody ever mentions. I always buy the Yukon Golds.

 

[torrap]

Thank you Gary,
I have given regular potatoes to my birds, but both of my birds like sweet stuff better, so it was not received as good as yams, beets or sweet potatoes.
I have half of my squash in the oven and the other half is in the fridge. I'll try the raw one tomorrow morning and the cooked one later at night.
I'll report if I see a significant difference...........