Tapioca starch- safe for birds?

[Kiwibird]

I am working on a parrot food "project" for those of us keeping our parrots on an organic, unprocessed, whole-foods diet (which I will share on here when I am finished) and need a binder for alternative (gluten free) flours, such as oat or chickpea. I am intentionally avoiding wheat flour, which means I will need an alternative binder in the absence of gluten. I am needing to yield something similar to pasta dough. Usually, I would use tapioca starch in such a recipe, but I am unsure if it is safe for parrots? Other alternative binders I have considered experimenting with are chia seeds, arrowroot or agar powder (also unsure of safety for parrots on those). Wanted to get some insights before feeding any to

 

[Doublete]

Chia seeds are safe... At least I found a parrot recipe with them and used them....

 

[labell]

Yes I offer Chia seeds they are a super food! Not sure about Tapioca starch but I can say I am intrigued with this recipe and look forward to you sharing it with all of us.

 

[Kiwibird]

I think I might experiment with a small batch using ground chia, ground flax (I use that as an egg replacer in baking) and the tapioca. There seems to be recipes out there that use tapioca pearls in parrot recipes. I'll leave the agar and arrowroot alone though, since those could potentially be toxic and no info.

I've gotten quite a few PM's about how I feed Kiwi, so I want to come up with a little something special for the birds (and anyone else who wants to try it).

 

[Matt_95]

I think arrowroot should be fine, I know a fair few people give their birds arrowroot biscuits as a treat here to their parrots.