Recipes for cockateils and parakeets?

Question

We have 3 parakeets and 5 cockateils. They are eating pellets and seeds. We would like some recipes that would be healthy for them. While watching tv my husband have been sharing his evening snacks of cookies/ crackers/ almonds/ peanuts with them. I want something better for them. Any suggestions?

We want to feed our birds, not eat them.

Answer 1

Some people make "glop" for their parrots. If they're fans of mushy things, you could try choosing a variety of fruits and vegetables, shredding, dicing, and chopping them and mixing them together. http://rationalparrot.com/diet.html If you scroll down the page past "Healthy fresh foods", you'll see the person has made some glop and lists the ingredients she used.

Some people also bake birdy bread. http://www.budgies.org/info/recipes/breads.html

There are a bunch of other nice recipes here: http://www.parrotparrot.com/birdhealth/recipes.htm

Try to avoid letting them have too many nuts and evening snacks like that, it's typically not very healthy and the nuts are very high in fat. Almonds, however, were a good choice because they're quite nutritious. Your husband can offer them these in moderation, but I would really cut back on the others (oatmeal cookies and unsalted crackers would be okay once in a while).

Good luck and have fun cooking.

EDIT: And to clear misconception, having seed in a daily diet is NOT like eating a quarter pounder a day - that would be a full seed diet. Since you're feeding pellets, that's great. It should make up about 80% of their daily diet, and all parrots need some seed. Yours in particular are Australian birds and require a bit more seed, so about 10% of their diet should be seed, and the other 10% fresh fruits, veggies, grains, and pastas. There's absolutely no way we can simulate the real wildlife environment and diet they live in, but we do what we can - and apparently we're doing it right because we've made great advances in avian health over the years.

Answer 2

People get confused between the word MATE and BREED. YES they can mate. They may not or most likely will not be successful at it anyway due to size issues. There will be a lot of falling off going on. It isnt often that a Budgie ( their real name not parakeet ) and a cockatiel will bond to the point of pairing up and mating, but it has been known to happen. Most often its the ambitious budgie male that tries mating the cockatiel and not the other way around. And the budgie male may well be trying to mate a cockatiel male or female. Since the possibility of it happening is so low, and the chances of successfully mating is even lower and then the chance of anything coming from it is near impossible ............... you have nothing to worry about.

Answer 3

Veggies and fruits...! For a real ZAP of minerals and vitamens and natural enzymes, try some raw veggies and fruits...

Though over the years it's become popular, and it's better than seed mixes, the soak and cook bean/corn type mixes leave me a little baffled?! Last time I checked, birds in the wild were not cooking and eating beans and legumes, nor corn and pasta either...?

Veggies, fruits and some pellets provide a wonderful diet. An occasional seed treat is fine, but seeds on daily basis is like eating a Quarter Pounder with cheese for lunch EVERY day--fatty and heavily nutritionally misbalanced in one direction...!

Answer 4

You should be able to adapt any basic recipe for chicken, just cut down the other ingredients or use enough cockateils and/or parakeets to equal one chicken.

Answer 5

they are very tough and not used in many recipes but here is one recipe that works.
boil the birds in a saucpan with a medium size rock for many hours.
When the rock is tender throw out the birds and eat the rock.

Answer 6

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