  Animal Care - Avian Diet - Birds & Beans | ||
 Feeding Our Feathered Companions by Laurie The Bean DietWhen I started working with birds over 5 years ago, I admit, I would have fed seed.I would have picked the fanciest packaging, without the most variety, that of course was guaranteed and recommended world wide by veterinarians and top breeders. Well, things have changed. When I brought my adopted amazon, Meja, in for a check up, the doctor said something along the lines of wow, she has a huge fat deposit near her vent, she needs to lose weight or she may die from being to fat, I had no idea how right she was. My bird was obese and her favorite foods included pizza and peanut butter, and let’s not leave out ice cream. She already ate a bean mix diet, but usually ate dinner, dessert, breakfast and lunch with us, so I guess she really didn’t eat a lot of the mix. After that appointment, I went home and had a heart to heart with the bird as well as my husband and we all went on a diet. I started making the bean mix more frequently, adding more variety then I had seen previously and Meja started to thrive. I soon adopted other birds, and saw the same results in them as well. I started talking to people at the clinic about feeding their birds a proper diet, and ended up selling bean mix to them at work. As time progressed with these birds, we at the clinic started seeing improvements in their general appearance as well as in their overall health. The people felt strongly about their pets and worked hard at changing their diets over to the bean mix. I like being a part of that. And I love seeing the positive effects on the birds that are using "Laurie's Bean Mix." The Recipe
1. Rinse your beans and pigeon mix. Place in a pan and cover with water. Soak over night. Make sure that there is enough water, as beans will double in size while soaking. 2. After 24 hours of soaking, rinse your beans, refill pot of beans with fresh water and place on the stove over medium-high heat. Simmer for no more then 35 minutes, stirring frequently. You don't want to over cook the beans as this makes them mushy. Check progess and do not allow beans to become stuck to the bottom of the pot. After cooking, carefully drain and rinse the beans and pigeon mix. Make sure that they are well drained. The more water remaining, the more solid it will freeze up. This makes it difficult to break off individual portions. 3. In a large container, start combining all of your other ingredients except for any dry goods such as the pellets or any cereals. Make sure that all vegetables are cut into pieces small enough for your birds to eat. I recommend that you always use raw vegetables. Canned vegetables contain large abouts of sodium and steaming them only leeches out naturally occuring vitamins. Make sure that all ingredients are mixed thoroughly. At this time you can begin to mix your beans and pigeon mix in as well. There should be no clumping of ingredients. Once all your "wet" ingredients are mixed in, stir in your choice of pellets and cerals. I recommend Harrison's pellets, sized according to your birds needs. 4. Once mixed, bag your mix. For convenience, freeze your bean mix in 1 gallon freezer bags for the larger birds and in quart sized bags for the smaller birds. Kept in the freezer, your bean mix will last for well over 1 month. If you like, you may keep small portions thawed in you refrigerator for NO MORE then 4 days. Bean mix should not remain in the bowls for longer then 24 hours. Feeding small amounts 2 times a day is optimal. Always provide fresh bottled water or reverse osmosis water for your birds. For a Printable Recipe You'll need Adobe's Acrobat to print Now that we know what we are going to feed them, how do we get Companion Birds to eat the new stuff? Tricks of the Change >> The Birds and the Beans Nutrition and Health Avian Nutrition Conversion Strategies |
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