Veggie Mix - recipe and call for critique
Whenever I travel I board Kappa at the local parrot store where I originally bought her. The owner is a crotchety old woman who cares greatly about her birds, takes very good care of them, and often tells everyone else they're doing everything wrong. She has decided that I am feeding Kappa the Wrong Veggie Diet, specifically that I give Kappa too much spinach. She's convinced that spinach is bad for birds b/c it's got too much iron in it - firstly, the myth that spinach is high in iron is just that, a myth. It's no higher in iron than any other leafy green vegetable. Secondly, just to appease her I switched from spinach to other leafy green vegetables, like kale or dandelion greens, so there isn't any spinach in there.
While I only care about making her happy in as much as I care about greasing the social wheels and being able to continue to board Kappa there (hence switching the spinach to a different leafy green), I do care about whether I really am giving Kappa a healthy veggie diet. So what I've got below is Kappa's veggie diet, both recipe and photos, and I would like a critique of it - should I add something? do I have too much of something else? Quantities are not exact in my recipe, since I usually eyeball things anyway. Everything is organic.
Part 1: Grains and Beans
This part I prepare separately since each thing needs to be cooked. Ingredients are chickpeas, kidney beans, lima beans, maybe another type of beans, brown rice, whole oats or whole wheat, whole grain pasta. I eyeball 0.5-1 cups (dry) of each. Cook everything in just enough water (so that you don't lose a lot of nutrients to the water that you dump). Freeze most of it, using some in each batch of veggies for the next few months.
Photo of frozen grains/beans mix:
Part 2: The Veggies
Ingredients:
* Broccoli (3-4 stems, include stem and florets)
* Kale or dandelion greens
* 1 yellow zucchini/squash
* 1 green zucchini/squash
* 1-2 peppers (at least one not green for color variety, can substitute a batch of hot peppers)
* 1-2 apples or pears (remove stem/core/seeds)
* Carrots, corn, and peas (sometimes frozen, sometimes fresh, depending on what's available)
* Sometimes sprouts, alfalfa, dried fruit, or other assorted things for variety.
* 6-10 hard boiled eggs, yolks removed, shells kept
Chop everything into 1" cubes or smaller. Keep around 1/3-1/2 (by volume) raw (except the egg). The remaining 1/2-2/3 cook in just enough water (again, so that you don't lose a lot of nutrients to the water that you dump).
Mix cooked and raw veggies. Mix veggies with thawed grains/beans, approximately 1/4 grains/beans and 3/4 veggies. Add spirulina, red palm fruit oil (brand: Sunshine factor), probiotic/supplement (brand: Pretty Bird/Natural Gold supplement for birds), all as directed. Mix. Pack into small tupperwares. Freeze. Thaw as needed. I serve cold, and it lasts around 2 months (the leftover grains/beans mix lasts through a few cycles of veggie mixes, so more like 6 months).
Photo of final veggie mix:
Pellet Mix
Kappa also gets a pellet mix, I mix a number of brands together, add a bit of dried fruit, and some treats. Most treats get hidden in foraging toys rather than left out for her. She gets roughly equal volume of pellets and veggies, and actually eats about twice the volume of veggies as pellets (since pellets can stay out a bit longer than veggies due to being dry, I haven't reduced the volume of pellets).
Photo of pellet mix:
Photo spam!
And just to reward you for sticking with me for all this, a few photos of Kappa helping me repack some of her veggie mix.
Ooh, this looks like it could be good...
A delicate bouquet of corn, with an aftertaste of corn.
I'm ready for my close-up!
So, got any input on Kappa's diet? Be brutal, I can take it! *gulps and cringes*
While I only care about making her happy in as much as I care about greasing the social wheels and being able to continue to board Kappa there (hence switching the spinach to a different leafy green), I do care about whether I really am giving Kappa a healthy veggie diet. So what I've got below is Kappa's veggie diet, both recipe and photos, and I would like a critique of it - should I add something? do I have too much of something else? Quantities are not exact in my recipe, since I usually eyeball things anyway. Everything is organic.
Part 1: Grains and Beans
This part I prepare separately since each thing needs to be cooked. Ingredients are chickpeas, kidney beans, lima beans, maybe another type of beans, brown rice, whole oats or whole wheat, whole grain pasta. I eyeball 0.5-1 cups (dry) of each. Cook everything in just enough water (so that you don't lose a lot of nutrients to the water that you dump). Freeze most of it, using some in each batch of veggies for the next few months.
Photo of frozen grains/beans mix:
Part 2: The Veggies
Ingredients:
* Broccoli (3-4 stems, include stem and florets)
* Kale or dandelion greens
* 1 yellow zucchini/squash
* 1 green zucchini/squash
* 1-2 peppers (at least one not green for color variety, can substitute a batch of hot peppers)
* 1-2 apples or pears (remove stem/core/seeds)
* Carrots, corn, and peas (sometimes frozen, sometimes fresh, depending on what's available)
* Sometimes sprouts, alfalfa, dried fruit, or other assorted things for variety.
* 6-10 hard boiled eggs, yolks removed, shells kept
Chop everything into 1" cubes or smaller. Keep around 1/3-1/2 (by volume) raw (except the egg). The remaining 1/2-2/3 cook in just enough water (again, so that you don't lose a lot of nutrients to the water that you dump).
Mix cooked and raw veggies. Mix veggies with thawed grains/beans, approximately 1/4 grains/beans and 3/4 veggies. Add spirulina, red palm fruit oil (brand: Sunshine factor), probiotic/supplement (brand: Pretty Bird/Natural Gold supplement for birds), all as directed. Mix. Pack into small tupperwares. Freeze. Thaw as needed. I serve cold, and it lasts around 2 months (the leftover grains/beans mix lasts through a few cycles of veggie mixes, so more like 6 months).
Photo of final veggie mix:
Pellet Mix
Kappa also gets a pellet mix, I mix a number of brands together, add a bit of dried fruit, and some treats. Most treats get hidden in foraging toys rather than left out for her. She gets roughly equal volume of pellets and veggies, and actually eats about twice the volume of veggies as pellets (since pellets can stay out a bit longer than veggies due to being dry, I haven't reduced the volume of pellets).
Photo of pellet mix:
Photo spam!
And just to reward you for sticking with me for all this, a few photos of Kappa helping me repack some of her veggie mix.
Ooh, this looks like it could be good...
A delicate bouquet of corn, with an aftertaste of corn.
I'm ready for my close-up!
So, got any input on Kappa's diet? Be brutal, I can take it! *gulps and cringes*