Thank you to everyone who have enjoyed my first post on The 12 Toys Your Parrot Should Have last week! It was heartwarming to receive all the messages saying that my article taught you something and was useful to you.
Today, I will be introducing birdie bread and there will be a recipe on how to make it ;)
If you have never seen or heard of birdie bread, you might be wondering what it is and how it can be part of a pet parrots's nutritious diet.
What birdie bread is
Birdie bread is very similar to muffins and is made specially for our parrots' consumption. It can be a very healthy, fun and delicious foraging or training treat. Birdie bread can include fruits, vegetables, fresh puree, pellets, together with snacks such as seeds and nuts. It can be a great way to introduce fresh food and pellets to your parrot's diet if he/she is currently eating seeds as a main diet. This is because the ingredients are all mashed and mixed together forcing the parrot to taste the other ingredients even if he/she tries it for the delicious looking seeds in the birdie bread. I make birdie bread as an occasional treat for my lovies!
What is in birdie bread
The ingredients in birdie bread can vary based on the ingredients available in your country and kitchen, but as a guideline these are the categories I recommend:
Flour used to make the batter: Wholegrain wheat flour, sweet potato flour, almond flour *Do not get the 'ready made mixes' because they are loaded with preservatives and sugar!*
Nuts: almond, walnut, almonds, brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, pecans, pistachios, walnuts
Seeds: shelled sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, seed mix suitable for your parrots size
Mash/puree: Steamed and mash pumpkin, banana mash, squash mash, mash of soft fruits such as honeydew, melons, kiwi, peach, papaya, peach
Fruits
Fruits (try to get crunchy, semi-hard fruits, whole berries in the batter): apple, guava, strawberry, whole cranberry, whole blueberry, pineapple bits, raspberry, red currants, or dehydrated fruit bits
Vegetables (they should be diced into small pieces, the smaller the piece for the smaller the parrot): Broccoli, carrot, spinach, long bean, peas, snow pea, corn kernels, bell peppers, jalapeno, bird eye chilli (yes, birds can eat spicy chillis!)
(*Check out the list of safe fruits and veggies for parrots here)
Pellets: the sand-like ground pellets can be 'recycled' into the batter, uneaten pellets, new pellets you'd like your parrot to try, cooked Roudybush soak and feed (its amazing!)
Grains: oat groats
*IMPORTANT: Birdie bread should be as fresh as it can be and should not have added sugars, salt, butter or any preservatives. It should even be rather tasteless to us humans.
How to make birdie bread (recipe)
This recipe makes about 5 cupcake sized birdie bread in the picture above, which is the minimum amount I could do (unless you do not put a full egg in the batter)
I cut each birdie bread cupcake into 4 small pieces for my lovies, which I further break apart for them to easily get to it. But a medium to large sized parrot can easily eat one small piece in a bite. I know this because I've given them to friends who have macaws :)
What you'd need:
1. Half / quarter cup wholegrain wheat flour / sweet potato flour / almond flour (whichever you can find)
2. 1 small egg
3. 1-1.5 cup of water (you can tinker w the amount to get a similarly gooey consistency in my photo)
4. 2 small bananas or half a normal sized one (mash it before mixing into the batter) - or use any of the mash/puree options above
5. Leftover fine ground pellets sprinkled (optional)
6. A couple of fruits
7. Chopped vegetables
8. A sprinkling of seeds (put more if you are first introducing them to birdie bread to get them interested)
9. A sprinkling of oats (optional)
10. Half a teaspoon of baking powder (optional, its just to make the mixture rise and be less dense)
Mix them all together and then spoon it out into small muffin containers like in the picture.
Pre-heat oven at 250dc, bake for 10-15 minutes. I used a toaster oven for mine with the top heat setting, but take note of differences in brands/types of ovens. Do watch your cupcakes as they bake in the oven and once the top gets brown and crispy, open the oven and poke it through with a toothpick to make sure that the insides is cooked as well.
Remove from oven - it should look browned like this:
It should look like this after being cut and ready to be served:
I'm planning to bake another round of birdie bread next week for the lovies' christmas meal during our party :) Do try this recipe out and let me know what you think in the comment box!
Cheers!