Strange things we can feed our birds

[bigal47]

Hi one and all
Just to pick up on a few things that are passing through some of the other subjects .
That is what strange things do we feed our beloved feathered birds and how do we collect them????
In the past I have been seen me on very early morning trips to collect ants and eggs for the breeding yellow hammers, Worms, morning and night time watering the garden so the worms would appearfor the blackbirds . Growing strange weeds in the garden so you could harvest the greenfly for some bird or another . Madeira cake ,never heard of that one before but seems logical when you think about it , How about Cous-cous, easy to make or cook, birds like it and good for them. Tried all sorts of fruit ,;-) melon s well they eat the seeds and play in the rest!!
Well now it's your turn what strange things do you feed yours.
Allan:-P

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi Allan,

As it happens many years ago I have been advised (by a Champion Fife Canary breeder) to use Cous Cous to keep Eggfood moist and fresh throughout a day, but I have noticed over the years that this was eaten as well as the Eggfood.
Recently I decided to use just Cous Cous on it's own as a food source for my Birds, but this is not entirely true, when I soak and prepare Cous Cous for my Birds I add three desert spoons of Cous Cous and two desert spoons of white sugar to a coffee mug and then top up with boiling water, stirring until the Cous Cous is thoroughly soaked.
By this time it is cool enough to be drained and offered to my Birds, so far I have noticed that the Japanese Waxwings are taking the Cous Cous on it's own, I will report if any of my Finches, Seedeaters and Buntings etc take to this.

I must add that I am a great follower of the Madeira Cake band, I have found Birds such as Chinese Painted Quail, Golden Breasted Buntings, Various other Finches, Waxbills, Mannnikins, Japanese Waxwings, Elliotts and Chestnut Capped Laughing Thrushes etc are very fond of this.

Paul H.:wink:

[kenny]

hi paul ,

i think i got the cous cous bug from you a while back plus it makes my eggfood last a lot longer than it used to


ken

[Robb]

Hi All,

I have been using cous cous this year in my egg food mixes - I make up a big mix with scrambled egg, dry proprietry eggfood mix, finely chopped brocoli & cous cous & then add honey to it to make it a nice & crumbly mixture. I then make itno suitable size portions & freeze it.
This makes it so simple & even frozen cous cous when thawed out retains a lot of moisture. I just get a portion out the night before & its room temp by morning.

I also give cous cous to my softbills mixed in with their normal diet - if there is any left over from salads etc!

Cheers

Robb

[PAUL HEARN]

Hi all,

So far I've had no success with my Finches and other Seedeaters taking Cous Cous:|, but the Waxwings loved it.:D
As I mentioned before I do add Sugar when soaking the Cous Cous, I will try adding the Cous Cous to my Finches soaked seed to see if they will take to it this way.

A top Canary breeder I know has experimented with various foods for his Birds, and he noticed that his Birds love Rice Crispies soaked in water and then drained, the same could be tried with Corn Flakes, Bran Flakes, Wheatabix, Shreddies etc.

Also for any Parrotlike keepers here, an old friend who for many years was the Chairman of Aldershot and District CBS always offered Wholemeal or Sweetmeal Biscuits to his Birds, I even used these after putting them in a blender and adding them to my Eggfood mixture for my smaller Birds.

For any meat eating Softbill owners, I discovered my Mothers Jay is very fond of Prawns (but only as a treat:D ).

Paul.;)