| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 258.1 | too much fat if only diet | SVCRUS::KROLL | | Thu Sep 14 1989 14:34 | 10 |
| an exclusive diet of sunflowers will make the birds vitimin defecient
as well as fat. mine get a SMALL hand full each day but I also
let them fly around the house. some times I wish they were fat.
a lot of people will let the bird trick you into eating only the
sunflowers. I let them have a little so that they just get the
edge of hunger off but not enough to fill up. this makes them start
exploring other foods without starving in the process.
in fact my large parrots will eat them last now instead of first.
|
| 258.2 | OK in moderation | WITNES::HANNULA | Is there Aerobics for Cats? | Thu Sep 14 1989 14:53 | 13 |
| I thinks it's one of those things that's acceptable in moderation.
You don't want to feed an exclusive diet of sunflower seeds, but
I really don't see a reason to ban them either. If you buy a seed
mix that contains sunflower seeds, I don't see a problem with that.
Due to the sunflower seeds high fat content, I would try to eliminate
them from my birds diet if my bird was slightly on the overweight
side.
Just think what our diets would be like if we as people eliminated
everything that was fattening or had little nutritional value.
-Nancy
|
| 258.3 | Shelled vs. Unshelled | VAXUUM::COMPTON | Linda DTN 232-2441 ACO/E47 | Thu Sep 14 1989 18:23 | 19 |
| I have changed to making up my own seed mix (recipe courtesy of Charla
Kroll, another PET_BIRD noter). In that I include some shelled
sunflowers that I buy in a health-food store (a change from Charla's
basic recipe, if memory serves). We used to order Topper for all
our birds because of the no-sunflower recipe, but had switched
to Kay-Tee's commercial Safflower Deluxe Mix (I think that is the
name). Now they get the home-mixed variety with the shelled
sunflowers being just a small part of the recipe. There is less mess
and better control in avoiding giving bad seeds to the birds (when they
are in the shell, you can't see if they are moldy or buggy). A related
note: the avian vet we go to advised against using the in-the-shell
sunflowers sold as wild bird food for our cage birds (Littleton [MA]
Animal Clinic-Dr. Alexandra Kilgore) because of the quality-control
issues with seeds marked "not for human consumption" -- that old
guideline of "if you wouldn't eat it, should you be feeding it to
your birds?" is very helpful (also applies to produce that is
questionable).
because of an even greater chance of contamination and poor quality.
|
| 258.4 | cornbread | RAINBO::WIMMER | | Fri Sep 15 1989 13:35 | 6 |
| There was a recipe in the latest issue of Bird Talk for corn bread with
hulled sunflower seeds, grated carrots and whatever else you want to
throw in. I think I'll make up a batch this weekend and see what the
kids think of it. Maybe the "slowly weaning" baby will like it!
D
|