Sunday, April 17, 2011

Feeding Parrots: Organic Corn and Pasta

Parrots love corn. Domestic or wild, parrots love corn. In South American, macaw parrots will raid corn fields to feast on the ears of corn. Our parrots love pasta. We don't know how universal the parrot love of pasta is, but it's pretty universal with our flock. So our practice is to make a parrot casserole every weekend to feed the parrots for the following week.


We use organic or all natural ingredients as much as possible. The internal system of a parrot or bird is so much more sensitive to toxins than the human system. That's why canaries were used in coal mines! So rather than repeat organic this or organic that, whenever we list an ingredient, just assume the ingredient is organic or all natural.


One of our favorite dishes, which is a big hit with the parrots, is a Southwestern casserole, with corn, corn pasta, black beans, apple, and carrot. We're as lazy as the next person, and we'd rather not spend any more time cooking than we have to. So our dishes tend to require minimal preparation and cooking time. Even if it costs a little more, we tend to buy precooked products. With our dishes for example, cooking usually involves no more effort than boiling the pasta!

Our Timneh African grey parrot Tillie enjoying corn stuffed pasta!

Another corn and pasta dish popular with our flock is corn stuffed pasta shells. This takes a little bit more work stuffing the pasta shells, but the results are artistic as well as tasty!


The beauty of these dishes is their versatility. Whatever ingredients are handy can be added, or whatever ingredients your parrots favor. With the corn stuffed pasta shells we added Great Northern beans which we just happened to have on hand, as well as rainbow pasta for color, apple, and carrot. As Tillie shows above, the pasta shells are perfectly parrot size, and easy for the parrots to hold in their feet. Wondering if the parrots like this dish?


Here's the carnage from Tillie's dish. Note the skins of the Great Northern beans strewn over the counter. No skins for this parrot! And no need to worry about leftovers. These dishes are tasty enough for us humans to eat. Yummy!

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