What CAN I Feed My Parrot? - PART 2

Once you’ve added your cooked beans and grains, you may add other items.  Ideas are as follows:
 

• Other fruit in season (blueberries, peaches, plums, kiwi fruits, cranberries, melon, etc) . 
• Sprouts  
• Any other pelleted food (preferably Organic and free of artificial colors) - this can be a successful way to introduce pellets to a Parrot who won’t eat them.
• Uncooked whole grain pasta (do not use pasta made from white flour)
• Flax or sesame seeds
• Firm tofu, diced into squares
• Cooked, diced beets
• Dried goji berries (available from the Northern Parrots and full of antioxidants) . 
• Corn on the cob slices, quartered
• A small amount of a high-quality, clean seed mix – this should make up no more than 5% of the total mix when finished.

 *Keep in mind appropriate proportions when creating this mix. I suggest the following percentages for the final mix: cooked beans 15-20%, cooked or sprouted grains 15-20%, raw pasta no more than 2%, fruit no more than 15%, greens 5%, vegetables at least 40%, seed mix 2-5%. 

Certified veterinary technician Barbara Wiley makes a terrific “Birdie Muffin” recipe:

1 package corn muffin mix
1 4-oz. jar each - Baby food carrots, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, spinach
2 eggs, including shells
2-3 T. olive oil
1+ c. ground vegetables (i.e. sweet potato, carrots, kale, broccoli, etc. See list below)
1+ c. ground Harrison's Bird Diet™ or Tropicans™ (Hagen) or other good quality pellets . 
 
Other healthy additions and/or choices include: ½ -1 banana; wheat grass; dandelion, mustard or turnip greens; butternut or acorn squash
 
Grind vegetables, eggshells and pellets in food processor. Several batches may be necessary. Stir together all ingredients and let batter sit for 10-15 min. If batter seems too dry, add water or non-fat plain yoghurt. Oil mini-sized or regular muffin tins, depending on your preference. Fill and bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Muffins can be refrigerated or frozen for later use.

And Parrot author Patricia Sund makes a lovely thing she calls “Chop” which is well described in the following video: https://Parrotnation.com/2010/08/08/chop-shot-by-shot/
 
And again, none of these people are suggesting their various recipes should be substituted for a formulated diet base. Indeed, to repeat what was stated earlier, according to some of the top avian veterinarians in the world, a decent diet for the generic Parrot should be approximately:
 
60% formulated diet
25% high nutrition vegetables (especially those high in Vitamin A)
15% composed of nuts*, seeds**, high nutrition fruits*** and an occasional small treats for training 
 
The English-English Language Barrier

After rummaging around in Google, Wikipedia and various make-your-own-baby-food websites for a while, I have collected the following definitions of various foodstuffs I found mentioned in various sources of food for Parrots. They are all apparently fine to be fed to Parrots and they are listed alphabetically under all the names I could find. Most of the following descriptions are quoted directly from the sources that are listed at the end of each entry.

Acorns:  According to aviculturist EB Cravens, acorns are a safe food for psittacines. There are many instances of wild and feral Parrots eating acorns, i.e. thick-billed Parrots, Quakers, and Amazons. (https://www.Parrots.org/index.php/forumsandexperts/answers/author/ebcravens/P24/)
 
Beet – see Beetroot
 
Beetroot - The beetroot, also known as the table beet, garden beet, red beet or informally simply as beet, is one of the many cultivated varieties of beets (Beta vulgaris) and arguably the most commonly encountered variety in North America, Central America and Britain. Parrots often eat them with gusto but be prepared for a momentarily frightening colour change in their droppings! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetroot)
 
Cape gooseberries – See physalis
 
Carambola – see Star fruit
 
Courgette – see Zucchini
 
Garden beet – see Beetroot 
 
Legume – see Pulses
 
Marrow - Cultivated in England, this green, oval summer squash can grow to the size of a watermelon. It's closely related to the courgette / zucchini and can be cooked in any manner suitable for that vegetable. https://www.epicurious.com/tools/fooddictionary/entry/?id=5075#ixzz1d2zTSTvI,
 
Physalis (Most – but not all – physalis species produce edible fruits, with a basic flavour recalling a tomato/pineapple-like blend. Some species like cape gooseberries and tomatillos have numerous named cultivars, which offer a range of flavours from tart to sweet to savoury.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physalis) 
 
Pulses: A pulse is an annual leguminous crop yielding from one to twelve seeds of variable size, shape, and colour within a pod. Pulses are used for food and animal feed. The term "pulse", as used by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), is reserved for crops harvested solely for the dry seed. This excludes green beans and green peas, which are considered vegetable crops. Also excluded are crops that are mainly grown for oil extraction(oilseeds like soybeans and peanuts), and crops which are used exclusively for sowing (clovers, alfalfa).

However, in common use these distinctions are not clearly made, and many of the varieties so classified and given below are also used as vegetables, with their beans in pods while young cooked in whole cuisines and sold for the purpose; for example black eyed beans, lima beans and Toor or pigeon peas are thus eaten as fresh green beans cooked as part of a meal.

Pulses are important food crops due to their high protein and essential amino acid content. Just like words such as bean and lentil, the word pulse may also refer to just the seed, rather than the entire plant. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_%28legume%29)

Check out the Pulse and Rice Soaking Mix here. 
 
Radish - Radishes are rich in ascorbic acid, folic acid, and potassium. They are a good source of vitamin B6, riboflavin, magnesium, copper, and Calcium. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radish)
 
Red beet – see Beetroot
 
Runner beans – The green pods are edible whole before they become fibrous and the seeds can be used fresh or as dried beans. The starchy roots are still eaten by Central American Indians. In the UK, the flowers are often ignored, or treated as an attractive bonus to cultivating the plant for the beans, whereas in the US the scarlet runner is widely grown for its attractive flowers by people who would never think of eating it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaseolus_coccineus.  Runner beans are a very nutritious vegetable, a natural source of Vitamin C, Fibre, Folate and Iron. 
 
Satsuma (Citrus unshiu) is a seedless and easy-peeling citrus mutant of Japanese origin introduced to the West. In Japan, it is known as mikan or formally unshu mikan. In China, it is known as Wenzhou migan. In both languages, the name means "Honey Citrus of Wenzhou” named after a city in China. It is also often known as "Seedless mandarin."
The common English name "satsuma" is derived from the former Satsuma Province in Japan, from which these fruits were first exported to the West. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satsuma_(fruit)
 
Star fruit - Carambola, also known as starfruit, is the fruit of Averrhoa carambola, a species of tree native to the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The fruit is
a popular food throughout Southeast Asia, the South Pacific and parts of East Asia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carambola) Also: Star Fruit are a good choice during the winter months, when they're readily available. And they're a good source of Vitamin C and also full of antioxidants and flavonoids. Nice to eat fresh, but also delicious cooked or juiced. (https://thaifood.about.com/od/introtothaicooking/ss/starfruithowto.htm)
 
Swede - Swede is actually a member of the cabbage family and is a cross between a turnip and kale. It is a rich source of vitamin A (from beta-carotene), vitamin C and minerals. Depending on where you are in the world, you will know this tasty root vegetable as a swede, a Swedish turnip, a rutabaga or as brassica rapa.  https://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/jan/25/seasonal-food-swede

Sweet Potato – Seems we Americans got this all wrong. According to Wikipedia, the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is a dicotyledonous plant that is a large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous root that is an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens.

The sweet potato is only distantly related to the potato. Although the softer, orange variety is often called a yam in parts of North America, the sweet potato is botanically very distinct from the other vegetable called a yam, which is native to Africa and Asia and is unrelated.

To prevent confusion, the United States Department of Agriculture requires sweet potatoes labeled as "yams" to be labeled also as "sweet potatoes". In New Zealand English, the Mâori term kûmara is commonly used. Besides simple starches, sweet potatoes are rich in complex carbohydrates, dietary fibre, beta carotene (a vitamin A equivalent nutrient), vitamin C, and vitamin B₆. Pink, yellow and green varieties are also high in carotene, the precursor of vitamin A. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_potato) see also Yam.
 
Table beet – see beet
 
Tomatillos – see physalis
 
Yam – Yam is the common name for some species in the genus Dioscorea. These are herbaceous vines cultivated for the consumption of their starchy tubers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania. There are many cultivars of yam. Although the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) has traditionally been referred to as a yam in parts of the United States and Canada, it is not part of the Dioscoreaceae family.

The yam is a versatile vegetable which is high in vitamins C and B₆, potassium, manganese and dietary fiber while being low in saturated fat and sodium. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yam_(vegetable) NOTE: Unlike the sweet potato, the yam apparently contains no beta carotene so it isn’t a potential source of Vitamin A.
 
Zucchini - The zucchini (or courgette) is a summer squash which often grows to nearly a meter in length, but which is usually harvested at half that size or less. It is a hybrid of the cucumber. Along with certain other squashes, it belongs to the species Cucurbita pepo. Zucchini can be dark or light green. A related hybrid, the golden zucchini is a deep yellow or orange color.  The zucchini fruit is contains useful amounts of folate (24mcg/100 g), potassium (280 mg/100 g) and vitamin A (384 IU [115 mcg]/100 g.