This Is High Growing Season

[spiritbird]

Now is the time we can get lots of nutritious veggies for our birds to eat. I have been making small amounts of fresh chop each day. They seem to devour it. Mind you I only have a few ingredients like greens, carrots, peas, squash, corn and anything else fresh in my frig. Some people freeze it but I have found the chop to be significantly changed in consistency when it is frozen and thawed. In the winter I do have dehydrated mixes of fruits and veggies to feed them. I can say that I have frozen some blueberries for winter feasting.

[Mare]

It sure is! I started harvesting beets, squash, tomatoes and eggplant, (they don't like eggplant), oh!, and Swiss chard :) Chip is the only one that likes fresh chard..well, the wild birds have been feasting on it, also :)

[spiritbird]

I like Swiss chard. Taste a bit like spinach. Rainbow chard is pretty. We put chard in soups here.

[Mr Peepers]

I love this time of the year, everything is fresh and plentiful and CHEAP! except for Ontario cherries which are about $5.00 a pound. Its a good thing SPX isn't a cherry fanatic.

Sadly with Peep's gone I don't buy as much veggies as I usually did for the boys as Peepers was the veggie pig here.

[Casper's 2nd best friend]

This is the time of year when everyone else goes away just as all their garden efforts are coming to fruition. By offering to water their plants for them while they are away we reap the benefits of their labour.
We have some dandelions on our lawn which is mostly moss, very little grass. I like it that way, the moss is nice and springy and doesn't need mowing.
Dandelion is supposed to be good for parrots but Casper just snatches the flowers I pick for him out of my hand and throws them as far away as he can.

[spiritbird]

Dandelion is the most nutritious green we could feed birds. I attended a seminar on AVIAN nutrition. The instructor raved about it. Must be grown organically and not picked from a yard with pesticides. The greens are not easy to find in a regular grocery store.

[Mr Peepers]

Dandelion is the most nutritious green we could feed birds. I attended a seminar on AVIAN nutrition. The instructor raved about it. Must be grown organically and not picked from a yard with pesticides. The greens are not easy to find in a regular grocery store.


I buy dandelion greens all the time at my local grocery store all year round they cost just under $2.50 depending on the season and they are massive in size compared to the little green leaf
dandelions that grow in the yard or my planter boxes with the flowers.

My avian said this plant is really good for any parrot/small finch type bird to eat to aid if a bird has a fatty liver disease.


An average dandelion flower and leaf plant

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big leaf dandelion greens that never come with a flower

this is what I buy in my local grocers, the bunch is twice the size of a large head/bunch of romaine lettuce


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[Casper's 2nd best friend]

No pesticides in our garden. We are grateful for anything that grows there without any input from us. Stuff that gets too rampant gets dug out. Ground elder is a particular problem. I wish that was good for parrots.

[spiritbird]

Nick you are so fortunate to be able to find them all year long. I have to drive to Wegmans which is about 20 or so miles or another small organic market called Moms.

[Mr Peepers]

Nick you are so fortunate to be able to find them all year long. I have to drive to Wegmans which is about 20 or so miles or another small organic market called Moms.


The place I buy them from is an area where Portuguese and Asian's shop all the time, apparently this is something they use often in meals so my grocery store stocks it all the time. I've been to a different name store in the same area and they said they didn't buy it or store it as it didn't sell well for them, could it have been because they jacked the price up to $4.79 a bunch? :th_biggrin: