Plants, flowers, grasses you can find in the countryside, in the woods or meadows are rich in nutrients, provide superb nutrition, free and easy to find.
In fact, fruit, vegetables and greens sold in supermarkets have lower amount of nutrients not only because they often grow in depleted soils, but because domesticated plants by default have less nutrition – they are larger than wild and consequently contain a lot more water.
I love bringing something back for my birds from our walks and I am very passionate about wild plants and berries, so I thought I will share the information about what you can pick from the wild, or grown in your own home, with everyone
Things to remember: never pick up plants or tree brances grown by the side of the roads, or sprayed or fertilized with chemicals. Make sure you know that you are picking the right plants. Always wash thoroughly before use
Edible flowers to pick: elderberry flowers, apple and crab apple blossom, lilac flowers, roses, wild roses, pot marigold, geranium flowers, dandelion flowers, sunflower, safflower, hibiscus, passionflower, the flowers of such herbs as basil, coriander, fennel, garlic, sage, oregano, aniseed, the flowers of such vegetables as courgettes, marrows, pumpkins, squashes, peas.
Greens: dandelion greens, greater plantain, shepherd’s purse.
There are some wild plants that are quite hard to find in the wild or just great to have at hand at all times. You can buy a packet of seeds and plant them in the garden or just in a pot (they are about 99p for a packet with loads of seeds from internet suppliers). Your parrot will be very grateful (or at least his health).
This website has a great variety of seeds
http://www.greenchronicle.co.uk/acatalog/Herb_Seeds.htmlPurslane (Portulaca oleracea) - Purslane contains more Omega-3 fatty acids (alpha-linolenic acid in particular) than any other leafy vegetable plant. It also contains vitamins (mainly vitamin A, vitamin C, and some vitamin B and carotenoids), as well as dietary minerals, such as magnesium, calcium, potassium and iron. Also present are two types of betalain alkaloid pigments which are potent antioxidants and have been found to have antimutagenic properties in laboratory studies.
I planted some the other week in a punnet from grapes filled with earth – now I have very cute little plants and hopefully will be able to pick some in a week to add to the birds’ food.
Chickweed (Stellaria media) – it is rich in vitamins, and very good for toning the liver.
Marsh-mallow (Althaea) – nutritious and possesses some mild medicinal properties (beneficial for kidneys).
Grasses Wheat grass, Barley grass, millet grass, canary grass are all very nutritious and extremely easy to grow.
You can get a cheap budgie mix (but it has to be a good quality one to sprout) made up of millets and canary seeds, chuck in some wheat berries and barley if you have any. Take a shallow dish or pot (as mentioned before I just use punnets from various vegetables, then when the plant has done the job I just throw the whole punnet with exhausted earth away) put about 2 cm of organic compost in it, sprinkle seeds generously in a single layer on top, cover with another 1 cm of compost and water. And in about a week you should have a lovely “field” of greens. You can just pull a bunch with roots out, wash it thoroughly and give it to your parrot (with the roots! – that is why you should use organic compost).
Flowering/seeding grasses.
Smaller birds absolutely adore these, but parrots might enjoy them too, at least as a cheap shreddable toy. Just pick up a large bouquet, tie together with a leather string and hang it up in the cage.
For pictures and descriptions check out this website
http://www.birds-online.de/nahrung/wildgraeser/wildgraeser_en.htmBerriesThey are not in season yet, but in a couple of months they should be ready:
Blackberries (brambles), elderberries, hawthorn berries, rosehips are all can be given right on branches (thorns removed first), they are fun to pick, eat, throw about for parrots and at the same time they will get an incredible amount of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
Sloes are fine for parrots too, but not branches. Sloes are at their best after the first frosts.
Hope the information will be helpful to someone:)
