As far as I understand not everyone is familiar with the concept of sprouting seeds, so I thought I should give you a bit of information on it, for those who needs it.
When we say sprouts, we mean sprouted seeds. Dried beans, peas and lentils can be sprouted too.
What is the point in doing it? In their dried form seeds, grains, pulses and nuts are full of carbohydrates and depending on the variety, fats. The process of sprouting transforms carbohydrates and fats into more easily digestible substances, awakes the seeds, which become full of live enzymes, minerals, vitamins and amino acids essential for the plant growth.
What do you do to sprout seeds? The whole process of sprouting should take about 2 to 3 days. First, to fully awaken the seed you need to soak them for around 6-8 hours or overnight. After that, all you need to do is drain and rinse them and put in a bowl, place it in the fridge, let it sit there for another 8 to 12 hours (not in water!), then rinse again, and put away in the fridge for another 8-12 hours. After 2 days your seeds should have started sprouting and you will see little white tails appearing from the actual grain. That is when they are ready to be served. In fact they can even be fed after one day of sprouting, it really is up to you and your bird's preferences.
Always rinse before serving, then dry on a regular or paper towel. Don't leave the sprouted seeds in your bird's food bowl for longer than 2 hours, even less in hot weather!
Parrots prefer their sprouts with small white tails, when they are still fresh and sweet. When they get longer tails they become bitter.
You do not need to grow them into grass!!! you can do that too, just to add some healthy greens, but not as a replacement for sprouts.
Instead of puting them in the fridge to sprout you can leave them in a dark cool place, but in this summer heat, I would suggest putting them away in the fridge.
It is important to smell and taste your sprouts before giving them to birds. Make sure they don't smell or taste "off" - sour, stale, mould, rotten etc. If any "off" smell or mould appears chuck them away immediately and never serve spoilt sprouts to your bird!
Seeds suitable for sprouting: adzuki bean, almond, amaranth, brown rice, broccoli, buckwheat, cabbage, rapeseed, canary seed, chickpeas, coriander, clover, cress, fenugreek, flax seed, hemp seed, lentils, millet, mustard, mung beans, oats, peas, pumpkin, quinoa, radish, sesame, sunflower, triticale, watercress, and wheat berries.
!!!Never use seeds meant for planting and growing plants from garden centres or similar places!!! They can be covered in substances containing lead, for protection. Make sure they are meant for either cooking (like mung beans or chickpeas or peas from supermarkets) or it says on the package that they are meant for sprouting! (I even saw some in Tesco the other day, among regular planting seeds).
All grains/seeds/pulses must be whole and unhulled. For example, pearl barley won't sprout, nor will white rice.
Sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and almonds can be added to the sprouting mix too. It is unlikely that small white tails will appear on pumpkin seeds and almonds, but they will still become much more nutritious, if soaked, even for just 4 hours. Sunflower seeds are easily sprouted. It is great for sunflower seed junkies, because it looks like what they are used to, but so much better for them.
Things like beans, lentils and peas can be bought from supermarkets. Whole wheat grain, fenugreek seeds and other sprouting seeds can easily be found in health-food shops. Sesame and flax seeds can be found in both supermarkets or healthfood shops, so are sunflower seeds, almonds and pumpkin seeds.
I buy hemp and a budgie mix, containing only two or three types of millets and canary seeds from a good pet shop. Make sure budgie mix doesn't contain any egg biscuits or vitamins!
In fact, any seed mix is safe to sprout, but again, those containing dried fruit, veg, vitamins, biscuits and god knows what else apart from that are not suitable for obvious reasons! (dried bananas don't sprout
)
You don't need to sprout each seed individually!!! You can mix all the ingredients you have in equal portions and store in one jar and then use to soak and sprout as needed.
Now, here are some
useful links which could tell you much more about sprouting:
www.sproutpeople.com - a great website with lots of information on how to sprout each variety of seed and their nutritional value
A sprouting method:
http://www.parrothouse.com/sprouting.htmlWiki article on sprouting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SproutingNutrition and health benefits of sprouts
http://www.landofvos.com/articles/sprouts.htmlhttp://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww2e.htm#iiiAnother method of sprouting
http://community.webshots.com/slideshow/43562265ONBfPP?mediaPosition=43761069If you don't have time to sprout, you can just GERMINATE. That is, only soaking them overnight.
Here is a good article about germinating seeds
http://www.parrotchronicles.com/septoct2002/germinate.htmhttp://www.holisticbird.org/pages/dsprouts.htmStep-by-Step guide to sprouting with photos
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/slideshow/43562265ONBfPP
