Feeding Greens
to Fussy Eaters

by Susan McWilliams
Autumn 2003

Introduction

The primary purpose of this article is to help those who want to feed fresh greens to their birds, but whose birds do not want to eat greens. I focus primarily on a few basic tips and tricks for introducing greens to reluctant birds. I provide a small amount of nutritional information about the greens I feed, but I encourage readers to consult back issues of this newsletter for nutritional information on a variety of greens (links to these and other articles are listed in the references). The information I present here is based in large part on my personal experiences with 2 cockatiels, but I think it may also be helpful for people with other types of birds. In addition to personal experience, I draw on wisdom shared by other sources on introducing new foods to birds. This article is not intended to provide information on converting birds to a particular diet. I feed greens as a regular part of a diet which consists of a variety of other foods. This is the dietary approach the article assumes. It has less relevance for those seeking a more comprehensive dietary plan.

Why Greens

I began feeding fresh greens to my birds for many of the same reasons I eat them myself. The first among these is the excellent nutritional value of greens.

The nutritional content of any particular green varies based on which part of the green is fed (stems vs. leaves, for example), how it is fed (raw vs. cooked, and how cooked), and the condition of the green itself (freshness), among other factors. I believe that no matter how you offer greens to your birds, they are an excellent source of nutrition, and sometimes a surprising one. Did you know, for example, that broccoli is one of the best nutritional sources of vitamin C? Better than fresh oranges, even when cooked? Did you know that kale is one of the better sources of the minerals calcium, potassium, manganese, and iron? Did you know that spinach is a good source of protein? As is the case with these examples, many of the greens we can offer our birds (and ourselves) are actually better sources of the nutrients we frequently associate with other foods.

In addition to the nutritional benefits of greens, I feed greens to my birds because I think they are fun to eat, and they offer an eating experience that is different from the other foods I also feed (for example, seeds, grains, and pellets). I see them as part of the variety and stimulation in my birds’ lives.

Finally, I prefer to feed fresh greens to my birds because they have better “cage life” than do cooked greens or other vegetables. I normally provide fresh greens first thing in the morning and leave them in my birds’ cage until I return from work at the end of the day. While they are usually tired and limp at that point, I worry less about bacteria setting in with fresh greens than with cooked vegetables which I would not be comfortable leaving out with my birds for more than a couple of hours.

Which Greens

I feed my birds greens on a daily basis. The greens which I offer most frequently are kale, broccoli, dandelion, spinach, and parsley. Obviously, there are many other options. I offer these because, with the exception of kale, which I don’’t personally care for, these are the greens I am most likely to have on hand for human consumption, so they are the ones I am best able to offer a small flock on a regular basis in the freshest possible state. My advice is to start by offering those greens to your birds which are most available to you in the freshest possible state. I prefer greens which are grown organically, locally, and by a known source; for example, those which I can get in-season from a friend’s garden (I don’’t keep a garden myself). However, I live in the northeastern US, and if I stuck to this advice I’d only feed greens a couple of months out of the year. I can get some organically grown greens at my grocery and natural food stores, but availability is somewhat limited. When I cannot get local, fresh, in-season and organic greens, I buy what is available in the vegetable section of my regular grocery store. I look for the freshest specimens possible. I choose to feed greens that are available, rather than holding out for the perfect source. If, in summer, none of my gardening friends show up with a bunch of something for me and the birds, we do fine with regular grocery store produce. Kale and broccoli are the biggest hits with my birds so I offer these most frequently. If their preference had been for mustard or collard greens (which, by the way, they both spurned) I would offer these. To start with, especially if your bird is particularly reluctant, worry less about which particular green you offer and more about offering something fresh.

How to feed Greens

Most of this section is devoted to the tricks of enticing birds with greens. However, I also want to discuss briefly the question of how to prepare and store greens. If you have a large flock and that flock eats greens readily, you may have fewer concerns with storage of greens. They just won’t be around all that long. If, like me, you have a small and rather picky flock, and not unlimited bird food financial resources, you need to think about storage. In addition, all of us need to select the best way to prepare greens before offering them to our birds.

The greens which both our birds and we consume do not present big storage issues as we go through them pretty quickly. Kale is another matter. I usually have to buy kale in rather large bunches. The first time I offered kale to my birds, I must confess, I offered it as stolen property. I had read that kale was excellent for birds. I’d never eaten it myself. So off I went to the grocery store, only to find these huge bunches that I knew would just rot in my refrigerator. Soooo, I surreptitiously leaned over the mountain of kale and quickly snapped 2-3 leaves off and stuck them in my pocket! Only on my next visit did I notice the actual price of kale in my area and realized that even if it rotted before my birds learned to eat it, I could probably afford the waste short term. So I no longer steal kale for my birds, but I do have to store it with freshness in mind. In my experience, kale seems to do best when wrapped loosely in a light towel (I use a clean dish towel) and kept in a loose plastic bag in the crisper section of my refrigerator. I do much the same with other greens. Parsley and other fresh herbs which I offer to my birds and use for human food preparation do not go in the refrigerator. These I put stem first in a glass of water.

Many people prefer to use a special wash or preparation for their greens, both for themselves and their birds. I choose not to do this. I simply get out a large bowl, soak the greens in cool water, swishing them around a fair amount. Then I place them in my salad spinner, rinse them thoroughly under the tap and sprayer, and spin them dry. I do feel it is important to wash them very thoroughly. Many feel that the special washes do a better job of removing any bacteria or pesticides. This may indeed be the case. I simply prefer plain water.

One of my cockatiels, LB, came into this world recognizing all things green as good (including houseplants, unfortunately). She immediately took to green foods, including showing a preference for green pellets! Louise, my other hen, was another matter entirely. She actually showed open fear of leafy green things. Having been weaned to an exclusively pellet diet, she actually showed fear of anything not pellet-like when it came to food. In addition to an apparent fear of all things purple, she seemed to have an aversion to green as well (and not just in food items). With Louise I faced quite a challenge. The first thing I had to work on with her was teaching her not to fear green things in general, and leafy greens in particular. One of the ways I did this was by teaching her to eat peas. I actually think this is an excellent way to introduce green foods to reluctant birds. Louise seemed less frightened of the petite green peas I offered her at first. She preferred them “pre-hulled” by me (yes, I would gently squeeze the pea until the soft insides came out). If you have a bird that shows a strong aversion to things green, try peas in this manner first.

Aside from offering peas, I used a variety of strategies to entice my reluctant Louise to eat greens. I discuss these in no particular order (all of them have worked, but not all the time).

Tossed Greens

If your bird shows interest in food on your plate, you may wish to try a form of salad to interest your birds in greens. One of the early forms in which Louise accepted greens was with a light dressing of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. She shook and tossed away as much as she ingested, but she was definitely interested in trying this thing I was eating from my own plate. I continued to offer her greens that were thus lightly dressed, away from a plate.

Aside from offering dressed greens, I also literally tossed greens for my birds. My birds are not much into toys, which some people have success using to introduce greens by wrapping them in, through, and around favorite toys. However, Louise has always enjoyed playing fetch in the form of tossing wadded up pieces of paper and having me pick them up. I started introducing wadded up greens into this game. She wasn’t buying at first, but I would interchange tossed paper and tossed kale and she was soon playing with the kale as often as the paper. She did not actually eat any kale in these games, as far as I could tell, but that wasn’t the point. I wanted her to recognize it and not fear it. Use greens as toys at first, don’’t worry about whether or not they are actually eaten. Help your bird become accustomed to their texture, color, and presence in the cage, on the play station, etc .

Chopped Greens

Since Louise showed fear of whole greens, I also tried chopping them up fairly finely and sprinkling them over other foods she does enjoy. She ate her first bits of shaved broccoli florets sprinkled on top of her usual bowl of rainbow colored pellets. She still prefers to have me shave her broccoli for her, but that’’s probably just operant conditioning (hers of me). After this success, I tried the same thing with kale leaves with some pretty good results. She often just appeared to toss the chopped bits out of the food bowl but, again, she was mouthing them and becoming familiar with them. Actually eating them regularly would take more time.

Mixed Greens

This is distinct from tossed or salad greens. Mixed greens in this case refers to the mixing of greens with that most seductive of foods (to the cockatiel, anyway) millet! Try rolling a damp sprig of green or broccoli floret in loose millet and clipping it to a cage bar. Your bird may run away. Your bird may ignore. Or your bird may scope out this new millet source. At first, all the bird will do is lick the millet off the green thing. That’’s an excellent start.

Take 2 sprigs of spray millet and interweave them with leafy greens. I cut large kale leaves into strips and weave them around a millet spray and hang the whole thing from a cage bar, treat perch, etc. Again, your bird may only eat the millet at first, but as you reduce the millet and increase the greens your bird may, as mine did, begin to eat the green that has been made less frightening by virtue of its association with the desired millet.

When introducing the birds to broccoli, I watched LB’s unfortunate behavior with respect to our houseplants closely. She likes things that are string-like. So rather than simply hanging a chunk of broccoli in the cage, I cut a stalk off and “julienne” the stalk end, making slender strands of the stalk with the leaves and floret still attached. Both birds show more interest in these slightly curly strands than in the whole stalk.

Friends who keep birds have good results feeding their birds greens mixed with prepared foods such as grains or pasta. My birds didn’t happen to take to this and never moved much beyond eating the pasta, which defeated much of the purpose of the exercise. However, I did have some success with shaved broccoli floret sprinkled on pasta. That at least helped get the particularly finicky Louise started.

If at first you don’’t succeed...

Louise still doesn’t eat greens with the enthusiasm that LB does. She may never do so. Some days neither of them appears to have done much more than pick at the greens in their cage. Other days, LB can be seen tearing into a kale leaf or a broccoli stem with abandon. I don’t much worry about this variability. I continue to offer different greens in different forms on different days. Louise seems to need “refresher courses”. She’s no longer afraid of greens, but she appears to need reminding that they are fun and yummy. So we revisit tossed greens or mixed greens.

The soundest advice I’ve ever had on anything pertaining to my birds is “be persistent” and “pay attention”. Watch what your birds’ reactions are to the different ways you introduce greens. Use those strategies that seem to work best to reduce your birds’ fear, if any, and to increase its curiosity. And, if all else fails, you can always try the “earring trick”.

Like many birds, Louise loves shiny objects. She is particularly attracted to my earrings. One time in a moment of desperation, I wrapped a kale leaf around my ear so that it hung down next to my earring. When she went to nibble at my earring, she at first jumped when she saw the kale. Soon, however, she was nibbling at my earring as usual. Once again, she didn’t eat the kale hanging from my ear, but she did nibble at it, and she wasn’t afraid of it. An excellent start. Besides, I have every right to sit in my living room with kale wrapped around my ear. It’s nobody’s business what I do to get my birds to eat greens!

References

International Turtle and Tortoise Society Journal,
August/September/October, 1970

www.holisticbirds.com/Hbn02/autumn02/pages/broccoli.htm
www.holisticbirds.com/Hbn02/summer02/pages/spinach.htm
www.holisticbirds.com/hbn03/spring03/pages/dandelion.htm
www.thebigcarrot.ca/veggies/mustard_greens_raw.htm
www.vegparadise.com/highestperch44.html
www.sproutpeople.com/nutrition.html www.cockatiels.org/articles/breeding/Nutrition_%20&_Hens_pt2of4.html
www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww63eiii.htm
http://exoticpets.miningco.com/cs/birds/a/birdspickyeater.htm
www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl

Photographic credits
http://www.loveofbirds.com/recipes