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Sprouting seeds

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diet sprouts
3K views 19 replies 7 participants last post by  laracroft 
#1 ·
I'm considering trying sprouting seeds for Micah. Does anyone do this? I want him to get the healthiest diet possible, and I'm a bit concerned that pellets are a big percentage of what he actually eats right now. He gets a mix of fruits and veggies daily, and he does seem to enjoy them, but a lot of them get flung around or left in the bowl, and he definitely picks through the mix for his favorite parts, so I'm not sure how balanced what he's actually eating is.

Do you think adding sprouts would help? How much work is it really/how hard is it to do right? And how expensive is it? What are the best seeds to sprout? Opinions, please!
 
#4 ·
I'm not an amazing sprouter, but I've done it. I get seeds from the sprout people, and they have directions on their website for their products.
Some people have this amazing science, I'm just not there yet.... I have an easy sprouter but I don't like it because my small seeds fall through the holes.
Ive been successful with a little jam jar, and cheese cloth and a rubber band. I soak them overnight, drain and rinse in the morning, and I leave it on its side or upside down because I don't think you want them to sit in the water and that way it drains more...
I rinse like once a day and they sprout pretty fast then when they get a little tail I put them in the fridge.
Please don't take my instructions very seriously because I'm not very good at it!!! :eek:
 
#8 ·
It arrived! I think the sprouter would have the same problem as yours Violet, except it came with a little insert for sprouting smaller seeds. They're soaking now, so we'll see how it goes! The promised pictures below, one of the package, and one of all the pieces of the sprouter. Excuse my messy table.
 

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#9 ·
That's exactly what I have!
So what I did, because that insert was still not small enough was I used a little peice of cheese cloth under it too before I put the insert in and it worked nicely.
Too bad though, my birds just don't seem to care much for the sprouts. :(
 
#10 ·
Huh. Well, it works fine for sproutpeople's Lil Bird seed mix (which is good, because if they'd sold me them as a kit and they didn't work together I'd be pissed). If I want to sprout something smaller in the future, I'll just use your cheese cloth idea. My first crop of sprouts should be ready tonight, so we'll see what Micah thinks of them tomorrow morning! I'm not going to be too discouraged if he doesn't take to them right away though, he's often suspicious of new things.
 
#11 ·
Micah got his first helping of sprouts this morning, and his reaction was kind of hilarious. When I first put the bowl in his cage he came running, I guess thinking he was getting his chop in the morning instead of the evening today. Then he saw what was in the bowl and came to a screeching halt. He looked at it, looked at me, looked back at it. I swear if he could speak he'd have been saying "What the *%$! is this?!?". Then he just stared at them suspiciously for a bit before turning to his pellets instead. BUT I did catch him nibbling at them awhile later, so I'm counting it as a successful introduction to sprouts.
 
#14 ·
It is good they aren't fluent in human! I'm convinced Micah would be cussing me out all the time. I think I did get lucky with him (well obviously, but besides just having him) because he actually doesn't seem to be very picky about food, at least by parrotlet standards. He has an initial reaction of 'wtf is this?? Is it going to eat me?' but he gets over it pretty quickly. He's really taken to the sprouts, he comes running and dives in when I serve them now, and it's only been a few days.
 
#16 ·
Well, I've only just started my second round of sprouting, but a tablespoon or so of seeds seemed to make a decent amount, so I'm sticking with that for now. And I've been serving about a teaspoon of the sprouts every morning.
 
#17 ·
We tried sprouts. Jules loved them so we grew more. My wife is into The Who grow your own thing so she set up to grow all the sprouts Jules could eat. That was about two more feedings then she would not eat them again.
 
#18 ·
So we had a bit of a miscommunication at my place, and my brand new only been used twice sprouter got recycled. (Apparently it "looked like packaging") So now I need to decide if I buy another of the same kind, which I did quite like, buy another of a different kind, or try making my own. Violet, what seeds was the sprouter too big for? Does anyone else have a brand they particularly like?

Today was the first morning since I started sprouting that Micah did not get any sprouts, and he is NOT PLEASED about it. So it's definitely worth getting or making another.
 
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