2 homemade treats for birds

Birds need to eat too. These homemade recipes pack a mean nutritional punch to help them spread their wings.

Parakeets and songbirds like sweets. This calcium-rich sweet treat is an inexpensive, wholesome snack. Most of the ingredients are already in your kitchen. You can find cuttlebone and bird grit at any pet supply store or in the pet aisle of your grocery.

Makes approximately 12 treats

• 75 g (1/3 c) cornmeal
• 1/2 cuttlebone, finely ground (in coffee grinder or mortar and pestle)
• 1 ml (1/4 tsp) fine bird grit
• 50 g (1/4 c) mixed parakeet, finch or canary seeds
• 1 piece spray millet, crumbled
• 30 ml (2 tbsp) honey
• 50 g (1/4 c) wheat germ
• 1 egg

  1. Preheat oven to 175ºC (350°F). Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix well. If mixture is too thick to mold, add a little water. Press with hands into small logs onto a greased and floured cookie sheet.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes or until lightly browned.

  3. Remove from oven, and turn logs out onto a cake rack to cool. Store in covered container in the freezer for up to three months.

  4. To serve, thaw a log and fasten to cage bars with a treat clip. Renew when well nibbled.

For optimum health, offer your bird fresh or thawed frozen fruits and vegetables daily. Forget expensive dried treats from a pet shop — they can't compare in freshness, flavour or vitamins. This salad appeals to all bird species, and is easy to put together by saving a little here and there from your meal preparations. Modify it as needed; you will learn quickly which ingredients your bird devours and which ingredients it leaves uneaten.

Makes six servings

• 3 leaves leaf lettuce or 125 g (1/2 c) fresh spinach, chopped
• 125 g (1/2 c) fresh or frozen (and thawed) broccoli florets
• 125 g (1/2 c) frozen, thawed whole kernel corn
• 1/2 apple, diced
• 1/2 segmented orange, diced
• 50 g (1/4 c) dried currants
• 125 g (1/2 c) unsalted peanuts (for large birds only)

  1. Toss all ingredients in a covered bowl and store in the refrigerator for up to five days.

  2. To serve, put 75 grams (1/3 cup) salad in a shallow bowl or clay flowerpot saucer in the cage. Offer daily and make new salad as needed.