Food

Sprouting For Parrots

Benefits of providing sprouts to your parrots

  • Great for picky eaters, as they have the crunch of a seed
  • They are packed with all the nutrients of the whole plant in a small little seed
  • Fresher because they don’t have to be delivered to a store then purchased by you
  • Easy to grow
  • Cheap
  • Sprouting releases special enzymes that make digestion easier

How to sprout?

There are a variety of different products on the market for sprouting.

Most common two are;

1) Sprouting trays

2) In a jar (ensure it is a wide mouth jar so you can completely drain the sprouts)

Sprouting trays increase the chance slightly of the sprouts getting moldy.

In sprouting jars after you soak your future sprouts (see below) drain future sprouts, then rinse the future sprouts 2 times a day with fresh clean water (30 seconds), drain the sprouts after rinsing  and turn them upside down onto the mesh.

Once your sprouts are ready 3-4, sometimes 5 days for some of the veggie seeds, place your sprouts in the fridge and use them within 2-3 days

You can freeze the sprouts so they last longer.

What to sprout for parrots?

 Seeds

Wheatgrass seeds (soak for 7 hours before sprouting), pumpkin seeds (soak in cool water 6 – 8 hours before sprouting), alfalfa (soak for 8 hours before sprouting), broccoli (soak 2-4 hours before sprouting), kale/radish/turnip/clover/cabbage (soak in cool water for 6 hours before sprouting),

Beans

Chickpeas (soak in warm water for 12 hours before sprouting), lentils – green, red, brown ( soak in warm water for 8 hours before sprouting), peas (soak in warm water for 12 hours before sprouting)

Grains

Unhulled barley (soak in warm water for 6-8 hours before sprouting), raw groats/buckwheat (soak for 15 minutes in cool water before sprouting), corn (soak in warm water for 12 hours before sprouting), millet (soak in warm water for 8 hours before sprouting), unhulled oats (soak for 6 hours before sprouting), quinoa (soak in warm water for 4 hours before sprouting), rye (soak in warm water for 8 – 14 hours before sprouting), spelt (soak in warm water for 8 – 14 hours before sprouting),