I recently saw a question on line asking if birds get bored with their feed? That’s a good question and have often wondered that myself. I mean who really would want to eat nothing but oatmeal every day 365 days a year, morning, noon, and night? But in confinement, when the birds are hungry they eat what’s there.  I like to give my birds a variety. What I have been doing recently is feeding my regular  rations but offering them a combination of grains more like foraging and they seem to really love it. The  ratio that I use is totally unscientific.   I’m planning on doing the math to regulate the protein and the calcium more carefully in this ration but recently have been throwing it together as a treat and they love it. The variety is fun for the birds.  I  use a coffee can scoop and scoop a can of their regular ration  then I add a scoop of black oil sunflower seeds, a scoop of rolled oats, a scoop of cracked corn, a scoop of wheat, some alfalfa pellets, and some high protein animal based dog food.  This combo is relished by the birds.  It greatly lowers the soy protein content in their feed and replaces it with

high quality plant protein.  I also feed a good quality, leafy hay and always offer gravel, sand or grit to aid in their digestion.  In the wild the would pick up things they need to digest their food, in confinement they depend on us for everything.

The last thing I want to share is about feeding sprouted grains.  I have found it is a quick, easy way to offer a greater variety to my peafowl. I start by using whole oats. I put them in a bucket of water and soak them overnight then I pour the water out and just let it sit with the greens moist the next day I fill the bucket up and swish it around rinse it out and pour the water out. Let the grain sit, by the 3rd day or 4th day you usually see the grain starting to sprout.  At this stage, I pour the grain into trays so the grain can start to grow.   Be careful not to let the green be too thick and betrays. I learned the hard way the 1st time you don’t need a real stickler of grain it’ll sprout and grow and form a thick turf from that you can and birds and they love it. Pictures are following our pictures are below and I think it’ll help you to see exactly what to do a word of caution rinse for grains of riday do not feed multi grain to pirates. Don’t feed multi sprouts to your birds. It can make them sick. But they do love this especially in the dead of Winter when theres no grass or other fresh greens to enjoy. In the summer of how forgot to share earlier that I feed a lot of weeds from the garden or grass clippings from the yard. The birds love the to pick and scratched through them and it’s healthy for them. In the fall, I’ve seen the birds gobble dried leaves like it’s a real treat.  In the dried leaves they can find bugs and other plant matter that could give them a natural healthy food. Don’t be afraid to experiment with things with your birds BUT always check on the poison list of foods for birds.  You don’t want to feed them certain things that could be deadly to the birds just check the list before feeding things that you don’t know about.