If you’ve already exhausted the family recipe book – in between cleaning the garage and sorting the cupboards (or looking for a reason not to) – here are two treats you might like to try.
You will, however, need a dog, or birds to feed these to…
The Hearty Birdy Bread recipe is perfect for fussy eaters (and anyone who owns a bird has never considered the average toddler fussy again). The recipe is incredibly versatile: if you don’t have coconut flour, who cares – add a bit more oats.
The original recipe said you should blend all the ingredients to get the consistency smooth. I don’t, and my big beaks (Congo African Grey and a Timneh African Grey) love the texture.
If your birds are that bit fussier, try the blending: it does disguise the ingredients. Experiment all you like.
Although the recipe calls for vegetables, I sometimes add grated carrot, apple or pear, and I often sprinkle chia or sesame seeds on these just before they come out the oven.
Hearty Birdy Bread
Ingredients:
1 cup chopped vegetables (fresh is best: carrot, green beans, broccoli, sweet potato, sweet corn -whatever they enjoy. My Timneh is obsessed with peas and butternut).
1 cup raw oats (not instant oats)
100ml water
200g coconut flour
1 cup pellets (we use Nature’s Nest).
1 medium banana
1 raw medium egg
Method:
Mix all the ingredients except the flour in blender and blend (or not, if you like textured bread). Add the flour, and fold it into the dough until the clumps are all out and the desired fluffy consistency is achieved. Bake in the oven on moderate heat for 40 minutes (use olive or organic coconut oil to coat the tray). Do not use any aerosol sprays to coat the trays: these are deadly to birds – as are all Teflon goods. Cut up and serve. Enjoy the sneaky success of a healthy parrot. The uncooked dough can be frozen.
Doggo Bikkies
This is my aunt’s recipe for a treat for our loyal four-pawed friends. (It’s not like cats would eat anything baked for them.) Thanks, Aunty Dez!
Ingredients
Bread of any and all varieties
White-onion soup powder
Margarine/butter
Marmite or Bovril
Method
Spread your choice of Marmite or Bovril onto the bread. Mix the butter/margarine with the white-onion soup powder, and cover your chosen spread with it.
Cut the bread into fingers. Place these on a baking sheet in the oven on very low -100 degrees Celsius – until they are crisp. Serve.
My doggo adores these as treats.
