Parrots love birdie bread, but frankly, many of the recipes include less than healthy ingredients — like those boxed mixes. I encourage you to make every ingredient a healthy one.
Here is a recipe for pumpkin bread. Pumpkin is high in vitamin A, an essential vitamin for birds. Pumpkin bread is often one of the first foods that the birds at The Landing adoption center learn to eat, and then they expand their interests to the mash and other fresh foods that we offer. A couple of appropriately sized pumpkin bread chunks are just one portion of the wide and varied diet that we try to offer the birds in our care.
RECIPE
Add together:
• 15 oz can of organic pumpkin (including the pie spice, or you can add cinnamon and ginger, most birds really like the spices).
• 1/2 cup applesauce or one of the snack applesauce
(a great substitute for oil)
• 1 egg
• 2 TBL quinoa (if you’d like to add some protein)
• Unsulphured dried fruits or nuts – whatever your birds most enjoy. Walnuts are high in Omega 3’s
• 2 cups flour (interesting flours include garbanzo, millet, ground oatmeal, coconut, organic cornbread mix, etc.). My favorite flour is Bob’s Redmill garbanzo bean flour. I like the texture and the nutritional content.
Make a thick batter. If it gets too thick, add some juice (mango, carrot etc). Garnish it if you like with cereals or nuts.
You can be creative with the ingredients, the important thing is to make a stiff batter. Bake 45 minutes or so @ 350 degrees or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cast iron skillets work well. Freeze in sections, keep 2-3 days worth in the fridge.
Laura Ford’s Trixie eating cranberry pumpkin bread
Phoenix Landing Blog 
Anne, this is awesome. I love to read recipes for our birds. The Nourish to Flourish cook book has such a variety and I never stick exactly to any one recipe so sharing gives me plenty of options to utilize items alredy in my kitchen. I make a large batch when I am in the mood to bake. Then I cut it up to smaller servings, freeze it in snack bags or ice cube trays and I am never without a special meal or treat for my flock.
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I tried this recipe and it’s the one healthy thing I make for the birds that they reliably eat. Thanks for the recipe!
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This recipe is great! I have very finicky parrots and they don’t waste a drop of this. Thanks for sharing 🙂
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Can you email me this recipe? Thank You.
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Hi Tonia, the recipe is listed above. I hope this helps.
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Do you cook the quinoa or just add as is?
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Hi Barbara, you can cook the quinoa or add it dry. If your bird is already getting good protein through pellets, eggs etc, then the quinoa is not necessary at all.
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Hi: Thank you very much for this recipe. Delighted to see all the ingredients are very nutritional, & we use all organic ingredients in our home. Quinoa is always served to our 10 birds, so we will include them in the bread….Thank you.
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Can I add peas and apple to the batter or will it change the consistency too much?
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You can certainly add peas and apples, and see what happens. It shouldn’t change the consistency. I think the apples would be delicious in a baked bread like this. The peas might get mushy.
I’ve been using oat flour recently, instead of garbanzo bean flour, but I like both. Either are better than regular wheat flours. Enjoy!
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I added red palm oil to the mix as well as seeds and nuts, did 1 cup of corn flour and one cup of oat flour and they love it ? I was like “WOW”, my parrots actually like something…
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Would mealworms be something that would also work as a protein addition to this?
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