Non- parrot people find the idea of cooking for birds excruciatingly funny. Parrot people, especially little old ladies and plenty of big strong men, completely understand.

How did I start cooking for the birds?  I came into it from 3 angles, emotional, economical and dare I say, rational.

Dogs are carnivores, horses are herbivores, rabbits want grass but parrots, ah, parrots, they, as we are ourselves, are omnivores. They eat everything.  And like the toddlers they so much resemble, if you let them, they will over indulge in junk food. The major part of my life was spent child rearing so I’m used to cooking batches of food for kids. Then came the empty nest, children gone and our pets filling in some of the emotional and physical spaces the children left behind. Meals just for two look puny when placed on the large table where we sit together at one end.    Artha and Casper, the two resident Greys, would prefer to share our meals. This entails flying to the table, picking up a choice morsel and flying off to eat it on top of the door. Sadly my husband Wal has vetoed birds loose at meal times so the four pet birds are caged when we eat.  I have a friend whose macaw has her own place setting and is trained to use a spoon.

If cooking is an expression of love - and I do love my birds - I thoroughly enjoy cooking for them. Since at home we follow a low fat diet and use as much organic produce as we can, most of our ingredients are suitable and nutritious for birds. In addition, I find that leftover vegetables, pasta, rice and potatoes can easily be combined with a basic bread mixture of flour, egg, oil (or yoghurt) and liquid to make my version of birdy bread. Recently, perusing an avian catalogue, I was amused to see that Harrisons, the organic pellet manufacturers, are selling now a birdy bread mix, while other suppliers offer birdy biscuits.

The money-saving angle of this is that prepared bird treats are expensive; the ones I make at home work out at a fraction of the cost. I cook birdy bread in either a vegetable or a sweet mixture twice a week and freeze the portions.  In cold weather, I make a high-energy treat for the aviary birds by dipping wooden skewers in vegetable suet and molasses and finally coating them with linseeds.

I bake fairy cakes in little cases for the grandchildren. This recipe adapts into fun birdy bread by adding a handful of dried fruit or mashed banana to half the mixture. The four trays come out of the oven. 24 floral cake cases for the kids and 24 white ones for the fids. I feel satisfied - a good grandma and a good parront.

Is this the best diet for captive birds?  Experts take up different positions.  In the last resort you have to use your eye. Does your bird have bright eyes and glossy plumage? Is she the correct weight for her species? If yes, then she is eating a suitable diet. You have two main options: pellets and fresh food or seed mixes and fresh food.

An additional, not an alternative, that suits every bird, aviary or indoors, is fresh wild food.  My lesser sulphur crested cockatoo Perdy adores flowers and it is easy to satisfy her craving as we have a large garden. Australian parakeets adore fresh grasses with seed heads. All through the year the garden, fields, woods and hedgerows provide free, enriching and nutritious foods for birds. A friend with a London flat grows dandelions in a pot on the balcony for her Grey.
My vet recommends pellets to provide a suitable diet for the captive bird. If the owner is busy and does not have time to work out exactly what the birds needs the pellet is reliable. He says you need a lot of time, effort and knowledge to know exactly what constitutes the best diet.  Too much fat in the diet is to be avoided and so many cheaper parrot mixes are overburdened with sunflower seeds. For that reason he recommends pellets.

Rob Harvey who runs Specialist Feeds does not agree. “Variety is the spice of life for humans and for parrots, too,” he says. “You wouldn’t enjoy dry biscuits all your life. Birds are intelligent. Why should they?” He claims that good seed diets are better to encourage birds to breed. Seed mixes from reputable firms like his work out more expensive than the cheaper varieties but the seeds are clean and the variety is extensive.

 Both the vet and the seed merchant agree that sprouted seeds and legumes are ideal for birds. But the vet warns that seeds must be sprouted properly to avoid any danger of fungal infections.

And the bonus? Cooking for parrots is fun.