Although the word "sprouts" is used to describe the generic group of living growing whole foods, we're not talking about the same things you see on salad bars. For our purposes, we're actually referring to germinated seeds, grains, and legumes - also sometimes called "soaks". This is the time when the maximum nutrition is available to do the incredible work of growing a plant from a seed, when that seed is packed with all of the nutrients needed to begin that miraculous process...and this is the time when you want your birds to benefit from all of these nutritional elements, before they are used up in the making of the plant - when the food swells and either splits, or shows an obvious point where the growth is beginning.
Opening some of the packaged dry foods is more complicated than sprouting. The process is so simple I can describe it from start to finish in 4 words: rinse, soak, rinse, feed. That's it. No magic, no chemicals, nothing man-made, nothing unnatural...just rinse, soak, rinse, feed and you have just enabled your birds to eat the live, natural foods - complete with the array of perfectly-linked nutrients and phytonutrients that can only come from nature - that they were designed to utilize.
Because I believe so strongly in the benefits of sprouting (you can read more information than my brain can contain if you follow the links in The Indubitably Compleat List of Sprouting Resources), I'm offering packages of the same mix that I use for my own birds, to you. This is a mix that I feed after a 12-15 hour soak on the counter, or 24 hours in the fridge, that I've sent packets of to the curious, and that has been very well-received. In fact, many birds are so starved for unprocessed natural live foods that they go tails-up and don't come out until they're stuffed!
Ready to try sprouting? First, forget all of the complicated directions you've read in the past about how to sprout. There's nothing complicated about it. This is easy stuff, and perfectly safe with the same common sense precautions you'd use with any fresh food. In fact, I know people who leave new soaks in their birds' bowls all day while they're at work, claiming that live food simply continues to mature rather than spoil quickly. I've never done this, mostly because soaks would never last that long in my birds' bowls!
Second, this is how I prepare these foods for my birds. Remember these words in this order: rinse, soak, rinse, feed. Really - that's all there is to it! As you can see above, I use a bowl and colander. Before I go to bed, I put the dry mix into the colander and rinse it thoroughly, until the water runs clear. (These are foods that are grown in the great outdoors; expecting them to be squeaky clean is unrealistic.) Then I set the colander in a stainless steel bowl of water, just plain clear water, no additives that are going to soak into the foods and make them less than pure. Then I let them sit on my kitchen counter. The next afternoon I drain the water and rinse them thoroughly, still in the colander, spoon them out into dishes and feed them to my waiting flock. Because they are so simple, I don't bother to make so many I have to store them and the birds can have fresh live food every single day!
Third, I often run my soaks through my Ultimate Chopper and whirl them into the consistency of a fine slaw, then mix in a few sprinkles of GHV (Greens, Herbs, and Veggies). They snarf it down :). As always, of course, all of my flock also get a variety of fresh vegetables, fruit/berries, seed, greens, and even the occasional pellet...if they had to live on only one food type it would be soaks - but no single food can ever be a complete diet for our birds; variety is the key!
This is really simple to do, yet offers a great nutritional impact that your bird can't get from processed, cooked, dry, or other "dead" food sources. Soaks are live growing food such as our birds' systems are designed to live on with the complex combinations of nutrients that can't be provided any other way. Offering Simple Sprouts and GHV gives your bird an array of natural nutrient choices that he'll love!
