Happy 11th bird-day, Mika!

The light of my life is 11 today!  Time really flies...  it feels like only yesterday that he turned 10.  :(

Since I spoil the birds constantly, I chose not to get a physical wrapped gift for Mika this year.  This is partly due to the fact that both my boys have an overabundance of new toys still, so they don't need any more (nor do I have the space to store more!), and I'll be purchasing them Expandable Habitats cages for when we move to the house early next year.  

But, of course, being the kind of mommy I am I still ended up getting something - something that is on it's way and will be a combined birthday gift for both Mika and Raptor, whose birthday is on the 25th of this month.  I got this medium Java tabletop stand to go in the future master bedroom.  I really love this stand because it's got a lot of branches for perching AND it's got a nice empty space on the left to hang a small boing, or swing, from the top branch.  This will save me from hanging stuff from the master bedroom ceiling, something my bf said I could do but really doesn't want me to. ;)  Yes, I know how to compromise.  Hehe.  I'm hoping to fall in love with one or two more tabletop stands by the time I set up the bird room and then I'll be set.

We wanted to take the boys out for a nice picnic at a park for Mika's birthday today but 1. the bf came down with a high fever yesterday, 2. I'm not feeling so great, and 3. it's doom-and-gloom outside anyway.  So Mika has been having the run of the house, as usual.  I gave him his favorite sprouts (mixed with that stuff he doesn't like called fruits and veggies) and yummy Avian Organics bird bread, which he tore up.

Happy bird-day, my baby.  I love you so much and hope to celebrate many more birthdays with you.  I don't know what I'd do without you.  <3 

Avian Organics order.

Yay!  My Avian Organics order arrived today!  I wasn't planning on getting anything from them for quite a while because I still have a lot of bird bread and mash mixes, along with treats, from them.  Since we only have two birds, I always make half-batches of everything and it lasts an entire month - sometimes longer.  

The reason I made another, albeit small, order is because AO is discontinuing their organic fruit powders.  I still have apple and blueberry powders from my last order so I wanted to get blackberry this time.  The fruit powders are very versatile - use them in mashes, bird breads, sprinkled on fresh foods, etc.  They are even great for using in human foods and I hear are great in smoothies.  Along with the fruit powder I ordered a mixed bag of Cajun Berry Minis and Mango Ginger Minis and their new fruit roll-up type treat, Twisted Treasures.  Thank you, Doris!!

I gave some of the Minis to the boys in the food bowls but, true to their picky fashion, they snubbed their beaks at it.  Raptor actually just tossed them out of his bowl.  Then with Mika's sprout and papaya mash mixture I mixed some blackberry powder in it.  With Raptor's bowl of sprouts and fresh foods, I added some more Minis and sprinkled everything with the blackberry powder.  Raptor has thrown a lot of the food to the bottom of the Java tree, including the Minis and pieces of Twisted Treasures.  Grrrrr...

I definitely waste a LOT of money buying different kinds of foods for my uber-picky guys but I honestly don't care.  I will keep exposing them to different, healthy foods if it's the last thing I do. LOL 

Avian Organics Bird Bannock.

I had bought several different bird breads from Avian Organics back in December.  Neither of my boys like bird bread, but that doesn't stop me from trying to get them to eat it. LOL  In the order I bought Bird Bannock, Flatbread Fusions with blueberry powder, Calypso Carrot Bird Bread, and Papaya Berry Bird Bread - along with a few other items.  

I decided to make some of the Bird Bannock today.  I only need to use half a bag to make a batch that lasts me roughly three weeks to a month because I add so many other things to it.  Here is what I added to the Bird Bannock mixture, along with an organic egg and a little water:

Avian Organics blueberry and apple powders, organic nuts, Harrison's pellets, Totally Organic Pellets, dried sweet potato, organic fruit and veggie pulp and juice, Just Veggies, red palm oil, seed mixture.

   
The reason I add a lot of seed to the mixture is because neither of the boys will go NEAR bird bread unless there's a ton of seed in it.  I honestly don't think they ingest any of the "bread" part, but we're still in the phase of them just going near food they normally wouldn't touch with a ten foot perch (HA!).  I do hope, eventually, that they will eat the bird bread without leaving everything but the seeds behind.  >_<

Here is the mixture ready to be put in the pan:

Yum...??

   
And here is the finished product!  Nice and golden brown, cooling down and cut into individual portions.

Cooling on the stove.

I had added so much "extras" this time around that not all of it would fit into my bird bread container for the freezer and freezer space is limited...  so...  I'll be sharing some of it with a person I know that only feeds his birds seed and, only once in a while, fresh foods.  Every time I have extra food of any kind, I call him up and give it to him because I feel so bad for his birds (as well as most other birds on this island - but that's another story).  He said he has so many (!!!) that anything other than seed is a "treat" for them.  So I hope his birds enjoy this bread and some other overabundant goodies I'll be giving him.