What different foods do you hang in your birds cage? I'm not talking about serving them in a bowl. I'm looking for different ideas in how to hang healthy foods in the cages and looking for different foods to hang in the cages.

I attended a seminar the end of last year and people were giving different ideas of different veggies they buy in bulk amounts and hang from the tops of cages or in their cages. Lots of leafy greens were mentioned, half I've never heard of before.

I would like to start hanging bulk amounts leafy greens in their cages throughout the day for them to eat, or get them wet and have them preen with them. Can anyone give me some ideas or some really cool ideas?

I hang clumps of kale, and also carrots with the green stuff still attached. I usually slice the carrots in half length-wise, starting at the tip. I stop about 2 inches from the end with the green stuff. Then I weave the 2 halves in opposite directions through the cage bars. Whoa- I hope that made sense to you guys, because I'm confusing myself, lol!

I also have a kabob that Ollie loves. I put stuff like carrots, peppers, broccoli, sweet potato, etc on that.

Apart from the carrot tops mentioned I also give my birds mulberry branches complete with leaves. I harvest these from my own trees, washed and served for stripping pleasure. The aviary birds get bigger branches which are placed like perches. This week I gave them bottlebrush, as the mulberry tree has no leaves, winter time here.

I have a question with this. I really like these ideas. However, is there a time limit on how long fresh food can stay there? I have heard 2 hours is the maximum. Does anyone have any information on this? I would really appreciate it, as I would be leaving food when I go to work. Should I only leave it at night when we are home or on the weekends when we are home?

Stuff a bunch of broccoli into the top of the cage.

Jeannie when it's fresh uncooked whole cleaned veggies (fresh carrots, green beans, bunch of broccoli, bunches of whole greens, large leaves of kale, etc.) I don't follow the 2-3 hour rule and will leave it for the day. Mine need 2-3 hours to look at it before they'll even give it a try. They eat some, shred some, and play with some.

I don't know if what I do is recommended by the experts, but it seems to stay looking fresh throughout the day here. I make sure it's out of the sun, etc. I may need to shorten the time now that it's warm out.

Karen,
Thank you. I appreciate your response. What about if I am gone from 7:30am until 5:00pm? Is that still alright? I want to provide this, as I love this idea. I just want to make sure that the lenght of time will be alright. Would that time frame still be ok?

Jeannie IMO, I feel it would be alright as long as its fresh, uncooked, cleaned, skin on whole veggies and presented in a clean, not overly warm area. I definitely follow the 2-3 hour rule for cooked and diced foods though.

Thank you Karen. I will try it. Sounds great.

Lara - get a 12" grape fine wreath (obviously you know that I mean the untreated ones). You can tie bunches of kale, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. to the grape fine. The birds tend to think it is a great toy and they are more apt to eat their veggies.