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COPYRIGHT 1996
By David Poole dave-poole@ilsham.demon.co.uk
A whole host of pulses are extremely good for
providing excellent levels of protein and carbohydrate as well as
fibre. However, they *must* be cooked because many contain enzymes
which inhibit protein assimilation. I use the following on a daily
basis and find that they are excellent dietary constituents:
Haricot, Black-Eyed, Lima and Garbanzos, yellow and green Split peas,
Lentils of any colour.
Most weekends I have a big 'boil-up', having soaked a cup of each
overnight. The beans and peas are all cooked separately and if I feel
so inclined, throw in a few chillis for flavouring. When the beans
are tender, they are drained and allowed to cool before packing and
storing in the deep freeze. My CAG gets a heaped teaspoon each, of
any 3 of the above every day to which I add broccoli, carrot and
frozen peas. The whole lot is nuked until piping hot and allowed to
cool for around twenty minutes.
Occasionally a small piece (1cm.cube) of hard cheese is finely diced
and sprinkled over the top and sometimes, finely diced chillis and/or
ripe bell peppers are also added. As a especial treat, a teaspoon of
low-salt, homemade tomato sauce which contains onions and garlic is
poured over the top before nuking. This makes a very acceptable
baked-bean 'taste-a-like' and my CAG goes wild over this. Fruit in
some form is also available every day and of course constant supplies
of pellets. I do not now offer any sunflower at all, but I do provide
millet which contains the lysine that is missing from pulses.
Jalapenos are perfectly OK for all parrots that will eat them and you
need have no worries about the 'heat' that we experience with chillis.
The pinkest M2 that I've ever seen is given 2 or 3 hot chillis every
day and his owner claims that they were the cause of the bird's vivid
colouration. After 15 years the bird is in rudest of health and has
never plucked or bitten a single feather in all of that time.
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