Aussie Finch Forum

I see a few questions about some of the new Health Food type super grains and seeds here on the forum such as Chia. In recent times at home we have been buying Quinoa (pronounced something like kingwah) as an alternative to rice and it is proclaimed as being an excellent source of protein. It is around 14g/100g protein (Similar to Canary seed) but the thing that is unique about it as with things like Soy Beans is that it contains a good proportion of all the various amino acids required for the protein to be "useable" to animals where in other seeds and grains there is often a deficiency in a few of these amino acids so sometimes despite the protein value stated for a grain or seed the "useable" protein can be significantly less. It is fairly low in fat too at 9g/100g.
I put a small dish with the dry seed in my aviary and not much got touched but I put some in a container with defrosting sprouted seed overnight to soften it a bit and it seemed to get eaten the next day fairly well.
I was wondering if anyone has played with it?

I've read a bit about quinoa in the past & it naturally contains tannins to deter wild birds from eating it dry. Apparently these are reduced by soaking/sprouting which equates to your stated experience. Nutritional composition is impressive but the need to fool around with it turned me off using it or even trying.

I know about the bitter "saponins" that protect it from being eaten on the plant but I think during processing it is washed off, and as you buy it from the supermarket it is fairly free from it. I think realistically it would be ok if like me you only have a a dozen finches or so to look after and if they accept it are happy to purchase small amounts of thoroughly prepared quinoa and small amounts would be easier to prepare yourself if needed. I think as you say if you are feeding a lot of birds and buying more bulk seed assuming bulk quinoa is not too hard to come across in the end, to me the rinsing for minutes on end to prepare it properly would be a bit much of a pain for large amounts of seed. I guess if the benefits were that exceptional then there would be motivation to do so and this is why I asked.

Anyways it's all worth a look.

Thank again for the reply.

I have read alot about it and also have considered adding it to my birds diet. It doee have alot of nutritional value but with a good varied diet I don't believe its essential to a diet. I have just recently tried using semolina and I have found that some birds like it while others aren't fussed which you'll find with quinoa. If your birds like it by all means keep using it but washing of it is going to be a pain to make sure all the bitterness is removed. So your using the seed have you tried the powered form.

No I haven't used it but have seen the powdered form and also a heavily rolled flake form, I figure these two would involve less fuss.

Thanks

How canny is this ? Ive just been researching Quinoa in bird pages from the US and ordered a bag to try out ( Aussie grown) '
Anyhoo boiled for 12 minutes and mixed with the peas and corn is the plan ...spose to be the ants pants nutritionally .

Also have ordered and researched wheat grass as a twice weekly part of the diet for nutritional reasons and its claimed to improve breeding in birds .

Now hmmmm I have printed out my info but will try to find the links to the bird pages that had all the relevant info .

There is a "How to grow wheatgrass" in the July issue of the newsletter.
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