China Prairie™ Helpful Tips
Tips for Introducing the Avian FRESH Diet
With patience, even the most stubborn of picky eaters can learn to eat a healthy sprouted diet.
- Put out both foods—the one he has been eating and the new sprouted diet. Feed this mixture out of the same bowl and never offer enough of the old diet to fill him up.
- Gradually reduce the old diet over a two-four week period.
- Offer the sprouted diet in the morning and in the evening which is how birds feed in the wild. If possible, take up the sprouted diet after 2-3 hours.
- Model good eating habits. Eat healthy foods in front of your bird. Have some of the sprouted diet on your plate and offer it to your bird. They’ll try most anything you’re eating.
General Information:
- The sprouts are ready in about 2 ½ days—for the first sprouting after which you will have fresh spouts daily.
- Rinse your seeds with the FRESH Stabilizer solution (1 ½ tsp to 1 gallon distilled water); do not soak your grains more than 12 hours for best results. Recommended is 8 hours.
- During the draining/sprouting process, watch to see if your grains are getting dried out—if so rinse them with the FS solution. Shake back the grains from the sprouting lid so that the sprouting holes are open and the air can circulate.
- The FS keeps mold from growing during the sprouting process. Do not serve the diet if it has a sour or acid smell. Of course, no mold (gray, black, or white) or sliminess should be present. (Refer to sprouting instructions for more information.)
- Sprouts are ready when 60 – 70% of ingredients show white tails. While some of the ingredients appear not to have sprouted at this point, the bio-chemical process has occurred internally. It is not necessary to sprout until green leaves develop as our FRESH Addition supplement provides the benefits of chlorophyll.
- After they are sprouted, the diet can be kept in the refrigerator—treat them like any salad food you would eat.
- On the average, a bird will eat ¼ cup unsprouted—when sprouted it is about double in size—a day.
- There are about 48 portions in a five pound bag of Avian FRESH Diet.
- Feed your bird twice a day as it recommends in the directions—as this is how the birds feed in their natural habitat—only putting out what they can eat in a two-three hour period. Keep the rest refrigerated.
- Our sprout towers can accommodate ½ gallon as well as quart jars—the jars should only be no more than half filled with unsprouted grain so as to leave room for the increase in size after sprouting.
- The unsprouted grain will keep in an airtight container for four months or eight months or more in the freezer. When removing from refrigerator or freezer, open the bag to allow air to circulate while the sprouting mix comes to room temperature.
- Our supplements are made out of herbs and spices and if you intend to store then longer than three months, we recommend freezing them.
- All of our grains, herbs and spices are human grade and Non-GMO.