|
Boiled Egg Only
| Boiled Egg Quarters |
|
| Egg shell is left on eggs and fed as quarters. |
I do not feed boiled egg straight up. Here's the reason why - it goes
bad very quickly, particularly on the H-cubed (hazy/hot/humid) days we get in summers here in Philadelphia, PA, USA (95+
degrees F, 95+% humidity).
Over the years, I have learned to make egg food which does not go rancid in a matter
of hours. I can feed my birds egg food on the most wickedly sweltering of days and not worry that their food is going
to 'go off,' and then I'll have an epidemic of sick and dying birds to deal with.
Some have fed their birds a quarter of an egg for years, even in the worst of heat,
and claim they've had no problems. Who am I to argue? I saw what happened in my bird room and decided that feeding
egg like that was not going to work for me.
Egg Food
Welcome to the World of Egg Food!!! It's easy to make your own egg food, and your
birds will like it better than store bought - or at least my birds do. Hey, finally someone appreciates my home
cookin'!
I make my egg food daily. Now you may think that my birds are spoiled,
and I suppose they are to some degree, but honestly the reason is because my freezer space is so LIMITED. If I
had a chest freezer, I'm sure I would make batches of eggfood and freeze them, but I don't have that luxury right now.
| Basic Egg Food |
|
| Nothing is added to this egg food other than eggs, chick starter and flaxseed oil. |
Basic Egg Food Recipe:
I must start off by saying that there are nearly as many egg food recipes as their
are finch aviculturists. I do not claim my recipe is the best or even better than anyone else's. I just know
that it works for me, it's very easy (what I call a no-brainer), and my birds love it.
2 large boiled eggs
1 cup of chick starter
Crack boiled eggs and put egg halves in a mini food processor. It mixes
better if you slice the yolks in half first. Notice I DIDN'T say to remove the egg shells. Egg shells are an EXCELLENT
source of calcium for your birds and should ALWAYS be fed to your birds. Many of my birds will preferentially
pick out the calcium before they start eating the egg food.
| Boiled Eggs Cracked into a Food Processor |
|
| Eggs should be cooked completely but not overcooked in order to maximize nutrition. Leave shells on! |
Add one cup of chick starter mash. Not pellets. If you purchase pellets,
you will have to mill them down to a fine mash. Better to just get the mash and make your life easier.
LaMachine your mix until all the egg is pulverized and mixed well with the chick starter.
It should be a dry crumbly mixture. Goopy, gloppy, moist and wet egg food will NOT be savored by your finches.
And it will go rancid fast.
Alternatively, you can peel the eggs and save the shells. These can be ground
up and served in a side cup. I used to do this - I just find it's laborious, and I'm lazy.
A funny thing about keeping the egg shells on:
A good friend of mine was feeding the shells on the eggs while making homemade egg food. When the birds were switched
to commercial egg food and eggshells were no longer being added into the food, egg bound hens started resurfacing, despite
having a good ready supply of calcium in separate cups. There is something about having the egg shells in their egg
food - kind of 'in their face' so to speak. Laying hens particularly just seem to do better. I've had a
similar experience with egg bound hens when I stopped with the egg shells, so now I just leave them in. And hey - it's
way easier. So why make it harder AND make sick hens while only making it harder for yourself?
| Shells from Boiled Eggs |
|
| Egg shells are saved and then added back into egg food. |
Saving Egg Shells
Any hard boiled eggs we eat, all egg shells are saved and added back into the next
batch of egg food. I keep a small container on the counter for boiled egg shells.
Any raw eggs we use, I save the shells in a ziploc baggie in the freezer. Once
the baggy is full, I spread the egg shells out on a cookie sheet as best I can and then cook the egg shells at ~250 F until
they are completely dry and crisp (no longer gooey). This requires mixing them around while they are drying down. Once
they are completely dry, I grind them up and use them in side cups as an excellent source of calcium.
Boiling Eggs Properly
Everyone seems to have their own method for boiling eggs so the shells don't stick. Below
is what I do - and since most of my eggs are used with the shells still on them, I could care less about whether the shells
stick or not. Part of the reason I started preparing boiled eggs like this is that I kept forgetting I was cooking eggs,
only to hear a dozen explosions an hour later when all the water boiled out. The below method seems
to not only make perfectly cooked eggs, I don't have to worry about catching the house on fire or scraping egg off the kitchen
ceiling. And I hear it's what Martha Stewart recommends too - LOL.
| Boiling Eggs |
|
| Place eggs in cold water and bring to a rapid roiling boil. Turn eggs off and let them cool. |
1. Put eggs in a large pot.
2. Add enough cold water to cover them about an inch.
3. Bring them to a boil on medium high heat.
4. Once eggs are at a full boil, turn the heat off. (Alternatively, you
can turn the eggs on simmer or a bit lower.)
5. Cover.
6. Allow them to sit this way for about 15 - 20 minutes - until the water
is no longer scalding hot.
7. Remove eggs from water.
8. If you are worried the shells will stick, rinse in cold water. Do a
few cold water rinses, allowing the eggs to sit in the cold water for about 5 minutes between water changes.
If you are worried the eggs won't be cooked through, then let them boil for a
minute or two, then turn them off. They really do not need to be at a full roiling boil for ten minutes - that's called overkill.
Overcooked Eggs
Overcooked eggs will have a green layer between the yellow yolk and the egg white.
This is due to a high temperature chemical reaction between iron and sulfur compounds in the egg. In
the white and upon boiling, hydrogen reacts with sulfur creating hydrogen sulfide gas. This diffuses to the yolk, and
then the hydrogen sulfide reacts with iron in the yolk. Blackish green iron sulfide precipitates at the interface.
The more the reaction is allowed to continue (high heat for longer times), the thicker the green ring will be. While
some say that green eggs destroy the appearance of boiled eggs, iron sulfide does not appreciably affect the nutritional
quality of the egg.
Overcooked whites can be rubbery. Severely overcooked whites turn brown (are
they then called browns?). This is because you've cooked them so much you've destroyed the protein content. Brown
edges are most apparent on fried eggs, however if you space out and overboil eggs long enough, they too will turn brown and
have diminished nutrtional value.
Egg Storage
Refrigerate any unused eggs. I do not cover the eggs in the fridge -
I put them in a stainless bowl that has a paper towel in the bottom to absorb any excess moisture.
| Older Marked Egg & Cracked Egg |
|
| Cracked eggs will dry out more quicky as well as become contaminated more easily. Use First! |
Eggs should remain safe and fresh in their shells for up to one week.
The longer the eggs are stored after cooking, the easier they usually are to peel.
Use any eggs which are cracked first. I also mark the older eggs so that
I know to use those up before I start using the newer freshly boiled eggs.
Exploded and cracked eggs as well as egg albumin (protein) all over the inside of
the pot is usually not a issue when you heat the eggs up slowly starting in cold water. So cleaning the pot
is a snap! However, you do still get some marginally cracked eggs.
Hygienic Technique
Just a few words about keeping egg food safe for birds. It's a good idea NOT to use
your hands. Human hands, unless washed thoroughly, are contaminated with E. coli and Yeast, amongst other things.
Of course WASH your hands before you make egg food. However, it's still best to use clean dry utensils for preparing
any food for your birds. This avoids a potential source of contamination. My birds NEVER have E. coli. I
hear of this problem a lot with other people's birds. I assume the difference is how individual keepers handle food.
If I touch the food, I may even throw it away. If handling the food while cutting it is unavoidable, I ONLY FEED
IT THAT DAY. All excess is thrown!!!!
Some people tell me I'm paranoid or anal or both. Maybe. Others say that the birds
immediately jump into the food trays and crap in them - which they do. But the birds are contaminating their food
with THEIR bacteria. Bacteria which they may have immunity against.
Needless to say, things that have been in your mouth should not come in contact with your
birds or their food. Particularly troublesome, among the over 500 bacteria which have set up residence inside
the human mouth is Pasteurella spp. which can cause septicemia (systemic infection) and pneumonia (lung infection)
in birds.
I treat food I prepare for human consumption as carefully as I do Finch food. I can
cook fish and then store it in the fridge for over a week, and IT IS STILL SAFE TO EAT. This is because I NEVER touch
it after cooking. It is put into clean dry storage containers with clean dry stainless steel utensils, and it's
covered while still hot.
I realize I have a lot of experience from working for decades in a laboratory setting with
cell cultures which require ultra sterile technique. I'm not advocating that you need a HEPA filter laminar
flow hood to prepare food for your Finches. Just clean, smart sense hygiene.
Serving Egg Food
| Typical Serving of Egg Food and Mashed Peas |
|
| Notice that the tray is not piled high with food. This was for a flight of about ten birds. |
I serve my egg food on the recycled lids from plastic canisters.
They are about 5 1/2" in diameter with a lip that is about 3/4" in height. The reason I serve egg food on these
trays is that the egg food will dry down as the day goes along. In small cups, there is a chance that the egg food will
start to rot. This is particularly problematic if the egg food is very moist (as does happen when I add veggies to it),
or if it's hot and humid in the summer. Birds which eat spoiled egg food can become quite ill, as can the babies they
are feeding.
I typically put 1 - 2 tsps (standard stainless teaspoon from my own kitchen set not
a measuring teaspoon) on a tray and serve. The tray goes on the flight cage bottom. If I have a parents with a
lot of chicks, I might give a second feeding of egg food in the evening, particularly during the time the chicks are
feathering out, when they need all the extra protein they can get.
Storing Egg Food
If you have excess egg food, you can store it in the fridge for the next feeding. I
do this routinely, even if I've added veggies to it (that I've not had to touch with my hands - like frozen peas or spinach).
I usually do not cover my egg food while in the fridge because it's typically only there for 24 hours, maximum.
If you plan on storing egg food for a longer period of time, then cover the egg food.
However, be sure that you don't make HOT egg food and then cover it while it's still hot. The moisture will condense
on the lid. Any egg food that comes in contact with the lid or moisture that drops onto the egg food may become slimy
and a breeding ground for bacteria.
Egg food is typically sufficiently dry enough that it can be safely stored for several days
in the fridge with no worry about adverse health effects in your birds. If I've added veggies, I will not use it more
than 24 hours later because of the extra moisture the vegetables impart.
If you are not going to use the egg food in a reasonable period of time, put it in a Ziploc
bag and freeze it.
|
