soft pet food (for magpie)

 

Any pet owners here who can tell me of a brand of dried pet
food (cat or dog) which is soft enough that it can be broken
up easily?

A neighbour is daily visited by a quiet magpie and I'd like
to see her give it a treat better than bread.

We are talking of just one or two pieces of dried pet food each
day, not a major part of its diet. Magpies seem to insist on
breaking food up into tiny morsels before they'll eat it.

I've thought of softening the hard food with water, but think
it will just fall to pieces when thrown onto the lawn.
--
John Savage            (my news address is not valid for email)

 

g'day john,

any dried dog food that can be broken up reasonably easily could be
cat food as well have you tried those ones where the pieces are small
to start with? maybe give any of the food you buy, a bit of a soak and
mush it into the best top grade(least fat) mince from the local
butcher not from the supermarket. try using a food processor or the
sort.

you could also hard boil eggs and break up the yoaks and add that in,
try to have the neighbour randomly feed the birds but yes she must
stop feeding them bread, the feeding method we like is if they don't
turn up for their one nibble a day(usually morning) then we don't
leave it for them so as not to make our feeding their main feed.

don't feed them at all now just provide a garden that as bugs for them
to eat the yearlings from last season are quiet happy to be close to
us as we pose no threat.

keep us informed

On Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:16:29 GMT, John Savage

snipped
With peace and brightest of blessings,

len & bev

--
"Be Content With What You Have And
May You Find Serenity and Tranquillity In
A World That You May Not Understand."

http://www.lensgarden.com.au/

 

gardenlen0@bigpond.com writes:

Hi Len. Mince? Egg yolk?? Way too indulgent for my liking!!!!  But I'm
sure the magpies would love it!

Considering bread: no preparation, easy for the bird to break into
small pieces, and handling it does not leave you with cats-breath
hands. So I reckon I need something equally convenient to convert
the neighbour.

Throwing out a piece or two of dry dog food, using a spoon, would
allow her to feed the bird(s) while continuing to enjoy her
Devonshire tea on the balcony.

I'm sure the magpie could break up any of the various dry dog foods,
but to carry it back to the nestling I was concerned that it should
not crumb too readily. The adults are still ferrying food back to
the fledglings and they seem to insist on breaking it up into small
pieces before they fly off to the tree, whereupon on arrival they
dump the whole beakful of food straight into the gaping mouth the
same way I'd dump a bag of garbage into the Otto bin.

I notice the adult birds spend time each day patrolling under the
red cedars, pouncing on things from time to time. I guess they
are picking up grey borer beetles that have dropped off the
branches. There should always be good pickings there.

Thanks to others for their replies, too.
--
John Savage                (my news address is not valid for email)

 

John Savage wrote:

It's ideal to soften the food with water. Just put it in a container and
put enough water in to come about 2/3 of the way up the food. Leave it
to soak up the water and then put it out for the maggies. Ours were so
tame, we used to throw it to them and they'd swoop to catch it!

It's hard in the suburbs, where everyone enjoys tame magpies. So many
people feed them bread and make them dependent on human feeding, then
they get rickets or other bone diseases (the magpies, not the people). I
reckon it's probably better for the maggies to become dependent on a
reasonable food (such as dog-food) than it is for them to depend on
bread and biscuits.

The leader of our magpie tribe was called 'Minnesota Fats'. He dined at
just about every backyard in the street!

PS. In the spring, the young magpies would come and play with my
washing. They'd lie on their backs and grab the bottoms of the sheets
hanging on the line.

Once, Minnesota approached my (newborn) daughter as she lay in her
bouncer under the tree. I think he thought her little toesies were tiny
worms, because he attempted to eat them!!! After that, kiddo always took
her fresh air with socks on.

--
Trish Brown

Newcastle, NSW, Australia

 

John Savage wrote:

Mine love Whiskas dry cat biscuits - I put it out for a scrawny stray cat who
comes visiting and it's a race
to see who gets it first: my well-fed moggies, who much prefer outside food to
inside food, the stray or the
magpies.

--
Anne Chambers
South Australia

anne dot chambers at bigpond dot com