Petra - My Bird - My Reason For Organic Gardening

You might wonder what a bird has to do with gardening, well, here is my reason for gardening (or at least, one of my main reasons).

Petra's favorite words are 'Come here!'. She also says her
name and if food is missing from her bowl, she says 'manna'.

Because Petra is an indoor bird, the type of food she eats is specific. Conures like both sweet and hot peppers. I like some peppers and so does my son, so my pepper growing is not totally for the bird, but much of it is. 

I want to grow sunflower seeds for Petra, but, the squirrels have fun with the plant and we don't get the seeds from it. Someday, I will plant this on my balcony, if I have space.

Petra on her playpen. Her favorite toy is her big bell.

Another plant that is excellent for bird food is millet. I would imagine a large parrot would have a hard time eating such small seeds, but for parakeets, cockatiels, and conures, this is a nice treat for them. I have dumped leftover food from Petra's bowl into the garden and have seen some interesting plants come up!

   I belong to an organic vegetable and fruit co op and we get all kinds of fruits and veggies. Any peppers I get usually go to Petra and I dry them in a dehydrator. Carrots are excellent food as well, fresh or dried. I took some apples and cut them up and dried them along with the peppers and put them all in the food processor after they were dried. 

Petra is a 26 year old peach-fronted conure.
She is fed seeds, pellet, and dried fruit and
veggies, mostly organic.

Birds are supposed to have some greens as well. I have so much kale and lettuce that we are never hurting for greens around here! 

I will have at least 5 different pepper plants on my balcony. I will also have at least 3 different colored carrots growing on my balcony as well. This will make a nice variety for Petra when they are dried and minced. 

One other good result from growing plants is that plants give off oxygen. They provide the oxygen we need. We give off carbon dioxide as we exhale. Plants take in carbon dioxide, but give off oxygen. We take in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide. We work together mutually with plants. So, if you want to build up a lot of oxygen around you, grow plants (green plants). Clean air is good for us and for our birds. We need it to survive and it helps us to be healthy.