Does anyone dehydrate food?

[bookworm0550]

My birds will eat dehydrated veggies but pick at the fresh version. Buying dehydrated foods is expensive. Does anyone dehydrate foods for their birds? I'm thinking about buying a dehydrater and doing it myself

[michael]

I have many friends who's larger parrots just love them. Especially dried peppers. I've offered a fair variety of dehydrated veggies to Goof, but he never really showed much interest. The only fruits we've dehydrated were apples and banana's. Organic dried figs, prunes, and grapes/raisins without preservatives were easier to pick up at the health food store. ..... Haven't tried em with Beebs yet. ...... And wouldn't it figure...I gave away our food dehydrator.......:rofl:.......I'm sure you could find a relatively cheap model somewhere. Ours costed about $25 new.

[bookworm0550]

thanks michael. i am gonna look into it. start small, like peas, carrots, and apples.

[maya_exquisite]

I don't have a dehydrater, but it sounds kind of fun to try.

I buy my dried mix from Bird Paradise (Benji Blend) and I've found that it's not super expensive and the variety in the mix is just incredible!! If I dried up the huge variety of fruits and veggies in this mix, it'd be costly. Not to mention, if I dried a batch of everything that's offered in the mix, I'd have no room to store a massive amount of dried food. Haha.

Offering this Benji Blend daily as part of their Harrison's staple, the one lb. container is lasting me a long time!!

[dieflying]

i have a dehydrator but i hardly ever use it as it is so time consuming and expensive. the power alone takes a lot (although i'm sure a newer model will have dealt with that issue) but i just can't justify buying that much food just to dehydrate it.

you'll have to let us know how it works out for you if you try it. then maybe i'd feel better about doing it too!

[FuzzyAga]

It must be our climate, but I have no trouble turning grapes into raisins. I leave the bunch in the fruit bowl lined with paper towels, and a few weeks later--raisins!

Thompsons grapes do not make good raisins, but the red grapes make delicious grapes--the sugar has been concentrated, and it's not too dried out--still just plump enough. Yummy! I buy organic grapes and I get organic raisins.

[Chickobee]

I have a dehydrator and have mostly used it for bananas. I buy the really ripe ones at the grocery store that are marked down. Not only are they less expensive, they are sweeter and make better dehydrated bananas.

I tried doing veggies for our lovies but they prefer fresh or frozen ones, chopped really tiny. Big veggies are evil!

[LovelySydney]

I wish Oliver would eat ANY foods, even dehydrated. If you decide to do it let us know how it goes, could be a new thing for people to try, especially if it works!!