Grits are a well-loved and wildly enjoyed southern breakfast dish. It is made by crushing up or grinding dent corn and cooking it using milk, water or both. If you’re a fan of grits you may enjoy eating it with catfish, bacon, cheese’s or shrimp. If you enjoy this food and you may be considering giving it to birds, but can eat grits? This article looks into it

Birds can definitely eat grits. Feeding birds this food is a great way to use up any leftover grits in your pot. Grits will offer your bird a number of vitamins and minerals including iron, protein, fat, fibre and b vitamins to name a few.

Can birds eat grits?

Birds in the wild eat a lot of food. They need to eat a lot because they use up many calories flying around for most of the day. Sometimes, the food they ingest isn’t easy to digest, so they need help – this is where grits come into the picture. Grits help a bird grind the food it eats and makes it more digestible.

If you own a pet bird or have backyard birds you feed, it’s ok to offer them grits – this will help them better digest the food you offer. You can serve birds manufactured grits just as they come in their pack, or you can cook them in boiling water. Cooked grits are also referred to as porridge grits.

In addition to helping birds with digestion, the grits offer your bird a number of vitamins and miners including protein, carbs, fats, iron, b vitamins, zinc, magnesium, folate and phosphorus. Stone-ground grits made from whole corn kernels will offer your bird more vitamins and minerals when compared to the regular version.

How do you make grits for birds?

If you want to offer birds grits, cooked ones are the best kind to serve them. Here is how to go about preparing grits for your feathered friends:

• To make grits for birds, you should start by pouring the grits into a pot of water and placing them on the stove to cook.
• Soon as the water starts to boil, you should lower the heat and leave the grits in the boiling water for about an hour.
• It would help if you waited until the grits cool before serving them to birds to avoid the grits burning them in the mouth.
• Furthermore, experts advise that when making grits for birds, you do not add anything the manufacturers did not mention in the preparation steps. Salt and butter especially are things you should not add when making grits, as they can be very unhealthy for birds.

Can birds eat raw grits?

Yes, birds can eat raw grits. If you own a pet bird, you can offer it uncooked grits. You only have to make sure you serve them manufactured grits. Grits are essential for birds that eat a lot of foods that don’t digest easily. If you don’t feed your pet bird whole seeds and nuts, then there’s really no point offering raw or cooked grits to it.

Can baby birds eat grits?

Baby birds don’t need to eat grits, as their parents feed them regurgitated food. When a baby bird comes into existence; it relies on its parents for crop milk. After a few days, its parents begin to feed it by spitting food from their stomach into the baby bird’s mouth. Most of the time, the food placed in the young bird’s mouth is already ground, so there’s no need for it to eat grits. If you were to feed your baby bird grits it wouldn’t be able to digest it all that well.

What grains can birds eat?

Grains are one of a bird’s favourite food. They are also one of the safest foods you can offer to birds. If you would like to know what grains birds can eat, the list below should be of great help to you.

• Amaranth
• Barley
• Brown rice
• Wholegrain rice
• Kamut
• Groats
• Maize
• Oats
• Quinoa
• Spelt
• Teff
• Wheat

The following are birds that love to eat grain: sparrows, finches, redpolls, juncos, doves, pigeons, s, pheasants, grouse, partridges, parrots, and parakeets.

Conclusion

In conclusion, yes birds can eat grits, in fact giving grits to birds is a great way to help with their digestion and deliver a number of vitamins and minerals to their bodies.

When serving grits to birds remember to serve them plain grits with no toppings. You can also give them raw gits and they’ll be just fine. I wouldn’t recommend giving baby bird grits as they cannot digest any food, including grits, well. Other grains you can give birds include brown rice, teff, quinoa, wholegrain rice and maize to name a few.

If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: can birds see infrared, how to relocate a birds nest with babies, what to do with unhatched eggs, can birds eat uncooked grits