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)

soft pet food (for magpie)
 

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
wrote:

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/

soft pet food (for magpie)
 

John Savage wrote:
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)

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

soft pet food (for magpie)
 

John Savage wrote:
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)

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

soft pet food (for magpie)
 

[quote=John Savage;868657] writes:[color=blue][i]

High quality meat based canned food is FAR from unhealthy. It is better than most dry foods. Baneful though is crap. It is full of by products and grains. Feeding a high quality grain free canned food is one of the best ways to go. Some good canned foods are Wellness, Wellness Core, EVO, and Before Grain. All are pretty much meat and broth/water, exactly what a dog is meant to eat. My Chihuahua gets all of these canned foods along with her dry. My vet loves that I feed these foods and my dogs eat better than I do. I agree the only other option is ground raw.