Variety, Variety

We talk often about providing a wide variety of foods to our gliders. You all know this is something that I think is important.

But, I also think it is important to provide food in a wide variety of ways/forms/etc.

So, lets discuss how we all shake it up in terms of presentation. What, if anything, do YOU do?



For ME, the ways that I vary food include the following:

* I make omelets, scrambled egg bake, soup or other cooked meals from time to time

* I make fruit smoothies from fresh fruit and organic fruit juice ( I do not add yogurt because of an allergy here, but you certainly can) at least once per week to substitute for their fresh fruit.

* Sometimes I will use a bit of juice such as this one:

I substitute 1/2 of their veggie portion with juice. OR I will use an organic fruit juice and substitute the fruit with it.
(I am looking into juicing a lot more, so if any of you have a great juicer, please share that info with me)

* I will make one of the many fruit or veggie relish recipes.

* I might not cut the fruit/veggie up as much. Maybe I put 1/2 a banana (with peel) in the cage or a whole cluster of grapes or the entire end of a watermelon or the like.

* I will sometimes wrap their veggies or fruit in a collard leaf or fill an emptied bell pepper with it.


What do you do to provide variety in the presentation?

I do things like VAl does and sometimes I hang their foods and they need to climb out to the middle of the cage to get it. I stuff things. Val pretty much summed it up.

Val can we get your Soup recipe? I know you posted it someplace on here but I couldnot find it the other day. Thank You

I will steam their veggies or bake their sweet potato. Sometimes put their berries or sweet peas in foraging cups--make them work for their favorites. Instead of a scrambled egg, sometimes I will hard boil it and cut it in half. I've tried just cracking the shell but so far, no one forages for the egg that way. :( I've also made them salad, so I will toss their berries or tomato and avocado in with their greens and carrot or greens and cucumber. Maybe put in a few mealies and drizzle with honey or acacia to entice them.

Sometimes, I will hand feed pieces of papaya to them while they are in their pouch as a "breakfast in bed" treat. Food is food, and I don't think they discriminate against papaya or mealie or a yogie. They love the fact that mama is spoiling them with food in their pouch! They respond with the same, "Aw...you love me" look on their faces. (I just wish they'd quit stealing from each other when I've got THEIR portion right in my hands! LOL)

Since my monkeys only like acorn squash cooked, I steam it in the microwave for a couple of minutes and in the little "dish" part of it (where you cut out the seeds), I fill it with the rest of their fruit/veggie mixture. I also pierce and hang ears of sweet corn and also watermelon in their cage.

My guys LOVE it when I wrap fruits/veggies up in collard greens, kale or spinach leaves. Also - guava is SO much fun if you just cut a couple of chunks out of it and then hang a couple in the cage. They will dig and dig to get to the middle.

I make egg bakes here and have both fruit and veggie smoothies that I toss in the cage on lazy or junk food nights.