Food preferences

Every year, it's exciting to witness the feedings of the chicks. And this year I can even watch without binoculars. As I have blogged about before - the small chicks only get high value protein - preferably red meat, chicken, shrimps and eggs. Pork is ignored and also minced meat from ox - mayby they judge by the colour? For the parent's sake we also give some of the usaul stuff, like vitaminized dog kibble and leftovers from our dinners, and as the chicks grow older they get a wider variety of food.

So most of the time, we just hand over big chunks of meat, half chickens and eggs and let the parents do the work. But one manmade thing they DO like is this cottage-cheese-mix.

The cottage cheese is low in fat and rich in proteins, and I add a few eggs, crushed egg shells and some vitamins. Like a parent trying to sneak unwanted wholesome veggies into the food, I also add some grated apple. This is something we learned on a course in wildlife rehabilitation - apple is a good substitute for vitamins for most animals.
I believe that the ravens make the best choices for their young, but it makes me happy to watch the parents efortless scoop up the mixture in their beaks and pouches and fly off to feed their nestlings - without the tiresome job of tearing to pieces or adding saliva and water.

And it looks a bit like ris á la Malta with saffron, doesn't it?

//Helena