Mocking Bird Food

Ingredients

• Take beef's liver, cut it in strips and dry in the oven
• take hemp seed
• soda crackers or stale bread
• moisten with water

Method

1. 1

   Cut the beef's liver in strips and dry it in the oven.

2. 2

   Pound the hemp seed and soda crackers together fine.

3. 3

   Mix all ingredients and moisten with water before giving to the bird.

Nutrition per serving

Estimated from matched ingredients across 2 servings.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The household (of the Detroit free press) (1886) by Goff, May Perrin,, page 17. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

mocking bird food. The greatest cleanliness must be observed. Their cages should be cleaned early in the morning daily. A piece of uninked paper placed on the floor of the cage removed daily facilitates this process. If vermin infest them a small bit of sulphur may be placed under the paper. MOCKING BIRDS. 13 Mocking birds delight in a bath, as do canaries, daily. If the bath becomes soiled before used, remove and replace with clean water. They will not enter it if there is anything in it. If you wish to teach them, sirtg or whistle single bars of music often in their hearing. You will be delighted by hearing them mock you very soon. They are fond of company, and, in addition to the notes of all birds placed near them, will imitate many sounds, such as the " meouw " of the cat, the barking of dogs, etc., etc. Their food and care. — Mocking birds should have large cages, with light board- backs, kept scrupulously clean ; cover the bottom of the tray with paper, then on it sprinkle sand, fine gravel and bones that have been burnt and powdered. Hang a small bag of sulphur on top of the cage, and red pepper, in pods, should be tied to the sides. Give meat of some sort every day ; beefsteak half an inch long, the size of the finger, cut crosswise with scissors in .small bits ; grass- hoppers, angleworms and white garden grubs ; also, apples, berries and lettuce leaves are good for them. Take an Irish potato, boil or bake it, mash fine with a hard boiled egg and a little mite of red pep- per. Use a large bath dish in the morning, and remove after the bird has bathed. Avoid hanging in draughts. If sick, give a brown spider ; sometimes a warm bath will relieve it. When bunches come on the head, rub on camphor carefully, lest it get in the eyes. Keep the perches very clean. Feed them hard-boiled egg, minced very fine ; dried currants once or twice a week, a small piece of raw beef, chopped very fine, and all kinds of fresh fruit. Also worms, which can be raised in this manner: Procure a wooden box, line it with zinc (an empty tea chest, if lined with foil, will answer) ; bore very small holes in the sides and top, and fit the lid closely; fill within a few inches of the top with bran, and place in several pieces of old leather ; procure from a flour dealer a few flour worms ; put them in your box. The worms will in a short time become black bugs, which deposit the larvae from which comes the worms ; you have now an excellent food for your birds. Give them several a day. They grow to about an inch in length ; the bran can be changed and the supply kept up. Feed them with the common house spider, the little crab found in oysters, and angleworms. The nearer you approach their natural food, the better they seem to thrive. Be quiet and tender in your handling of the mocking bird, for they are a timid bird, and often die suddenly of heart disease ; it requires caution not to frighten him, for he will drop dead in the midst of his song, apparently as well as can be. Those who give their bird " mocking bird food " will find this is a better preparation, and does not cost so much : Take beef's liver, cut it in strips and dry in the oven ; take hemp seed, soda crackers or stale 14 BIRDS. bread, pound all together fine, and mix in equal parts. When given to the bird moisten with water

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.