Pandanus fruit

[The Cozy Nestbox]

A good friend of ours recently told us how much his parrots love chewing up and eating Pandanus. I remembered also reading how Lara Joseph (a member here) used to feed the fruit to her birds until the company she got them from went out of business. I wasn't really sure what a Pandanus fruit looked like so I googled it and son-of-a-gun! That's the fruit from Screw Pines! Heck, there are several Screw Pine trees around us. So, can you guess what we did? Yep, we went Pandanus hunting!

And we S-C-O-R-E-D!!!! Here's a pic of what we got:




Here is information regarding the fruit that I located at: The Queen Palm Nut Tree

(Even though the link says Queen Palm, the article actually discusses both the Queen Palm and the Pandanus Fruit.)

"One cluster weighs between 4 to 8 lbs. Each globe may contain lobes with as many as 300 seeds. The outer covering of each seed lobe of four seeds is fibrous, but all edible. The small seeds resemble pine nuts. After you get it, the center part of the globe will begin to dry in 2 weeks enough for the lobes to drop off. The whole globe can be chopped in half to remove the lobes easier and earlier. The lobes should be refrigerated. Good source of fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals. Fat content is low. A large Macaw can take 10 minutes or more to chew on one lobe and its seeds. The seeds come off a fleshy center. Wild parrots have been seen eating it. It is sweet and sticky when ripe. You might wish to cut it in small pieces and try it on your birds."

Here are some photos of a single seed lobe I took today:






So then it came time for the big test ==> WOULD OUR BIRDS LIKE IT? Remember, this is the FIRST time these Amazons have ever seen a Pandanus seed lobe. I handed out only one and as you'll see, the one got tugged over and played with and yes, finally eaten -- down to just the husk. I'll let the photos tell the story......
















At this point, I decided to pull the seed lobe away from them and take a photo of it to show how fibrous it is and how much they had played with it:


I just went out to check their flight to see if there was any sign of the seed lobe. I did find it but every bit of yellow and green was gone and all that was left was a coarse husk. It looks like the nuts themselves were too hard for the Amazons to break open. These Amazons are just under a year old and I'm thinking that mature Amazons or certainly large Cockatoos and Macaws should be able to crack them. I'll be testing this theory in the coming days and weeks with more of our birds.

They sure had a royal good time playing with that seed lobe! As the fruits ripen and we can pull off more seed lobes, I'll be curious to see what our other birds will think of them. But based on today's reaction, I am very pleased!

So does anyone else here feed Pandanus to their birds?

[pynkzephyr]

they look like they are having a ball!!

this is the first I have heard of them and am very interested, will have to research them a little, thanks for the link

[birdlvr466]

Never heard of them Kelly but they sure look interesting. Your birds are absolutely gorgeous and they seem to comply with your food experiments very well!

[WenM]

Cool beans! You really have some interesting things in your area for the birds. Lucky birds mom is so attentive on these new things.

[The Cozy Nestbox]

Originally Posted by WenM

Cool beans! You really have some interesting things in your area for the birds. Lucky birds mom is so attentive on these new things.

Thank you!

I just realized that I failed to include what I thought was a spectacular shot of Romeo getting his first taste of Pandanus. Can't you just see how intrigued he was by this new thing?

[pynkzephyr]

what a stunning shot - like a kid with his first Hershey bar!!

[WenM]

Those look so cool - I bet they love em

[Mercedez]

That looks awesome!!!

Im going to try and sprout the three types of palm fruit I have now. But I would love to try that fruit one day on my fids!

How neat!

[Marlene]

So neat! I do love that picture of Romeo.

[fid fanatic]

All of those photos are awesome. I have never heard of this fruit, so thank you for sharing. I'm so envious of all of you who have these and other spectacular fruit and nut trees right in your backyard.