Save the Nuts

If you are a nutty human who lives with a nutty parrot (meaning one who loves its nuts) then knowing how to save a few pennies and keep the nuts fresh and tasty is an important issue.

If you have bought nuts for your parrot lately, you already know how expensive they can be.  During the fall and winter season usually beginning in about October, and especially during the Christmas holidays, you can usually find lots of nuts in the shell in local grocery stores.  Often you can even find them on sale during this time.  I like to stock up on the favorites of my birds and keep them on hand throughout the year.  

Keeping nuts for a while requires a little simple nut preparation to keep them fresh and yummy for your bird.  Without taking that care, nuts can dry out and become stale and not so tasty.  Then can even become moldy, and even wormy if they are nuts you collected yourself and were not cleaned properly  before storage.

Freezing whole nuts in their shells may take up some space in your freezer but will keep them safe and sound for up to a year, and most parrot really enjoy working the nut meats out on their own as a fun foraging treat.

If you don't have room in your freezer, clean the nuts and make sure they are nice and dry and then place them in airtight containers in a cool dark place.  This should keep them fresh for up to about 6 months.   

You can also go ahead and shell the nuts, and then freeze the nut meats in freezer bags.  Chopped nuts, and nut pieces will usually last about 6 months in the freezer as well.

Nuts such as walnuts, chestnuts, almonds, macadamias, and Brazil nuts, are rich in protein and healthy fats and provide not only a tasty treat for your bird, but some beak exercise as well.

So show your bird just how nutty you can be and stock up on the nuts while you can.