Lovebirds and Cowpea Grass

Cowpea is a type of legume grown for its seeds. Also known as "black-eyed pea", cowpea is a plant commonly grown for its grain that is commonly cooked and eaten in various cultures. According to several historical records, cowpea (or also called vigna unguiculata) originates from Africa. These beans have been grown in the region for thousands of years. In short, since then, this plant has spread throughout the world. Until now, there are various varieties of cowpea with different characteristics, including those that are drought resistant, disease resistant, and adaptable to various climatic conditions.

In Indonesia, especially on the island of Java, this type of beans is quite easy to buy in traditional markets and supermarkets. Some people can also easily grow this type of beans at home. They usually process these beans to make a simple snack. Usually just fry it, or bake it in the oven, with a little seasoning. Several regions in Indonesia also process these beans to be cooked as a main menu dish. I myself almost never eat these beans, because I don't really like them and here they are usually processed into snacks by frying them, which makes them quite hard and difficult to chew with my old teeth.

Lovebirds can be given cowpea in appropriate portions as part of their diet. Cowpea is a good source of vegetable protein and also contains fiber and a number of other nutrients that are beneficial for bird health. You can boil them first, or just soak them for a few hours (usually two or three hours for me) so that the beans become soft and easy to split. Or you can make these beans in the form of microgreens, like in this video.

In this video, you can see the lovebirds are very enthusiastic about this cowpea grass. Usually the lovebirds at our place are like that, they are enthusiastic if there are lots of leaves with them. I'm not quite sure whether they can be called "eating" these leaves or "playing" with these leaves, maybe a combination of both. Hehehehe.. In this simple aviary there are several lovebirds that have started laying eggs, we hope they can still comfortably incubate after they haven't done that for a long time.

Видео Lovebirds and Cowpea Grass канала Video Kameraku