Kai: I have never been a fan of buying premade pet foods. We like to keep everyone’s diets clean in this household, yet pre-packaged organic products can be expensive. However, having a garden has made this a lot easier – as well as the “co-op” between animal and permaculture systems. Our hens eat greens and veggies from the garden, while our dog and cat benefit from their eggs! The chickens also receive feeder fish from our aquaculture, and worms from our earthworm farm. Our turtles also get fish, but the majority of their diet are the pests in the garden!

I do not buy parrot pellets for Jack and Gypsy, our parakeets, because so many parrot foods are artificial. Instead, they get fresh foods, and homemade birdy bread just for them, to which the ingredients are always changing so they never get stuck being picky. The base of the bread is puffed organic rice, which I then add whatever healthy, parrot-edible superfoods are available in the kitchen that day! Then I just freeze and use as needed.

My goldfish, both feeder, and fancy, eat hard-boiled egg, cruciferous vegetation from the garden, and insects. We still get a natural pellet for the pigeons, quail, and chickens, but they will eat portions of insect food, berries, and greens as well, namely, the wild-growing chickweed, sorrels, Spanish needles, and much more. Aside from keeping our animals healthier, this effort also keeps our own bodies from toxins as the aviary coop bedding can then composted back into the garden as fertilizer. Eating clean pays off!