So What Do You Give a Crow For Breakfast?

crow's breakfast
A Breakfast Fit forRoyalty

We’ve had Merlina the hooded crow for over two years now and she seems quite happy in her voliera (aviary) which I made by enclosing part of an existing pergola with vines and adding an old gate I found under some overgrown bushes.

Like the story of Tantalus, the grapes on the vine are just out of reach on the other side of the wire. I always make sure she has a big bunch available though and that is just a small part of her daily diet.

She is not self sufficient, having only one wing and a gammy leg and so she relies on us for her food and entertainment. I have put twigs, sticks and cardboard plus a few beads and thngs in the aviary to keep her entertained and I find various ‘treasures’ hidden under her water dishes or actually in them on a regular basis.

By a bit of trial and error I have found a diet that seems to suit her and you can see a typical breakfast in the photo. When the builders spotted me carrying it to her cage last year they all laughed and said “antipasti!” because I suppose that’s what it looks like.

Every day she gets black insectivore vitamin pellets, salad, chicken liver, sunflower seeds, fruit, pine nuts and every other day or so a raw egg. She almost eats better than we do!