4 Great Rice Cookers for Birds (Helpful Tips To Keep Safe)
Birds are great pets to have around, the melodious chirping and all that. But they need to feed. Possibly, you wanted to feed them cooked rice. But with the prevalence of Teflon cookers, you wonder which are the best (and safest) rice cookers you can get for your birds.
The Zojirushi NS-ZCC18 Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker & Warmer, High-Fired VitaClay 2-in-1 Rice N Slow Cooker, CUCKOO 10-Cup (Uncooked) Pressure Rice Cooker, and the Aroma Housewares ARC-6206C Professional Digital Rice Cooker are some of the best and healthiest rice cookers you can get for your bird. While made entirely from non-toxic materials, these cookers are durable, versatile, easy to maintain, and enhanced with top-notch digital controls.
Before we dive fully into the best rice cookers for your bird, let us talk about why you commonly hear recommendations to steer clear of rice cookers with non-stick inner pots.
Why Non-Stick Rice Cookers Are Unhealthy For Your Bird?
It is not the best cooking experience when rice sticks to your pot. This explains why the bulk of contemporary rice cooker designs have their inside laced with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).
PTFE – more readily known as Teflon – is non-sticky, has enhanced heat distribution, and makes washing your rice cooker easier.
However, at higher temperatures, Teflon is converted into toxic Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). Rice cooked under these conditions can harm your bird.
The propensity of Teflon to be scratched is another reason why you should avoid non-stick rice cookers for your bird.
When your non-sticky bird rice cooker gets scratched, aluminum is highly likely to be leached into the rice you are preparing for your bird.
Excessive aluminum can lead to poisoning in your bird.
How Can You Tell If Your Rice Cooker Is Bad For Your Bird?
Birds – just like humans – have a heightened vulnerability to heavy metals. Exposure to heavy metals poisons your bird.
Iron, zinc, and lead are the three most prevalent heavy metals that poison birds. While aluminum is not the most dangerous heavy metal, sustained ingestion of aluminum – consequent to such Teflon leaches in your bird rice cooker – can poison your bird.
You can know your rice cooker is bad for your bird if you notice your bird suffering from symptoms of heavy metal poisoning like weakness, water regurgitation, tremors, seizures, and inability to stay composed.
What Are The Best Rice Cookers For Birds?
Alright, now that we have shown the unhealthiness of non-stick rice cookers for your bird, you may be curious about which healthy alternatives you can resort to.
Aside from Teflon bird rice cookers, you have various options like stainless steel bird rice cookers or others made from ceramic or clay.
Note that each of these materials comes with varying strengths. For example, some bird owners prefer stainless steel rice cookers because they are easier to wash.
Others prefer using clay cookers in preparing rice for their birds because such cookers supposedly improve the rice texture.
That said. We did a thorough investigation of the market to find the best rice cookers you can get for your bird meals. Here are our findings.
High-Fired VitaClay 2-in-1 Rice N Slow Cooker
VitaClay optimized this rice cooker for that bird owner who loves convenience and versatility. Made from unglazed clay (with impressive semi-porosity), you will find this cooker produces rice with improved flavor and texture.
This can be attributed to this rice cooker’s capacity to retain more moisture when the rice is cooked. This cooker is versatile and works well for your bird’s brown and white rice, even for preparing stews and soups.
The timer setting is another feature we appreciate about this rice cooker. VitaClay girded this cooker with a programmable cooking range that stretches from 30mins to 12 hours.
You can incrementally raise the timer setting by 30 minutes, meaning a broader range of cooking options.
To enable get the best of your steaming, this cooker is equipped with a clay double-lid feature that enhances the pressure.
Your rice, therefore, tastes better and feels more tender when you slow-cook it with this cooker.
Your bird will love it!
CUCKOO 10-Cup (Uncooked) Pressure Rice Cooker
This Cuckoo cooker’s unique pressure technology (of the heating plate) ensures your rice comes out better with superior cooking times.
It has a non-toxic inner pot that is equally furnished against scratches. Its design – particularly how its body shape is streamlined – improves the way heat is distributed across the cooker when cooking your rice.
Courtesy of its 12-menu option, you can cook just any rice for your bird with this cooker, cutting across white, brown, mixed rice, or even Gaba rice.
If you have a large flock of birds you train or rear, then you would also appreciate this cooker’s 10-cup capacity. This provides adequate servings for your birds in one cooking.
Zojirushi NS-ZCC18 Neuro Fuzzy Rice Cooker & Warmer
This is a programmable rice cooker fitted with cutting-edge fuzzy-logic technologies. This facility ensures the cooker can intelligently (and autonomously) optimize the heating time and temperature to cook the best rice for your bird.
Essentially, this cooker is fitted with a non-stick pan whose spherical shape allows your rice to be more appropriately cooked. A rounded base closes off this inner pot, significantly simplifying cleaning and serving your cooked rice.
It is also versatile, presenting multi-menu options, cutting across reheat, extended keep-warm, and automatic keep-warm cycles.
We also love the retractable cord design. To give you more control over what you are cooking for your bird, this cooker is supplied with a rice paddle holder (double-sided).
The handles on both sides of the rice cooker have a good grip as well.
Aroma Housewares ARC-6206C Professional Digital Rice Cooker
This is one of the finest rice cookers on our list – and for a good reason. Our admiration for this rice cooker starts from the inner pot.
It is made from ceramic, meaning you can cook your bird’s rice without worrying about the toxic non-stick coating. Being ceramic, it is easier to the rice, with a lesser risk of scratching.
We can’t ignore this Aroma digital rice cooker’s cool touch technology. With this technology, you can handle the cooker just anytime in the cooking process without risking being burnt.
Versatility is another thing we like about this cooker. While it works excellently for cooking your bird’s rice, it can also cook soup and steam veggies.
If you want to give your bird some treats, you are in luck with this cooker. Decked with 12-menu cooking options, you can prepare pomegranate, cantaloupe, or grated mozzarella cheese for your bird!
Safe Ways To Prepare Rice For Birds With A Cooker
There is this underlying fear that cooked rice is not good for birds. This is untrue.
If properly cooked, your bird enjoys a meal of cooked rice, especially soft pre-cooked rice. When serving your bird-cooked rice, make sure to avoid unseasoned and unsalted rice.
Seasonings, sugar, and preservatives are not healthy for your bird, especially when consumed in significant amounts.
Once you have got the right rice, you can get it into your rice cooker. You can choose between steaming or boiling the rice.
As we said, don’t season or salt the rice. Also, given how poorly birds cope with oil, it is unadvised to fry the rice.
Set your rice cooker to your preferred timing and ensures the rice comes out in the right texture.
Once your rice is cooked, you can further enhance it with seeds and healthy fruits (preferably in a chopped form).