Amazons and chop vs big food

Boki

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Aug 7, 2018
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Marcy - double yellow Amazon
Mac - blue front Amazon
Loki - rosefront conure
I think I have a really good diet going with my 2 Amazons. 1/fresh veg and minor fruit in AM and 1/4 pellet and 1/4 healthy seed mix in evening (no sunflower seeds)

I have acquired a conure and now starting to mess with making chop. My Amazons love to chew on ears of corn, tear apart edamame pods, and truly shred the occasional chicken bone. But I want to expand diversity of veggies and fruits for the Amazons so I have been thinking about trying some chop because I think it would be healthier.

But I feel like the best part of eating for them to how they like to destroy their food as sort of like a foraging exercise. Will chop be too lame for them? I guess I can just try the chop and through it in the mix to keep the Amazons guessing what's for breakfast.

Thoughts?
 

charmedbyekkie

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May 24, 2018
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Cairo the Ekkie!
There's no reason why you can't have both!

Here's how I prepare chop: https://www.instagram.com/p/BrfLVVwBhkT/

The first photo is the final product, but the second photo is what I toss into the food processor. You can always..... feed three birds with one batch (bad, bad joke)?



But to more seriously answer your desire of going into chop for your Amazons:

Cairo gets his chop as meals and he gets whole veggies as foraging toys of sorts, so he gets a wide diet while also having fun tearing up his bok choy and bell peppers. For him, they are fun toys - not every day he gets them. But he does love his chop, throwing it around and digging through to find tiny bell pepper seeds.
 
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Anita1250

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Good luck with that. My 36 year old BFA will not touch chop. He just throws it out of the dish. He wants each veggie separate and prepared to his liking. Raw brussels sprouts, cooked peas, steamed corn on the cob, raw carrots etc. He feels the need to run the household! LOL
 

AmyMyBlueFront

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Amy a Blue Front 'Zon
Jonesy a Goffins 'Too who had to be rehomed :-(

And a Normal Grey Cockatiel named BB who came home with me on 5/20/2016.
I don't do chop with Amy...I make birdie muffins ( made about fourty on Sunday) and she loves them. He also loves to tear into a chicken bone and an ear of corn! :

Jim

D
 

ChristaNL

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just an idea...

Chop does not exist in the wild.
There they spend their entire eating-part-of-the-day (a huge chunk of their waking hours) tearing through everything and anything trying to fill their crops.
Even conures...
of course with a smaller beaksize not everything amazonian will be available to them ;)

(like I have to pre-crack any walnuts I give to my greys -- on humongous-treat-days only of course, but the macaw takes care of one herself)

Chop is just a way of trying to get the parrots to eat a bit of everything (which they usually object to -> hence the fouraging in a bowl full of perfectly good food).

I like to do both...chop one day, leafy greens dangling around the next, add a veggie/fruit-spear and they are busy...
 

MMARC234

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There's no reason why you can't have both!

Here's how I prepare chop: https://www.instagram.com/p/BrfLVVwBhkT/

The first photo is the final product, but the second photo is what I toss into the food processor. You can always..... feed three birds with one batch (bad, bad joke)?

Apparently your chop looks delicious to Leo because he stopped chewing on my bracelet as soon as he saw the carrots and tried to eat it through the screen! I guess I’ll take the hint lol
 

Kiwibird

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Jul 12, 2012
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1 BFA- Kiwi. Hatch circa 98', forever home with us Dec. 08'
I have not been feeding chop since my BFA got a kidney infection (how he contracted it remains unknown) and my CAV recommended against feeding him chop anymore. She says that whether you freeze or refrigerate it doesn't matter, but it is a breeding ground for all kinds of bacteria.

My amazon has just been getting a smaller selection daily of freshly chopped fruits or veggies (I feed fruit in the morning and veggies at night). Honestly though, if your birds love ripping up larger chunks of food, just give them large chunks of different food every day so they get their variety instead of the same big mix every day. It's actually a more natural way for them to eat if they'll accept larger bits of food and rip it up as they eat:)
 
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Boki

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Marcy - double yellow Amazon
Mac - blue front Amazon
Loki - rosefront conure
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Thanks you all. The photo of the chop looks great to me but I think my Amazons will think it is lame. I will go ahead and make the chop for my conure and let the big birds give me their opinion. I am not optimistic but it is worth giving it a try.

I will keep in mind the bacteria. I give my birds probiotics in the water a couple of times a week in hopes to head off that problem.
 

Birdmom12

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Parakeet named Blue. Adopted from a Humane Society 5 years ago.

Kirby Cockatiel adopted from a humane society 2018.

Also a slew of other small birds that span my entire childhood.
I've found some different chop recipes online here. How long do people keep there's before tossing? (Bowl and Fridge)
 
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Boki

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Marcy - double yellow Amazon
Mac - blue front Amazon
Loki - rosefront conure
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Birdmom12, I just read that people label their chop recipes for a 7 month expiration if they are frozen. They would put small baggies with 3/4 cup of chop inside a larger baggie that is labelled with contents and expiration date. The label of contents is to offer different kinds of chop to rotate. You allow one day to thaw the small baggie to thaw out.
 

ChristaNL

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Japie (m) & Appie (f), both are congo african grey;
All are rescues- had to leave their previous homes for 'reasons', are still in contact with them :)
I still think making-freezing-defrosting/keeping in the fridge is a recipe for trouble.

I understand people are very busy or just sooo used to eating frozen foods they cannot imagine making something fresh everyday, but this really is the best way to go!


Chop will stay okay..depends on the temperature all around and the circumstances.
In the summer I remove within a few hours, in the winter I leave it half a day easily. (Also depends on whats IN the chopmix of course .. some veggies stay hard and fresh tasting longer.)


I will eat leftover salad the next day, but not longer.
So I would never feed the birds anything (prechopped) older than that.
 

charmedbyekkie

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Cairo the Ekkie!
For our chop, I only make enough for 10-14 days (depending on his appetite). It's enough for me to get through a work week with some leeway if I'm too busy on the weekend. I freeze in small reusable boxes. Each 'in-use' box sits in the fridge for max 2 days. However, when I go overseas or if I know I'm likely to work late that week, I use disposable bags so my partner doesn't have to portion it out- he can just take it straight from the freezer.

That being said, certain things I add in only when I serve it to him - oats being one. Sometimes I'll add in a big chunk of a veggie or fruit (oftentimes this happens when I'm prepping dinner, then I'll save a big piece for him to tear into as he eats his chop).

I used to try to make his chop fresh every day or two, but I live in a country with non-Western work hours. It ultimately meant that my chop-prepping time took away from our playtime, so it's just easier and more worth it for us to freeze small batches at a time.
 

Anita1250

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We eat veggies and fruit every day, so whatever we have is what Sam gets. I will defrost frozen peas for him once in a while, but usually we have enough that sharing with him is the better way to go. That way, I know when it was prepared and that everything is fresh.
 

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