How long do veggies last in the cage?

I leave fresh veggies in my bird's cage before I go to work. I come back 9 hours later. Is this bad in terms of bacteria? My vet thinks so but I've come across many posts here that say it's okay.

I don't leave fruits when I go to work because I think they go bad faster. I just thought veggies last longer. Any input is appreciated.

Wow! Somebody (your vet) who's even more conservative than I (the Queen of Paranoia) am...
I have left veggies out, for the Rb, while I went to work, for 30 years!

Let's see what everybody thinks.

I leave them for the day. I use stainless steel bowls as I am sure most do. I also give him berries a couple times a day 4 cranberries in the a.m. 4 blue berries in the p.m. These are frozen and keep it cool for extra time. I pull the veggie fruit bowl at bed time. There have been occasions it does not look good mid day I toss it but usually good fresh veggies hold up.

Yeah, stuff like broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, kale, etc. are pretty durable.

My vet and local bird store recommend not leaving fresh food in the cage more than 2 hours. I used to leave it in all day when I went to work. Now I give the fresh food for about an hour before I leave for work. Then I stick that bowl in the fridge and give pellets while I am gone. When I come home from work in the evening I bring the fresh food bowl out from the fridge and put it back in Fuji’s cage until bedtime.

You've got about a two hour window before it could start developing bacteria. Most likely you could leave it out all day and it would be perfectly fine, but there is still that tiny little chance which is why the vets say not to do it. Especially if it's left out in a warm climate.

I only know that from working in restaurants, not raising birds. You'll get in trouble if the health department comes and finds a box of cauliflower sitting out lol.

Temperature and humidity are important criteria. I live in a temperate climate and have fresh food available between 5 and 8 hours or so.

Someone needs to invent a bowl that keeps food cool throughout the day.


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Inger said:

Someone needs to invent a bowl that keeps food cool throughout the day.

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That is not really a problem (cooler plate etc.) but....cold veggies are also not very good for birds...
(or so I have been told)
from one dilemma straight into the next one

Superbird said:

I leave fresh veggies in my bird's cage before I go to work. I come back 9 hours later. Is this bad in terms of bacteria? My vet thinks so but I've come across many posts here that say it's okay.

I don't leave fruits when I go to work because I think they go bad faster. I just thought veggies last longer. Any input is appreciated.

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It depends on the fruit. Apples, grapes, pears, figs, blueberries are okay. Mangoes & papayas should be fine if you give it a firm piece of each. Watermelon and cantaloupe go rather soft. You might wait on those two but, leaving them all day long - for 9 hours with no fruit is rather awful for them. Give them a couple of seedless grapes at least and one other choice would also be nice until you get home.

Okay, lets get about as technical/scientific as I'll get on Saturday morning...Any and all fresh veggies or fruit that are cut/pulled and no longer growing start growing bacteria, fungi, mold, etc. pretty much immediately. Obviously keeping them frozen stops this, keeping them cool slows it considerably...So yes, it's true, as soon as you put any fresh veggie or fruit in your bird's bowl it starts growing bacteria and other microbes...The question is how long can you leave them in the bowl before this becomes potentially dangerous to eat? Everything we eat has bacteria, fungi, mold-spores, etc. all over it, sorry, but it's true, as soon as you pull something you just cooked out of the oven or off the stove and put it on your plate, the bacteria are multiplying on it as you're eating it...sorry, but it's true...and plants are the worst for growing bacteria, fungi, and mold, way worse than meat. Does this make us sick or kill us? Nope. Your bird's pellets, seeds, nuts, etc. that are sitting in it's bowls all day are growing microbes all day long from the moment you put them in the bowl...Does it make your bird sick? Nope...Why? Combination of the immune system, the body's natural defense mechanisms that protect against microbes that are ingested, for example the HCL in the stomach...And then there's the fact that not some microbes aren't harmful, some are only harmful in higher quantities, some are only harmful under certain conditions, etc.

So what's the answer to the question asked? Leaving fresh veggies or fruit in your bird's bowl all day while you're at work is perfectly fine, assuming that it was in the freezer or fridge when you got it out in the morning, and that you empty the bowl and wash it soon after you get home...Let's be honest here, you could leave those veggies/fruit in your bird's bowl for a week, and the veggies/fruit itself wouldn't hurt your bird (DON'T DO THIS, I'M NOT SUGGESTING THAT YOU DO THIS, LOL, IT'S JUST A POINT I'M MAKING!) Now after a week it's going to attract all kinds of bugs, rodents, etc., and cause other issues, but if your bird just ate the fruit or veggie itself after sitting out for a week it would most-likely not hurt him at all, and if it did happen to have some "harmful" microbes on it, at worst they'd get some GI distress...

****Something that can help this situation, if you're worried about this, is the type of bowl your bird has...Plastic bowls are far more-likely to grow bacteria, fungi, mold, etc. than the REAL stainless-steel bowls. So it's highly suggested that you always use only stainless-steel bowls for all of your bird's food and water...


****Just for entertainment's sake, during my senior-year of undergrad college I had an Medical Microbiology class (loved that class, one of my favorites ever). We did this "experiment", to prove a point to us, and whenever I tell this story no one ever believes me, not one bit, but it's completely true and you can replicate it and see for yourselves if you don't believe me...

My professor came in on a Monday morning in September, just after the semester had started (outside temperature still in the 90's+), and he had a cooler with him. He had stopped at the grocery store that morning before class and purchased different food items that were just put-out by the grocery store right before he bought them, and he immediately put them in a cooler with ice packs he had in his car, and brought them right in to class at 10:00 a.m. He had pound of ground beef, a package of raw pork-chops, a bag of "Spring Mix" salad-greens, and a fresh, whole apple...He set papertowels out on the windowsills, all on the same side of the room/building, all got the same sunlight. Then he opened-up each food package and set each one out on the papertowels, the ground beef, the pork chop, the bagged salad (dumped out), and the apple. All unwrapped, open to the air, etc. Then we just left them all sit-out for exactly one week, and all were pretty-much being heated by the sun, as it's extremely hot in central PA during September...

After a week he put each food item under the microscope he had connected to the big projector/TV so that we could all see them under the microscope...Let me tell you, I've never seen anything like I saw on that bagged salad, it was unbelievable...There were too many different types of bacteria, fungi, mold, and insect larva all over that salad to even discern what was what without doing dilutions and such...And just a note, he had not rinsed the bagged salad, just opened the bag up and dumped it out...The ground beef and the pork chop were both "rotting" and covered with bacteria, but not anything like the salad, not even close, nor anything like the apple...an apple. With the skin on it, just sitting on a windowsill in the sunlight, was absolutely coated, just like the salad mix...but the raw, rotting meat wasn't covered with even a quarter of either the quantity of microbes, nor the number of different types/strains of microbes that both the apple and the salad mix were..

Think you always rinse bagged-salads and fresh fruit before you eat them? I've not eaten a piece of fruit without washing it since that experiment...I'd much rather eat a big hunk of raw meat that's been sitting out in the sun than eat a piece of fruit or a pre-packaged salad that hasn't been washed....And I'd feel much safer about doing so.

GaleriaGila said:

I have left veggies out, for the Rb, while I went to work, for 30 years!.

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That's a really tough shift you have to work