My bird chop process

[hiriki]

I have hardwood floors too, but I use a little hand vacuum with a hose attachment. I vacuum and wipe down all main surfaces in the bird room daily as I have a family member with allergies. That makes it sound like the bird room should be pretty spotless, right? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heaved a sigh as JJ leans over the edge of the bed shelling seeds onto the floor right after I vacuumed, while he watches me cleaning. “Birds“and “ clean “ just don’t go together, lol!

My favorite is that my jenday, Birdie, WAITS to poop in the morning. She saves up her morning poop for when I open the cage and then if I don't immediately bring her to the trash can to tell her to poop she just unloads it on the carpet.

I appreciate you wanting to keep your room clean, Birdie, but what about my room???

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

My favorite is that my jenday, Birdie, WAITS to poop in the morning. She saves up her morning poop for when I open the cage and then if I don't immediately bring her to the trash can to tell her to poop she just unloads it on the carpet.

I appreciate you wanting to keep your room clean, Birdie, but what about my room???

My conure, Sierra, does this too

Funnily enough, my conures cages are the cleanest ones I have so maybe they do hate the mess in their own space? Mine won't even shred toys in their cage, but the wooden furniture in my room is fine for them

 

[TulsiBlueVana]

My favorite is that my jenday, Birdie, WAITS to poop in the morning. She saves up her morning poop for when I open the cage and then if I don't immediately bring her to the trash can to tell her to poop she just unloads it on the carpet.

I appreciate you wanting to keep your room clean, Birdie, but what about my room???

Well I’m glad to hear this (sort of? Lol) because I swear my Tulsi doesn’t poop in her house anymore - she waits for me to bring her out and poops on the floor (tile) and I have been saying “poop poop” so maybe I can take her to the trash can or bring the can over to her perch, let her poop and move on lol Her house is very clean because she rarely poops in it at this point, minus the food mess 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

 

[TulsiBlueVana]

Hey guys!! So, I know that giving our fids a healthy diet can be difficult... especially when we struggle with burnout and mental health, or if you're like me, my diet is garbage, so it's a struggle making sure my pets are eating better than I do 😱

I think I've come up with a pretty good process, so I wanted to share!

It starts with... frozen mixed veggies! I have a large tupperware that I empty bags of mixed veggies into. Generally I get the mixes with corn, peas, carrots, and green beans. This makes up about 1/2 of my birds daily veggie intake, and the best part is that it takes no prep. So, if I run out of prepared chop, I always have mixed veggies to fall back on.

What my birds get REALLY excited for though is... the chop! I make it in bulk once every 3 weeks or so. Every batch has:
1) 1 full package of baby spinach
2) 1 bag of broccoli florets and cauliflower
3) 1 bag of baby carrots
4) 1 cup brown rice (measured uncooked, then prepared in a rice cooker)
And then I'll mix in other veggies depending on the season and what I find at the store that looks good. Right now it's pie pumpkin season and OH do they love it! I put 1 pie pumpkin in the mix, 1 yellow squash, 1 apple, and 1 peach. When it's not pumpkin season, I like using sweet potato. I usually don't even cook it--I peel it and then process it raw. They seem to like it just as much raw as cooked!

I use a food processor and focus on veggies that are on the dry side, because I find lower liquid content makes for better freezing. It's important to dry each veggie after washing because a little bit of water in the food processor turns what would be veggie bits into a veggie paste instead. If the ingredients are dry, everything is processed to tiny tiny bits and stirred together, then the rice is added.

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After processing I portion it all in an ice cube tray. I put 3 frozen pomegranate seeds on each cube as a little treat hehe.

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I actually found that it was kind of hard to find ice cube trays that were a good size, and for my flock (on the small/medium side), I found this: https://www.target.com/p/ice-cube-tray-brightroom-8482/-/A-79607092#lnk=sametab

It's the perfect size for individual portions AND the bottom of each individual cube is silicone so you can just pop the cubes out. I used to have to scrape each portion out of the tray with a butter knife and it was messy and annoying!

The mixed veggies in their tupperware and the chop in ice cube trays all goes into the freezer. I thaw them only as needed--it stays fresh much longer that way!

That brings me to my daily prep. Every night before bed I grab bowls. I put 3 spoonfuls of mixed veggies in each bowl first, then 1 cube of chop. I put the bowls of frozen portions in the fridge to thaw overnight. Then, when I wake up in the morning I put 1 spoonful of rolled oats on top for heart health, and that's breakfast!

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I hope this inspires someone to add chop to their daily routine. I'm no stranger to burnout and depression... I've found that the only way to guarantee a high baseline of care for my pets is to make routines and limit the amount of daily work I need to do. Making a full batch of chop takes at least an hour of chopping and processing and cleaning but I don't have to do it often at all!

Thanks for the inspiration!! I made this today. It’s so much but I’m glad to know I can freeze it. I’m going out of town next month so this will help my husband knowing what to give her and how much.

 

[hiriki]

View attachment 55313Thanks for the inspiration!! I made this today. It’s so much but I’m glad to know I can freeze it. I’m going out of town next month so this will help my husband knowing what to give her and how much.

!!!

Looks delicious! I'm definitely curious to hear how it goes. Have you given your birds a sample yet?

 

[TulsiBlueVana]

!!!

Looks delicious! I'm definitely curious to hear how it goes. Have you given your birds a sample yet?

Thanks! I have; this is basically what I’ve been giving her every day for the last three weeks that we’ve had her. I just made a gigantic batch of it to freeze.

 

[hiriki]

Thanks! I have; this is basically what I’ve been giving her every day for the last three weeks that we’ve had her. I just made a gigantic batch of it to freeze.

Ohh! That's perfect!

Let me know how it thaws. I saw several other users say they've dealt with some mush before when thawing... I poked and prodded my thawed chop today to see if it was maybe mushier than I realized but it really seemed to thaw nicely in my case. Hopefully yours thaws well too, and if not you can follow the other tips in this thread when serving.

 

[TulsiBlueVana]

Ohh! That's perfect!

Let me know how it thaws. I saw several other users say they've dealt with some much before when thawing... I poked and prodded my thawed chop today to see if it was maybe mushier than I realized but it really seemed to thaw nicely in my case. Hopefully yours thaws well too, and if not you can follow the other tips in this thread when serving..

I'll keep you posted

 

[TulsiBlueVana]

Great news- the chop I made and froze did not thaw into a mushy, watery mess at all! I'm so glad

 

[hiriki]

Yayyyy! Welcome to the easy and convenient world of frozen chop!

 

[onamom]

Do you bake the pie pumpkin? I'm debating if I should offer is raw and chopped or baked? I think Ona will probably like baked better.

I often bake pie pumpkins for my dogs too!

 

[hiriki]

Do you bake the pie pumpkin? I'm debating if I should offer is raw and chopped or baked? I think Ona will probably like baked better.

I often bake pie pumpkins for my dogs too!

I don't personally! I serve it raw! Like most veggies it has the most nutrients and vitamins before you apply heat to it.

If you feed it in large chunks then idk, obviously it's very firm and crunchy served raw. Your birds might like the texture better if it's baked and soft. But in a chop, the pieces are so tiny that I don't think they really care or notice.

I have a vague recollection of once just cutting the top off of a pie pumpkin and maybe gutting it, then giving the entire pumpkin to my flock. They liked destroying it almost as much as they liked eating it. I don't remember if I gutted it first, I think maybe raw pumpkin seeds are dangerous so I'm pretty sure I did but this is all a very hazy memory lol

 

[TulsiBlueVana]

Do you bake the pie pumpkin? I'm debating if I should offer is raw and chopped or baked? I think Ona will probably like baked better.

I often bake pie pumpkins for my dogs too!

You could try it both ways? I have a small pumpkin so I think I'll cook part of it today and try that and also raw. The dogs will eat what Tulsi may not if it's cooked.

 

[wrench13]

We make enough chop to last several months! 3 servings in quart size zip lock freezer baggie. The trick to not getting mush chop is to really dry the individual veggie after it has been thru the food processor. I let each drain in the sink in a wire mesh strainer for a few minutes before adding to the big mixing bowl, and I also stuff a big wad of paper towel under the mound of chopped veggies in the bowl. We just bash the baggie a bit with a chicken hammer to break it up and portion it out. 35 seconds or so in the microwave ( til its no more then 105deg F) and then I crumble up a few Nutraberries to dry it even more.

As far as using mixed veggie packs for the base line for chop, for me it has too much corn, which is a high sugar veggie and I know Salty gets too amped up if he has much corn. You can check my Salty thread for different recipes I use, I usually document the contents for each batch. Link is below.

 

[TulsiBlueVana]

We make enough chop to last several months! 3 servings in quart size zip lock freezer baggie. The trick to not getting mush chop is to really dry the individual veggie after it has been thru the food processor. I let each drain in the sink in a wire mesh strainer for a few minutes before adding to the big mixing bowl, and I also stuff a big wad of paper towel under the mound of chopped veggies in the bowl. We just bash the baggie a bit with a chicken hammer to break it up and portion it out. 35 seconds or so in the microwave ( til its no more then 105deg F) and then I crumble up a few Nutraberries to dry it even more.

As far as using mixed veggie packs for the base line for chop, for me it has too much corn, which is a high sugar veggie and I know Salty gets too amped up if he has much corn. You can check my Salty thread for different recipes I use, I usually document the contents for each batch. Link is below.

Hi Wrench13- can you share a link to the recipe thread because I'm not sure how/where to find it even when you wrote "link is below." I'm so sorry...