My bird chop process

[hiriki]

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.

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.

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!

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!

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

I love this!! I used to get so burnt out preparing fresh chop everyday and so my birds didn't have the best diet for a while. Then for christmas I asked for a proper food blender and it was a game changer. Now I have a very simple routine and it looks similar to what you do! I also make good use of frozen veggies and use them as a base and then add in some other ingredients that I have to hand and it works really well!

You said that you have routines and limit the amount of daily work you have to do for your birds, do you have any more tips? I work a full time and a part time job and can be fairly busy at times with social stuff so I'm always looking for ways to make looking after my birds easier and less time consuming.

 

[Vampiric_Conure]

Dang that chop looks delicious!

 

[DonnaBudgie]

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.

View attachment 55265

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.

View attachment 55264

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!

View attachment 55266

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!

Looks delicious! I tried using icecube trays for portioning but my freezer is to small and packed with food to store the trays. Instead I use very small ziplock baggies. I put about three days worth of chop in each baggie and store in the freezer. I take one out to thaw every few days and keep it in the fridge.

 

[hiriki]

I love this!! I used to get so burnt out preparing fresh chop everyday and so my birds didn't have the best diet for a while. Then for christmas I asked for a proper food blender and it was a game changer. Now I have a very simple routine and it looks similar to what you do! I also make good use of frozen veggies and use them as a base and then add in some other ingredients that I have to hand and it works really well!

You said that you have routines and limit the amount of daily work you have to do for your birds, do you have any more tips? I work a full time and a part time job and can be fairly busy at times with social stuff so I'm always looking for ways to make looking after my birds easier and less time consuming.

Well--when I moved into my current house I was very deliberate about setting it up to make things easy. I live in a basement apartment on a separate floor from the kitchen. As a result, my bathroom sink has a shelf with dish detergent and one of those sponge sticks, and a brita tap filter screwed onto the faucet. I do all of my bird dishes in the bathroom. My bathroom is around the corner from cages. Also, I have a mini fridge with a freezer dedicated to my birds so that freezer space will never be an issue (altho I make so much chop that two or three trays usually get quietly stowed in the people freezer haha). That mini fridge is a few steps away from the birds. I strategize so that no bird job ever requires me to take the stairs to complete it because on a good day it wouldn't bother me but if Im depressed that can be all it takes to keep me from doing it at all.

Other than my chop process, my primary other strategy might or might not help for you. I've always struggled with mornings. I tend to wake up very last second or sometimes like five minutes after last second (lol).

For this reason, I don't cover cages. I use a curtain around the cages. This way if I don't uncover cages right away in the morning, they aren't in total darkness. They even have a window with natural light.

Additionally, I do my cage cleaning and water dish scrubbing at night before bed, not in the morning. This has probably made the biggest difference. The only job I have to do in the morning is bird chop and it isn't the end of the world if they end up eating their bird chop in the afternoon instead of for breakfast.

I hope those tips help you although if you're a morning person they're probably not going to haha. Im blessed to work from home, but when I did work from an office, it was very difficult to try to jam bird chores in before my commute.

Edit: Also, I just wanted to add one thing as I was thinking about it. I kind of compartmentalize my bird tasks. When I'm feeling fine, I do everything, but when I'm depressed I have my list of "MUST dos" and "when you get around to its." I scrub water dishes every night without fail. It's important to me that my birds have fresh water to drink and bathe in, so I won't use reservoir style tubes, only stainless steel bowls, but they have to be scrubbed nightly. In my experience, it's easy to glance at the cages and be immediately overwhelmed, and then just crawl into bed to avoid it. When I've dealt with depression before, there were times when I couldn't convince myself to do anything for like three days! That's why at this point, I categorize each task by level of importance. Water must be done every day. Pellets need to be sifted and topped off frequently, but the world won't end if I miss a day. And cage liners I aim to change every other day but that's at the bottom of my list of importance because it's the biggest pain in the butt of all of the bird tasks and most likely to discourage me from doing chores, so if I don't have the energy to change liners I don't force myself.

 

[hiriki]

Looks delicious! I tried using icecube trays for portioning but my freezer is too small and packed with food to store the trays. Instead I use very small ziplock baggies. I put about three days worth of chop in each baggie and store in the freezer. I take one out to thaw every few days and keep it in the fridge.

I tried ziplock baggies for a while! For a while I was mixing in larger ingredients that didn't fit in the tray very well, like whole grain pasta and cooked beans, so the baggies worked better for that.

My birds don't seem to care for large pieces so I switched back, but I definitely think it worked out well while I was doing it!

 

[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.

View attachment 55265

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.

View attachment 55264

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!

View attachment 55266

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!

Do you find the thawing out causing anything to get soggy or mushy at all?

 

[hiriki]

Do you find the thawing out causing anything to get soggy or mushy at all?

Not for the veggies I use. I find that as long as I pick veggies that are low moisture, freezing doesn't tend to negatively impact their taste or texture.

I have occasionally experimented with adding softer fruits like bananas or mangoes, which tend to process into a very wet paste rather than fine pieces, and if I use too much ingredients like that it definitely makes the cubes thaw weird. There will be a puddle of moisture at the bottom of the bowl that then gets soaked into the oats... 🤢

Just this last time I thought to add a bell pepper and ended up throwing away the pepper after putting it through the food processor because it was WAY too wet. So it's just a matter of picking the right veggies. Next time I think I might add some dried peppers or paprika for a bit of spice because I know birds like that but I definitely won't try fresh peppers again.

 

[onamom]

Your chop looks great! Thanks for sharing these great tips. I love the amount of variety you have and it is inspiring.

I’m going to try putting some rolled oats in Ona’s breakfast tomorrow. She always tries to steal my oatmeal so I bet she’d love that. I’ll also have to try giving her pumpkin and sweet potato- haven’t done that yet!

 

[hiriki]

Thank you!!! If Ona enjoys the oats, be sure to tell her that hiriki from the bird forums suggested it 😂

(If she ignores them then it absolutely was not my idea )

The pumpkin is always a SMASH HIT with my flock. I'm sure Ona would love it!!!

The sweet potato I see thrown around as an ingredient in suggested chop recipes very often, but it seems most people microwave or boil it before putting it in their chop. It's safe to eat raw, in fact heating it burns off nutrients, and I swear my birds love it as much raw as cooked.

 

[onamom]

Thank you!!! If Ona enjoys the oats, be sure to tell her that hiriki from the bird forums suggested it 😂

(If she ignores them then it absolutely was not my idea )

The pumpkin is always a SMASH HIT with my flock. I'm sure Ona would love it!!!

The sweet potato I see thrown around as an ingredient in suggested chop recipes very often, but it seems most people microwave or boil it before putting it in their chop. It's safe to eat raw, in fact heating it burns off nutrients, and I swear my birds love it as much raw as cooked.

Haha sounds good!

Do you leave the skin on the sweet potatoes or peel it?

 

[hiriki]

Haha sounds good!

Do you leave the skin on the sweet potatoes or peel it?

I think it really depends on how gross they are from the store lol. I definitely will sometimes peel the skin off if there's a lot of dirt and scrubbing it doesn't seem to be helping... but, I read online once that there's a lot of vitamins in sweet potato skin. Like, don't quote me on that, I don't remember what vitamins or where I read that haha, but yea if I'm satisfied with how clean it looks after a good scrub I'll leave the skin on.

Uncooked sweet potato is pretty firm and woody so it's probably best for food processed chop like mine, not so good for chop with bigger chunks of food.

 

[DonnaBudgie]

Not for the veggies I use. I find that as long as I pick veggies that are low moisture, freezing doesn't tend to negatively impact their taste or texture.

I have occasionally experimented with adding softer fruits like bananas or mangoes, which tend to process into a very wet paste rather than fine pieces, and if I use too much ingredients like that it definitely makes the cubes thaw weird. There will be a puddle of moisture at the bottom of the bowl that then gets soaked into the oats... 🤢

Just this last time I thought to add a bell pepper and ended up throwing away the pepper after putting it through the food processor because it was WAY too wet. So it's just a matter of picking the right veggies. Next time I think I might add some dried peppers or paprika for a bit of spice because I know birds like that but I definitely won't try fresh peppers again.

Before I serve frozen chop I put the portion in a wire kitchen strainer and rinse it under warm water and let it drain to remove any "mush".

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

Do you find the thawing out causing anything to get soggy or mushy at all?

I freeze my birds chop and it can get a bit mushy and soggy once it thaws. I work around this by mixing it with their pellets/ mash. I found this to be a good way to get them to eat the chop too, especially cockatiels and budgies. Oats work as well but I like to make sure they've eaten their pellets so I only give them oats sometimes.

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

Not for the veggies I use. I find that as long as I pick veggies that are low moisture, freezing doesn't tend to negatively impact their taste or texture.

I have occasionally experimented with adding softer fruits like bananas or mangoes, which tend to process into a very wet paste rather than fine pieces, and if I use too much ingredients like that it definitely makes the cubes thaw weird. There will be a puddle of moisture at the bottom of the bowl that then gets soaked into the oats... 🤢

Just this last time I thought to add a bell pepper and ended up throwing away the pepper after putting it through the food processor because it was WAY too wet. So it's just a matter of picking the right veggies. Next time I think I might add some dried peppers or paprika for a bit of spice because I know birds like that but I definitely won't try fresh peppers again.

I avoid bell peppers for the same reason. I find mine really like the core of peppers though, with the seeds still attached. I often save the cores from my own cooking and give them one when I give them the rest of their food. My conures especially love it.

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

Well--when I moved into my current house I was very deliberate about setting it up to make things easy. I live in a basement apartment on a separate floor from the kitchen. As a result, my bathroom sink has a shelf with dish detergent and one of those sponge sticks, and a brita tap filter screwed onto the faucet. I do all of my bird dishes in the bathroom. My bathroom is around the corner from cages. Also, I have a mini fridge with a freezer dedicated to my birds so that freezer space will never be an issue (altho I make so much chop that two or three trays usually get quietly stowed in the people freezer haha). That mini fridge is a few steps away from the birds. I strategize so that no bird job ever requires me to take the stairs to complete it because on a good day it wouldn't bother me but if Im depressed that can be all it takes to keep me from doing it at all.

Other than my chop process, my primary other strategy might or might not help for you. I've always struggled with mornings. I tend to wake up very last second or sometimes like five minutes after last second (lol).

For this reason, I don't cover cages. I use a curtain around the cages. This way if I don't uncover cages right away in the morning, they aren't in total darkness. They even have a window with natural light.

Additionally, I do my cage cleaning and water dish scrubbing at night before bed, not in the morning. This has probably made the biggest difference. The only job I have to do in the morning is bird chop and it isn't the end of the world if they end up eating their bird chop in the afternoon instead of for breakfast.

I hope those tips help you although if you're a morning person they're probably not going to haha. Im blessed to work from home, but when I did work from an office, it was very difficult to try to jam bird chores in before my commute.

Edit: Also, I just wanted to add one thing as I was thinking about it. I kind of compartmentalize my bird tasks. When I'm feeling fine, I do everything, but when I'm depressed I have my list of "MUST dos" and "when you get around to its." I scrub water dishes every night without fail. It's important to me that my birds have fresh water to drink and bathe in, so I won't use reservoir style tubes, only stainless steel bowls, but they have to be scrubbed nightly. In my experience, it's easy to glance at the cages and be immediately overwhelmed, and then just crawl into bed to avoid it. When I've dealt with depression before, there were times when I couldn't convince myself to do anything for like three days! That's why at this point, I categorize each task by level of importance. Water must be done every day. Pellets need to be sifted and topped off frequently, but the world won't end if I miss a day. And cage liners I aim to change every other day but that's at the bottom of my list of importance because it's the biggest pain in the butt of all of the bird tasks and most likely to discourage me from doing chores, so if I don't have the energy to change liners I don't force myself.

Ahh thank you! I think I'm pretty much in the same place as you then. Even when I'm really sick the birds always get fresh water, fresh food, time out of the cage etc. I wish I could find a way to manage the mess as that's what I struggle the most with

Feathers, dust and bits of food everywhere are a pain. And that's if they stay in the cage! When they're out of the cage pooping everywhere and chewing things up that's where I start to struggle!

 

[hiriki]

Ahh thank you! I think I'm pretty much in the same place as you then. Even when I'm really sick the birds always get fresh water, fresh food, time out of the cage etc. I wish I could find a way to manage the mess as that's what I struggle the most with

Feathers, dust and bits of food everywhere are a pain. And that's if they stay in the cage! When they're out of the cage pooping everywhere and chewing things up that's where I start to struggle!

I just recently discovered that a twin size sheet is the perfect size to wrap around the back of my cages....... this is a game changer for me because my lovebird has projectile poops. They're a bioweapon and they get everywhere!!

But the corn husks discarded on my carpet, and seeds, and pellets, and poops, that's an ongoing struggle. I suggested putting down a plastic cover and my wife pointed out that sweeping it would be just as much effort as vacuuming. And my doves have crazy molts--they molt ALL of their down feathers, which are weirdly STICKY. Idk why! But the stem of the feather just sticks to everything, cage bars, walls, augh.

The only solution to that, I've found, is wearing my blinders until I can work up the courage to deep clean, and then I spent five hours in one day dismantling the cages and scrubbing them. Lol.

 

[Greenhouseparrots]

I just recently discovered that a twin size sheet is the perfect size to wrap around the back of my cages....... this is a game changer for me because my lovebird has projectile poops. They're a bioweapon and they get everywhere!!

But the corn husks discarded on my carpet, and seeds, and pellets, and poops, that's an ongoing struggle. I suggested putting down a plastic cover and my wife pointed out that sweeping it would be just as much effort as vacuuming. And my doves have crazy molts--they molt ALL of their down feathers, which are weirdly STICKY. Idk why! But the stem of the feather just sticks to everything, cage bars, walls, augh.

The only solution to that, I've found, is wearing my blinders until I can work up the courage to deep clean, and then I spent five hours in one day dismantling the cages and scrubbing them. Lol.

I use a massive tablecloth down the back of my cages in the same way you use the sheet

I have a wooden floor so it's easy enough to sweep (multiple times a day), I think I'm just a bit tired of always having to do it! I think I may need to make peace with the fact that I'll be cleaning for as long as I have the birds. They're worth it though

 

[hiriki]

I use a massive tablecloth down the back of my cages in the same way you use the sheet

I have a wooden floor so it's easy enough to sweep (multiple times a day), I think I'm just a bit tired of always having to do it! I think I may need to make peace with the fact that I'll be cleaning for as long as I have the birds. They're worth it though

Honestly, I've considered hiring someone to replace the floor in JUST the bird corner. I'm in a basement like I mentioned, so I think my options are kind of limited since underneath the carpet is just concrete. I know I could do tile though and I've considered it, like it would be very easy to replace just the floor underneath the cages because of my weird floor plan. The "pros" would be that I could sweep, instead of plugging in the hefty vacuum, and that I could mop bird poops, which really are stubborn to get out of carpets.

But I think at the end of the day it's WAY easier for me to ignore mess on a carpet than mess on tile. Should I be ignoring it? That's up to the jury to decide (lol). But I think stepping on seeds on tile with bare feet would be approx. 99x more unpleasant than stepping on seedy carpet with bare feet. So I haven't taken that leap lol.

But yes, absolutely yes, cleaning is just a grim reality of the bird life. I had a reputation with my parents of being a very clean child........ now, with all of my pets and a naturally messy wife, it's hopeless. My little apartment never looks clean. That's just how it is lol.

 

[Jcas]

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!