New way to feed diversity: ugly fruit subscription

[chris-md]

Guys I’m excited! Not something I’ve been able to say about parrot husbandry lately.

Ive given Parker a good chop diet for years now. But im bored and looking for something new. And I found it! Parker’s latest chop batch I had run out and this was the perfect chance to take the plunge into this ugly fruit craze.

Turns out much of these services are based on primarily on bumper crops (excessive fruit/veg being produced on the farm) or grocery store rejects that are too big or too small.

And you can get some interesting stuff. Just read tonight about someone who got prickly pear. So it’s a fabulous opportunity to introduce new and interesting items to the birds diet.

My first box is arriving tomorrow. Nothing super exciting this round: cucumber, plums, celery, mango, satsuma oranges, romaine, summer squash and yellow onions. Onions aside, I can make a decent chop base for him to last the week until the next delivery next week.

Will keep you all updated. This should be a fun ride!

 

[Allee]

Chris, I’m excited for you and Parker! After the first five thousand batches of chop the process does tend to get a little redundant. Thanks for sharing your discovery! Please update the thread when the ugly fruit arrives.

 

[Scott]

Also a nice opportunity to diversify your diet!!

 

[Kiwibird]

I’ve been curious about this service myself. A bit leery that it isn’t just deformed fruits and veggies, but kind of bruised or damaged. I am like the produce perfectionist when it comes to selecting produce lol. You’ll have to let us know if the fruits/veg are good quality and really just ugly shaped or just plain unsaleable otherwise.

 

[chris-md]

They came in today, first round. I’ll experiment with posting but imgur won’t give a bbcode option in their app, which is problematic.

April - that’s not at all the case. Everything looks great! This could be awesome!

Link in following post to the photo since I can’t show direct photos anymore here it seems. While a rather mundane assortment in this particular box, I think this might all be worth it.

 

[chris-md]

https://m.imgur.com/gallery/ZME5FTT

 

[Scott]

https://m.imgur.com/gallery/ZME5FTT

Looks like first quality produce!

 

[Terry57]

That looks amazing! I am going to see if we have anything like that available up here.

 

[Allee]

I’m impressed! The produce looks great!

 

[Laurasea]

Thanks for sharing!! Great fantastic idea

 

[chris-md]

Ok, chop is finally made a couple days ago. Couple thoughts on this first experience:

1) this really is a farm fresh. The lettuce had a ton of dirt on it. So be prepared to clean those vegetables like you’ve never cleaned before

2) along the vein of number one, The lettuce became limp pretty quickly and we had to throw it out. The celery isn’t far behind. This really is farm fresh and hasn’t been prepared for travel like produce destined for the grocery store. LIMITED SHELF LIFE. A reminder that you really should keep it in some kind a bag to help preserve the moisture. I have since bought some reusable bags for produce storage off Amazon, that should help prolong the life of some of the produce by a couple days.

3) The way I intended to use this was to create weekly mini chop batches for Parker out of the contents of the box. You quickly realize that sometimes the produce simply isn’t usable for chop. You are left with only a few usable veggies, and it forces you to get creative with what you have on hand to try to up nutrition in your batch. This batch was pure green: zucchini, lettuce, and celery. Thankfully we have beans, a sweet potato, and plenty of grains on hand (threw in some mullet, teff, and coconut shavings). I found this need for creativity to be somewhat satisfying. Even Eddie, who never helps in creating Parker chop, really got into it. It became a family affair to figure it out. This approach isn’t for everyone, however. Particularly for those who are looking for low fuss. It’s possible this approach may get tiresome fairly quickly. We will see.

I can also say with certainty that the batch we made is definitely more than a week long so there will be some waste - I could freeze some, we’ll see. I’m not keen on freezing much right now.