# Parrot chop recipe



## shaenne (Apr 19, 2014)

Hey guys!

So in a couple of days i'm bringing home an Eclectus chick, which will take my bird count to 7. It will be a little while before he's eating as much fruit & veg as the other birds, but I am going to start making a chop mix to portion & freeze to make it easier to give all of the birds their daily nutritional needs without spending hours chopping and serving every day.

I have 4 cockatiels, an indian ringneck and a rainbow lorikeet, all of whom have a diet that is mainly made up of fruits and veggies. They also get pellets and a small amount of seeds (Oscar gets lorikeet mix instead of pellets and seeds), but mostly it's fruits and veggies.

I already make up a "fruit salad" for them but I usually only make a few days worth, and I generally give them a serving of veggies when I make dinner for myself and hubby.

So anyway, this is the recipe I am using: http://www.birdtricks.com/blog/chop-mix-for-your-birds/

It's such a good idea and a really easy and convenient way to give your birds a good daily serving of healthy food without spending all morning (or all evening) preparing it. Just make up a big batch, portion it into freezer bags and then pop it all in the freezer and grab out tomorrow's bag before you go to bed.

And the best part about it is you can put pretty much anything into it. As long as it's bird safe and freezes well, you can throw it in. It's also a good way to take advantage of specials on fresh produce.

Edit: For the beans, these need to be soaked and boiled to get rid of any toxins than may be harmful to our fids. Soak for 8 hours (overnight is easiest), rinse well and then boil for 20-30 minutes. Drain well and blitz them into small pieces and they're good to go into your chop!


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## Guest (Feb 13, 2016)

Do you heat it before giving it to your tiels? My tiel doesn't eat nearly enough greens or veggies! 

I give him fresh kale every day or spinach but he literally takes 2 or 3 bites and that's it. He does love to eat things when they are warm.... such as warn peas and rice... so maybe he would eat this stuff if it's warmed up in microwave? He definitely won't go near if if it's not warm...

He used to LOVE sprouts but now won't eat them at all anymore  I could throw sprouts into the chop... but won't it get all nasty when it's warmed up in microwave? I'm not a fan of microwaves. Is this chop blended up in a blender or hand diced with a knife?


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## Onamishion (Dec 18, 2015)

shaenne said:


> Hey guys!
> 
> So in a couple of days i'm bringing home an Eclectus chick, which will take my bird count to 7. It will be a little while before he's eating as much fruit & veg as the other birds, but I am going to start making a chop mix to portion & freeze to make it easier to give all of the birds their daily nutritional needs without spending hours chopping and serving every day.
> 
> ...


Yes I love it, imma go shopping this week and make up a good chop for my babes, I only have two so I'm going to freeze them in ice cube trays, pop them out and put in a double stocked freezer bag...Thanks so much


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## shaenne (Apr 19, 2014)

I've done this a couple times before but haven't for a good while so i'm gonna start again!

In summer, no I don't heat it up. In winter I might heat it up a little, but you have to be careful to take it out after an hour or so, so that it doesn't start to grow harmful bacteria. In the warmer months I just defrost it in the fridge overnight and then serve it in the morning and it's usually gone within a few hours. They get a serving for breakfast and a serving for dinner, with some "fruit salad" during the day.

The best thing about chop is that you can stuff so much into it, and it's all cut up to roughly the same size by the food processor, and if you make a finer chop, everything sticks to everything else and stuff unknowingly gets eaten, even if they don't particularly like it. My tiels are quite fussy, but they looooove quinoa, and quinoa sticks to *everything*, so everything usually gets eaten.


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## Vickitiel (Oct 10, 2012)

Great recipe! It looks soo good 

I would make chop regularly for my guys but they prefer to eat herbs and veggies hanging from the cage bars. They eat grated veggies from a dish but most of it gets wasted or thrown around, haha.


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