I am floored. I just don’t understand how people don’t understand. I am not going to say, “I have no words.” because I do.

As you might have noticed, Parrot Nation is Land of the Cuisinart-Home of the Chop. It is where, for lack of anything else to write about, I wrote my first post about Chop. And the response was overwhelming. So I kept making it and writing about it, eventually posting several videos and running up a nice tally of informational posts about it.

That was in 2009. I had been making Chop for years before I had the blog. As many of you know, I had come up with the concept because my schedule is insane due to my flying and writing and cleaning up parrot poop. So much for pleasant, languid hours down at the pool. Now, the concept is a hit. Other people in the bird world are more sane since taking up the practice.

Their birds are healthier and they are happier for having found what I did: That making “Chop” is more than just keeping their birds in fine feather. It’s about happier people. And when you have happier people, you are inevitably going to have happier birds.

This concept fulfilled a need in my life to get Parker the vegetables, legumes and grains that he needed without having to go through the machinations of the twice a day drudgery. But I found it served another purpose: Some people have the time to chop fresh vegetables for their flock twice a day. I don’t. And I really don’t think most other people do either.

So as I was happily writing and shooting videos and snapping photos, something began to stir. I was unaware of it until quite recently. And it upset me clear through to the core. In short, it was irritation. It was mind-boggling confusion. And the criticism comes from two fronts. Both are ridiculous.

One is that I am claiming I came up with the idea of making a huge batch of food and freezing it. Nothing could be further from the truth. I simply said it was a great way to feed your birds.

I’m just the one that has publicized it as widely and wildly as I did. I have yet to see a video on the process of making mash or any other type of bulk homemade food for parrots.

If they are out there, great! Let me know! But I never came across any in 2003 when I was a frustrated parrot person trying to come up with an efficient way to feed Parker.  It sure as hell would have saved me a LOT of time doing research if there was.

It was said in a Facebook group thread that I’m claiming I came up with it and that they’d been doing this for 15 years. Which of course begged my question, “Well, then why didn’t you share it, make a video about it, publicize it, blog about it and do some demos?” No response.

Apparently, there has also been some nit-picking going on about the Chop Concept as a diet. These are people that have absolutely no idea what’s going on over here and can’t see the forest for the trees.

People have been talking about how Chop is a “kitchen sink” concept and that it will fail the birds nutritionally. It was even told to me that if parrots were fed chop, they would become malnourished. What? Huh?

Not with a formulated pelleted diet, sprouts, nuts and healthy table food. Apparently there is a misunderstanding about what Chop is, what’s in it and there is a thought that I do not include legumes.

Apparently people seem to think it’s nothing but grains. Some do not realize I use a Cuisinart. I’m sorry, but how could you miss it? I actually put my cuisinart to music in this video. I thought it was kind of cool, actually:

Obviously, they haven’t seen my videos or haven’t read my posts or even have an inkling about what I’m doing over here. Here is a quote from a thread on Facebook:

“Birds need protein and it cannot come from a willy nilly mix of just grains. If people can pour grains into a bowl, they can pour legumes. Not a lot needs to be changed, the ratio and the soaking and the omegas and that will feed them nutritiously. They aren’t getting what they need from a random batch of stuff. People are very willing to feed more nutrient rich food if they know how. It’s not difficult. Folks can soak grains in a given proportion, it’s not hard to do… people can add some chia seeds for the omegas, it’s not difficult. Just give them the ratio and then move forward with more information. I don’t understand why you are against doing this. You already have them chopping and that’s the hard part.”

This is from a woman who told me a year ago that she couldn’t get her birds to eat fresh anything. Now she is jumping into my mess kit about how I’m completely wrong about how I feed my birds.

Oh my God! It’s a legume!

Obviously, this woman doesn’t realize that beans go into every batch or are served alongside as a separate dish. Chia seed does go into Chop. The beans are soaked and cooked first.  This criticism isn’t warrented and due to the accusations, makes these criticisms outrageously uninformed.

It isn’t just grains. Haven’t they even seen the videos? Let’s see, I did a video called Teenie Weenie Beanies.  Was it Teenie Weenie Grains? No, it wasn’t. Can someone tell me what these are? Anyone? Anyone?

I see several hands! That’s right! Those are Beans.  Are beans, grains? No.

Does this mess look like grains to you? Why, no. It’s beans!

I did not ever claim Chop was to be a replacement for a formulated pelleted diet, nuts, sprouts and healthy table food. Never.

I do not want people to add fruit into the Chop to freeze because it doesn’t freeze well. And as far as the fact that I have everyone making Chop, well, that’s just not true. Not yet anyway.  I did a presentation to a club in Raleigh-Durham and some people had no idea they could feed vegetables to their birds.

Here’s the deal on Chop: If you make it too hard or too demanding, people aren’t going to make it.

If they are missing one simple thing, they aren’t going to make it. If it’s too complicated, they aren’t going to make it.

If they can’t get the suggested vegetables in Taiwan, they aren’t going to make it. (I got a question once from someone in a Asian country who didn’t know what a very common vegetable was sitting on the demo table in a photo taken when I did a presentation at Phoenix Landing.)

It’s simple. I believe that you are caring and intelligent people. I believe you will figure out what is fresh, in season, and good for your birds.

I want you to use your judgement with your flock on what they need. Greys have a different dietary need than Hyacinths. Budgie needs are different from an Eclectus. I’m sorry, but I just don’t believe that “One Size Fits All.”

Not my carry-ons…

I have next week off. Not that I didn’t pay for it with a mind-bending schedule of flying one hell of a lot in order to align these days off. It was just a lot of trip-trading with friends and shuffling days off around in order to accomodate the need to work with the desire to get a string of days off. It was a hard month, but I did get to meet this man. He’s a hundred years old:

A hundred years-old!

Due to this, I was flying 4 days on, one day off, 4 days on, one day off, one on, one off, etc. in order to string some days together so I could work on a project.

The project? I am flying to South Carolina to make a whomping big batch of Chop for some friends and colleagues. I doubt I’ll be able to fill this tub, but I’m going to make as big a batch as is feasible. And just to give you some perspective, 2 people could fit in here.

Whompin’ Big Tub…

It’s a Chop Party of a sort. Irena Schulz of Bird Lovers Only Parrot Rescue and Judith Archer of The Parrot Posse a loosely organized, yet dedicated and effective group that donates to rescues and emergency situations are joining me to make the single largest batch of Chop I’ve ever made.

Irena and I are the two in the photo without a position at Harvard…

Janet Hilton is hosting the event and with any luck at all, both Irena and Judith will leave with pounds and pounds of Chop for their feathered charges. I believe Judith cares for 22 macaws, mostly all special needs rescues.

Judith is the one sans bunny ears…

I’ve sent the shopping list to Janet and she is busily scurrying around gathering all of the items needed for this batch of Chop. We’ll do some preliminary shopping on Sunday after I arrive for the items that need cooking and do the cooking on Monday. Monday afternoon we’ll shop for the fresh items. I’m hoping to go all organic on this batch. And on Tuesday, the Chop-Making Festivities begin.

Janet and Judith

With any luck, I will be returning home with some great video footage and a story to tell. I’m quite happy to be doing this for them. They are all wonderful and generous individuals and I am quite happy to lend my expertise to aid both worthwhile causes. I just hope they bring enough coolers.

I get a lot of requests for a “Recipe” for Chop. I don’t give one. I don’t have one. I don’t recommend one. And here’s why.

I believe parrots eat seasonally in the wild. They have to, don’t you think? I mean, it’s not like they’re squirrels hoarding food in a “parrot pantry” somewhere. They eat what’s available. Once I got Chop figured out and well on its way to being formed into a concept, I began adding what was in season.

Which of course reminds me of a quote from the Film, Annie Hall. Annie and Alvy are at a party in L.A. and the camera pans to some television executives talking:

“Right now, it’s only a notion. But I think I can get money to make it into a concept. And later turn it into an idea.”

And that’s pretty much how I came up with Chop. I mean really; you can buy frozen vegetables, frozen pasta. I thought, “If Birdseye can do it so can I!”

I found Annie, HERE

I wanted to get a wider variety of produce and different items in my Greys’ diet and the only way to do this was to look at it from an entire year’s stand point, season by season.

I also found that buying items in season turned out to be less expensive. And God knows I’m all for saving money. (See my post HERE on ways of saving money.)

Years ago, I was talking to Robin Shewokis and I mentioned to her that my goal was to get at least a hundred items into Parker over a year’s time. There are so many good things to offer your parrot that I think it’s counter-productive to follow a precise recipe.

Once you get a handle on the thing, you can riff on it however you see fit. And usually, the way to riff is to use the seasonal, cheapest and freshest items available. It looks more difficult and more complicated than it actually is. It’s really very easy. It’s just like making a salad or a casserole…in a very big pot. I have done presentations on how to make Chop at various clubs, expos and groups.

And once people either helped me make it or saw how it was made, they realized that it’s actually very easy to do. I simply find the idea of a recipe extremely limiting. I also understand that people are making it all over the place. Blorian Yang from Hsinchu, Taiwan makes it. And to be honest, I don’t know that a lot of the vegetables we buy and take for granted are available there. So how could I possibly write a recipe with items unavailable in other parts of the world?

I’m also afraid that writing a recipe would discourage people from trying it. What if one item weren’t available? Would someone make it without that item? Would they try and find something else to substitute? Or would they just give up because they can’t find watercress?

These are things I’ve thought about along the way. And while they may sounds trivial, I don’t think they are. I’m hoping that more and more people realize that “The Chop Concept” is a wonderful way of enriching your parrot’s diet. Supplemented with a formulated pelleted diet, sprouts, nuts and nutritious table food, you’ve got a pretty good method of feeding going on.

I simply don’t want to discourage anyone. I started small. Simple. And you can start that way too. The trick is- you just have to start. And once you realize how easy it is, you’ll do it again and again. As the batch get bigger and your life gets easier, your parrots are going to benefit from this. Give it a try. It’s not hard at all.

I was laughing my keester off at the post and did a little bit of digging. One of her posts involved her purchase of a stuffed weasel. And of course not one to leave well enough alone, Jenny decided to put a pink apron on her and named her Juanita. She then proceeded to put hysterical captions above a photo of Juanita and graciously provided a blank for her readers to create their own “Photo-toons.” Being almost as twisted as “The Bloggess,” I have decided to employ Juanita and have her present a series of tips for making Chop. This is the first:

I created a video assembled from photos sent by friends and Parrot Nation Readers from all over the place. It was a small project and I did the editing in about two days, but it was a lot of fun to put together. What I wanted to do was show you that Chop is indeed a “Concept.” As available ingredients vary from place to place and from Continent to Continent, Chop is never going to be the same.

You will also find your own Chop varying from season to season.  It was a quick and dirty editing job. I didn’t have the time to spend day-after-day fine-tuning it and photoshopping it, but I made a copy so I can work on it later should I need to.  You might want to keep it on the small screen as blowing it up to full size will be disappointing. I couldn’t render the images the way I wanted them as I am still learning, but it’s not bad for two days of work.

This is your Chop. Your way. From your kitchens. With your birds. Congratulations! You’re doing a beautiful job making it your own.

Here is the Video of Chop from, well, everywhere and also from many of you. Thank you to all who sent me photos. I hope you like it:

The revolution I’m talking about is what’s going on in the average parrot’s diet. Yes, I’m talking about the “Chop Revolution.” It seems to be spreading far and wide and I couldn’t be happier. And if you’re in the Springfield, VA area this Saturday, January 7th, you have an opportunity to attend a Phoenix Landing event at ten a.m. in the morning. I’ll be talking about “Chop” and the entire concept and story behind it.  Here is the information:

Click on the Logo for more information!

NOURISH TO FLOURISH: CHOP CHOP! with PATRICIA SUND

SPRINGFIELD, VA
SATURDAY
January 7th
10:00 AM – 12:00 Noon
Grace Presbyterian Church
7434 Bath Street

I’ve been invited by Phoenix Landing to give a bit of an overview on “Chop;” how to make it, how to store it, and the benefits. I know it’ll be a ton of fun. Lots of people I haven’t met but have communicated with will be there and I’m very excited to be able to meet them. And I’d love to meet you too. I mean really; this is going to be fun.

First off, I can talk about Chop until I’m blue in the face:

I love talking about something I believe in. Ever notice when you take a photo of someone who’s speaking, their mouth is always open?

Phoenix Landing is a wonderful organization that was founded by Ann Brooks. And she got behind the Chop concept as soon as she saw the benefits and its efficiency. So I’m quite happy to come up and answer questions, fill in some blank spots and encourage people to make some Chop. So if you’re in the neighborhood, please, please swing by and say “Hi!” I hope to make sure it’s entertaining. See you there!

Oy! I’ve been meaning to post again for a week now, but I’ve had my hands full. I’ve been doing a lot of flying. It’s all been out of Miami Airport so the drive is kicking my keester. It’s been fun flying out of there but driving on I95 twice a day has been a killer.

I made this ginormous batch of Chop that’s going to last me until hell freezes over, or five months. Whichever comes first. I got a bit carried away at the market where I shop for Chop ingredients and ended up with enough Chop to fill my Big-ass stock pot twice. I was bagging the stuff for five hours. But I got some pretty cool ingredients in it:

Wheat Grass anyone?

I found some pretty kinky stuff to put into it. Can anyone tell me what this is?

It’s a black radish. And it’s about the size of a tennis ball. I thought it was cool, so I got one for my Chop. It’s chewier than a red radish and spicier. I really liked the flavor and I thought the “woodiness” of the texture would appeal to my Greys. And get a load of the collard greens I had to chop up and throw in!

It was like trimming  a hedge, there was so much of it. But collard greens are REALLY good for the birds, so I didn’t mind doing it. And it all went in, stems and leaves alike.  But I wasn’t done with the weird stuff:

Yup, that’s okra. If you live in the south, that might not be weird to you, but I grew up in an Irish-Danish household in the suburbs of Chicago. In the 60′s. Okra might as well have been sushi to my family. No okra, no grits, no raw fish. I grew up in a typical white-bread, middle-class family. We ate broiled chicken, potatoes, roast beef, oatmeal for breakfast and peanut butter sandwiches. But my parents did manage to have some fun with food. I am embarrassed to report that we had an orange fondue pot with those idiotic long forks.

My Mother enjoyed making the old Jewish standby, Chopped Liver and sending that along with some matzoh in my school lunches so she could freak out the nuns. She loved getting a rise out of the penguins.  I also recall beef tongue sandwiches. On white bread. With mustard. I think about eating that now, with white bread and mustard and I want to heave. But at the time, I thought it was just fine. And of course, the nuns would have a coronary. So that always worked out.

My father was a bit of a food elitist, and ventured out with some fairly outrageous food items for the time. I remember him making stuff like pots de creme, which is a chocolate pudding-like desert, and he liked cooking roast goose on the barbecue outside. Dad had a recipe for Danish brandy cookies he would make at Christmas. We always knew when they were done because he put so much brandy in them, the oven door would blow open:

Ka-Blam!

“Dad! The Cookies are done!”

So the idea of putting okra in my chop is a fairly novel idea to me. But I digress…

Let’s see, let’s see. What else did I throw in this el mondo-grosso batch of Chop? Oh yeah!

Radicchio

Yup. Radicchio. It’s colorful, a member of the cabbage family and it has a snappy taste, so what the hell…

And this? This is swiss chard. Leafy, colorful and crisp, this stuff is a must have in Chop. You want to look for really colorful, leafy stuff to throw in there.

And by the way, almost every vegetable I bought was organic. I have no idea how I managed that, but I did. So it was a very successful batch.

I got lentils, quinoa, brown and wild rice, spelt, whole wheat pasta, cooked up and tossed in there. I also have a new find:

Isn’t this whole grain cereal cool? And it’s got 4 grains in it. Anything to add variety as far as I’m concerned. It goes in uncooked. And these?

These are the tops of the red jalapeños that I added. I told you it was a big batch! I also found the organic dandelion greens again. I’m always happy to see that go in.

And another standard I like to include is zucchini:

All in all, I got 280 meals for my three birds. It cost me about 34 cents a meal. I can live with that. And my birds are going to be eating well for months.

Bob’s Chop! Gorgeous!

Robert is a bird person in a big way. What I mean by that is that he has big birds. Here is Bob’s bio that he wrote and sent along to me for the post:

“Robert is not exactly a newcomer to aviculture, he has been in its midst for over 30 years. Robert’s passion first took off when he saw the Dr. Dolittle’s companion, a Blue and Gold Macaw named Polynesia in the famous film starring Rex Harrison. From that point, there was no looking back. In Bob’s pre-teen years his parents bought him a cockatiel from a bird studio in the Chicago Old Town area. The store, Sedgewick Studios was owned by an older gentleman from Germany named Erlang—Erlang became a model of what Bob wanted to become. Later on, Bob saw his first Hyacinth and that species became the Macaw he wanted to have one day.

His passion took him through having budgies, cockatiels, Amazons, conures, cockatoos, and finally to his true passion—macaws. Bob currently shares his life with a Hyacinth Macaw named Miss Maggie:

a Greenwing Macaw named Blaze:

and a Blue-front Amazon named Popeye:

Typical of many bird people, Bob’s birds eat a more balanced diet than he does and striving to find a perfect diet for his flock brought him to Chop.  As we all know, getting our birds to eat a variety of foods is difficult and in his opinion, it is even more difficult for those with Hyacinths. In order to maintain these magnificent psitticines we must offer a variety that is packed with healthy nutrients and fats and to ensure that it is done efficiently. Every mouthful has to count.

After reading Patricia Sund’s blog, and discussing Chop with her, he made his first batch. Bob’s Hyacinth picked through it and Chop made her more inquisitive compared to other foods. Now, she will take other foods without them being chopped, but Bob believes Chop initiated her curiosity towards other foods.

Robert is a graphic designer by profession and education, but his true passion is parrots.”

Bob lives in the Chicago area and is very devoted to his flock. So devoted in fact, that for their sake, he did this to his kitchen making Chop:

Compared to what my kitchen looks like Après Chop, this is actually quite neat. My kitchen on the other hand, looks like the inside of a dumpster after I’m done making a batch. I never could get the hang of that “clean up as you go” concept. However, I can assure you, it’s worth it. But I digress…

Bob did some research and settled on making Chop for his crew. The results were astounding as you will see. Bob made about 20 pounds which, even with his crew of jetliner birds, will last for quite a while. Bob chose a nice array of vegetables that seemed to work well together in terms of color and nutrition balance.  He also chose to add beans right in with his Chop instead of making a separate bean mix which is just fine.

Jacqueline Johnson, the Parrot Garden Manager at Best Friends does the same thing. But you can always mix things up with an assortment of toppings to get more of a taste variety.

Bob used kale, collards and other greens, a very nutritious and important part of Chop.  He selected brown rice, quinoa, and whole grain pasta as his starches and carbs; all excellent choices.

His other vegetables included carrots, zucchini, broccoli, red and green peppers and cooked pumpkin. This batch is dead on for a nice smack of Vitamin A and calcium!

Bob also did something I used to do and is still a good alternative if you like what you see. He used 2 five pound bags of mixed frozen vegetables. He used cinnamon as a spice which world with the pumpkin addition:

Some carrots for the crowd:

All in all, Bob did a great job with his Chop and I believe that he’s gotten the hang of making it in short order. Sometimes people have an issue with getting it dry enough to freeze fresh. If it’s too moist, it has a tendency to thaw out with a mushy texture; something you don’t want. So undercook the rice, quinoa or pastas a bit so they can readily sop up some of the moisture from the vegetables.

I’m curious to find out how long Bob’s Chop is going to last. Which reminds me, I’m getting a little low myself. So soon it’ll be time to haul out my big-ass stock pot and make another batch. Stay tuned! Many thanks to Bob for allowing me to profile his Chop making efforts.