The Welcome Sign at Best Friends Was Hand Painted by Janet Bray
The Best Friends Parrot Garden feeds Chop. The cockatiels get it everyday and the other birds get it three times a week. They have had great success with the concept and it has cut their food budget by about 70% because there is no waste. Dr. Patty Iampietro, one of the Vets at Best Friends is very happy with it and it works for their birds. I was lucky enough to see them eat Chop the other day.
Last night, I was dragging my tired keester in from work and I got the most wonderful email from Brenda Johnson-Hannan who tried Chop for Kieran, her two year-old caique. Kieran has had issues with diarrhea since he was a baby. She made Chop and just after two weeks of feeding it, which was mostly just encouraging him to eat it, he is now passing normal stools. Here is Brenda’s email to me about the situation:
Hi Patricia,
I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciated your web page Parrot Nation and your amazing CHOP food. I have a 2 year-old caique that I hand raised from 2 days old, and this baby has had chronic diarrhea since weaning. I have had him to the vet numerous times, and as he maintains perfect feather and weight, the avian vet feels he has a food allergy to pellets. So he has had us going down the road of trying different brands of pellets, to see if any of them bother him less! My poor baby! So 2 weeks ago, I started feeding him chop, it did take him some time to start eating it and i was supplementing him with pellets, but gradually decreasing as he was eating more chop. As of yesterday, my sweetie Kieran passed two perfect looking stools for the first time in his life! You could see the difference between the urates and the stool-which was formed! I cannot tell you how excited I was!
Sorry for such a long blurb, but I am overjoyed at the improvement in this bird!
So again, thank you!
Brenda
So there you go. It made my week. So in view of that, here is a video of the Best Friends birds at the Parrot Garden eating Chop. I hope you like it:
September 27, 2012 at 10:23 am
It’s funny, but words really can’t express how excited we can get about poop!
I may have asked this question before, and if so, please don’t shoot me, but …. Is there a written “recipe” for the chop? I will watch the video, but it would be helpful to have a shopping list!
Thanks a bunch!
Debra
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September 27, 2012 at 10:42 am
I’ll try and get you a paper I wrote for the American Federation of Aviculture. That should help you.
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September 27, 2012 at 11:54 am
Thanks, I really appreciate it! A dear friend of mine may have to re-home her Cockatoo, so I may be expanding the flock … at nearly $18/bag for pellets, this will really help with the costs of feeding the little darlings!
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September 27, 2012 at 11:48 am
Patricia,
I have managed to piece together a few recipes from online sites. Gonna give this a try perhaps this weekend.
If you would share my info with Tango Eclectus … I think we live near each other and perhaps we can do a chop swap …
Thanks a bunch!
Debra
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September 27, 2012 at 12:13 pm
Love the 68 year old! I wonder if his buddy lets him know what is happening. What a beautiful place. Great blogs by the way.
Hugs,
Ann
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October 17, 2012 at 1:18 am
LOVE this movie, it says so much more than words 🙂 tnxzz
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