Parrot Nation

Thanks Su!

I’ve been writing about the Chop Concept for almost five years and it seems that this method of feeding your birds has not only picked up speed, it is becoming the way of feeding flocks in households all over the place. This is quite gratifying and it has indeed revolutionized the way families feed their birds.

The first photo of “Chop.”

I knew when I first brought Parker home that I had to figure out a way to feed him a good diet without it being a complete pain in the keester twice a day. Being pretty handy in the kitchen, I came up with Chop. I did this independently because there was nothing anywhere about this method of feeding. I began feeding Parker this way in 2003, not long after he became part of my family. 6 years later, I wrote about it here on February 1st, 2009, (Parrot Food For Thought) because I didn’t have anything else to write about that day.

Selling Chop to Benefit Florida Parrot Rescue

I had no idea there were breeders that were doing this because either they never told anyone they did it, or they never wrote about it.

I could find nothing on the internet about a homemade frozen vegetable diet for parrots. Nothing! So with a little dithering around starting with frozen vegetables and then switching over to fresh, I found a convenient way to feed my African Greys a nutritious and varied diet. I would get depressed when my Chop ran out and I had to make it again, so over the years, the batches grew in size. Chop began raising funds for parrot adoption organizations.

Now I have to make pretty big batches of it because people are now asking me to make some for them, which I am glad to do. Both the Chop Concept and I have come under fire a few times for varied reasons. Debbie Downer got her knickers in a twist because she misunderstood the concept from the giddy up. This person actually called up a publication I wrote for and told them I should not be allowed to mention Chop in anything I wrote because Chop could kill parrots. I think the editor laughed.

How feeding fresh organic vegetables in one form is okay, but by chopping  and mixing those very same ingredients a different way somehow turns them deadly is beyond me.

Another person got hot under the collar because they had been doing this for years. This of course invoked my response of, “Well, it must be a good idea then, if you are doing it.  Why didn’t you share the idea? Why didn’t you start a blog, take photos, shoot video and start teaching it?”

Silence. Well, of course there was silence. What could they say?

Then came Grain Bake. This recent development has also taken off like a rocket. I really have no way of explaining how I came up with it. I think I simply thought that casseroles were pretty quick and easy to make and why don’t I try and come up with one for my Greys.  So I did. And I managed to do it without the obligatory can of cream of mushroom soup that seems to hit every casserole recipe in the world.

I am now seeing “Grain Bake” all over the place. Score. Another win for the flocks.

I just got a call yesterday from a wonderful woman in Florida who runs a parrot organization. Apparently Wendy has 50 parrots under foot at Ziggy’s Haven Bird Sanctuary.

Wendy, who with her husband runs Ziggy’s, is making a Grain Bake for them today. She’s never made it before and wanted some coaching. I was delighted to help. I’ll be on her speed dial today in case she runs into any snags. But I know she won’t. Making Grain Bake is so easy.

Not unlike taking the big plunge, cutting off your waist-length hair and going really short,  I told her yesterday that once she starts this method of preparing food for her flock, she’ll never go back. Next, I’ll be easing her into making Chop. Feeding 50 parrots twice a day isn’t easy. But using these 2 methods might lighten her load a bit. It’ll also cut down on waste, save her money in the long run and make their lives a little easier. This makes me happy.

I don’t know what I’m going to come up with next, but I’m hoping it’s a winner.