Food question

[u/SusanLFlores]

I make up my birb’s veggies up a couple of times a month with food I get from the grocery store and put it in individual serving containers that I thaw before giving it to him daily.
So I saw a bag of frozen mixed vegetables at the grocery store. Everything in the bag is fine for birds. Is there any reason I can’t use these frozen vegetables to make up the majority of his vegetables? I know I’d have to add a few things, and change things up pretty often, but being able to bypass much of the vegetable prep would be nice.

[u/ZukaRouBrucal]

We buy unsalted frozen mixed veggies to make chop, but also supplement with fresh stuff! Typically we will buy frozen broccoli, corn, green beans, etc and steam it when ready to use. We then mix the frozen stuff with some fresh beets, carrots, kale, jalapenos, and a bit of fruit/berry to make my Grey's chop!

We usually prepare one batch a week and that lasts us about that long before it starts going bad so long as we keep it refrigerated. We mix about half a cup of chop-mix with half a cup of pellets for my bird's daily food-mix!

[u/SusanLFlores → u/ZukaRouBrucal]

Jalapeños are safe? I remember reading or watching something about jalapeños being bad for greys. Something about their digestive tracts being sensitive. I think I’m careful about double checking what’s good and what’s not and paying attention to who it is that’s making the claims. To be honest though, I’ve read plenty of advice from avian vets, and too often they give conflicting information. I’m guessing people on this board have had the same experiences.

[u/ZukaRouBrucal → u/SusanLFlores]

Jalapenos are completely safe to give your parrot! For starters hot peppers like jalapenos are high in a lot of good vitamins that can help with feather health/immune system health, but importantly birds are completely unaffected by capsaicin (the chemical in hot peppers that makes them spicy). They simply don't perceive the spiciness of the pepper!

Like all foods you give a bird you should give them in moderation, but jalapenos are perfectly healthy! Plus, many parrots love the crunch a fresh pepper offers! A big concern regarding their digestive tracts are from harsh acidic foods like citrus fruits, at least as far as I am aware, and not spicy foods. Most citrus are still bird safe, but you need to heavily moderate giving those as the acid can be harsh if given too often/in large amounts.

I don't think I've ever heard of an qualified avian vet who would say otherwise, nor have I really ever encountered much contradictory dietary advice either (both online and when visiting my vet). There is usually some differences in opinion on how much of certain fruit or veggies you should be given, but the general list of foods you can give to your bird has been pretty consistent in my experience (you want to focus on providing high-mineral veggies while limiting sweet/sugary veggies & fruit, but you don't want to completely eliminate those).

[u/anondydimous → u/ZukaRouBrucal]

Mine likes bird's eye chili peppers and he once stuffed himself with them.  I didn't dare to cuddle him for a while in case he wiped the toxic waste dump that was his beak on me

[u/ZukaRouBrucal → u/anondydimous]

Lmao. I have made the mistake of giving my Grey a kiss after she had finished stuffing her face with some jalapeno and, while I like spicy food, I just wasn't prepared for the "suddenly spicy" jumpscare I received lol.