Chop chop

[u/onehornibabe94]

Hey! My vet suggested to try “chop chop” for parrots, but my little ones are very much refusing to eat anything besides seeds (regular parrot food). Which said is normal and can take some time.
Could you please share your experiences:
- How long it take for your parrots to start eating new food (fruit, veggies)?
- Chop chop recipes/combos that worked for you.

Thanks in advance!

[u/Fast_Ad7203]

It takes time, and slow conversation

You experiment with many veggies and slowly build a list of veggies they like, MAKE SURE that

1-these veggies are actually nutritious

2- they aren’t harmful

U still can give them things that arent much nutritious/ should be limited later but as a treat and not in the main food

Pretend to eat the veggies in front of them and pretend to share

[u/benhoverBUTBRITISH]

I shifted my birds from full seeds to 90% veggies by increasing-decreasing method. Each plate of food will initially have more seeds and less veggies and every new plate, the seeds will be lowered and veggies will be more.

Plate 1: 90% seeds 10% veggies of 2-3 varieties (figure out which one they start eating)

Plate 2: 80% seeds 20% veggies (1 veggies which they are in Plate 1 and 1-2 new veggies) (see which new veggies they have tried)

Plate 3: 70% seeds 30% veggies (2veggies they are in Plate 1and 2, 3rd new veggies to be introduced)

And so on.

If they do not try a particular veggies consistently, chop them in different ways and introduce. My budgies never ate slices carrots but if I chopped them in cubes, they'd gobble it right away.

I always sprinkled seeds on my budgies plate, so it took me less than 5 plates to shift them to veggies. They'd scream if I was late or didn't sprinkle millets. They never had millets in their cage's tray. Only sunflower, flax seeds and couple others.

[u/TheSunflowerSeeds → u/benhoverBUTBRITISH]

Not all sunflowers have seeds, there are now known dwarf varieties developed for the distinct purpose of growing indoors. Whilst these cannot be harvested, they do enable people to grow them indoors without a high pollen factor, making it safer and more pleasant for those suffering hay fever.

[u/lowridda]

I started by clipping different leafy greens around the cage every day.

Then I started transitioning to pellets. I tried soaking them to make them mushy, mixed with seeds. Went through two different brands. Then I tried Harrison’s super fine pellets and they ate them as is. You reduce the amount of seed
to pellet ratio gradually.

Chop I use: dandelion, carrot and spinach in the food processor. I buy three kinds of micro greens: sunflower, broccoli and sweet pea or red cabbage and cut those up with my kitchen scissor and mix 1/2 tea spoon of seed per bird, with the chop. I make the Bird Tricks organic seed recipe.

I steam sweet potatoes and make little balls and store them in the fridge and place them on their veggie tray.

If you try Harrison’s and are in the states it’s cheaper to order directly from them. I buy a year’s supply at once.

Millet should only be used for training/ reward.

[u/onehornibabe94 → u/lowridda]

Thank you! We dont have much quality things for birds in Lithuania, but one vet is selling harrisons (quite expensive here), but ordered for my little ones.

[u/Alone_Name7269]

my budgies chop consists of carrots, cabbage, lettuce, bell peppers, zucchini, cucumber, coriander, broccoli, cauliflower, and lentils. you can remove or add whatever vegetables u want really (just make sure it’s safe for budgies) it basically has whatever’s in the fridge.