Birdie Salad

[fiddlejen]

So almost every morning nowadays I get up and make birdie salad. Diced-up-tiny radish, Bell pepper (red or orange), lettuce, and raw broccoli. The broccoli, I cut into tiny mini-florets, and then slice the stems. I use clips to hang the stems around the cages for chew-toys. I put the diced-up-tiny veggies in a food bowl for Sunny my Conure, and for the budgies I spread it out on a paper plate on their cage floor.

My Sunny loves Loves LOVES the colored peppers. She likes the radishes a lot too. As far as the broccoli & lettuce, she's more like, "meh. It's here, I guess I might eat it.

(She's so cute when she takes a mouthful and then looks around with all this orange pepper hanging off her little beak.)

The budgies, on the other hand, only pick at the bell peppers because they're there. (Which is still pretty good. These budgies adamantly turn up their little beaky beaks at any pellets, no matter the presentation!) But, the budgies love the lettuce, and sometimes the radishes. And they Really love attacking the hanging broccoli stems. I'm hoping the birdie salad might help make up for whatever they're missing in the pellets.

They don't like fresh fruit so far. None of them. (Even my non-picky Sunny conure, who happily snacks on pellets the budgies were wasting, has so far rejected all offers of fresh fruit, no matter how large or well-diced.) I do assume they will all, automatically, like the fresh blueberries which I will fetch from our yard daily, but those aren't in season yet.

I am wondering, how many days ahead can I dice up the veggies and store in the fridge, without them getting funny?

 

[Scott]

I prepare "chop" fresh each day, though that is not practical for all. Some members prepare large batches of veggies/fruits and freeze in single-use pouches. Refrigerated chop has a fairly short life due to wilting and deterioration even though safe to eat - perhaps 2 days or so? Many of the "sticky" threads atop this forum offer creative recipes and methods.

As far as fruits are concerned, best technique is to continuously offer even if tossed or ignored. It may take years to try and savor an item. One of my goffins ignored pear for 25 years or so, finally decided to try and now enjoys. That said, for most parrots the emphasis ought be on veggies for best nutrition.