Would you buy premade chop?

[hiriki]

I've been thinking recently that it might be fun to sell my chop. I had one acquaintance through a pigeon rescue where I volunteer ask to buy some of it for her greys and it just got me thinking. But I'm not sure if it's worth it or if anyone out there would be interested and wanted to poll the bird community.

I know there's a dried chop on the market--Birdie Bistro I believe? And given the relative difficulty of shipping frozen foods, I do think that the dried chop is much more scalable and sustainable for a business you want to grow. But I don't really want to do that... I just want to share my chop recipe on a small scale and make it easier for a handful of people to feed veggies to their pets. I was thinking about calling around and finding one location (either a vet or a brick and mortar exotics focused pet store) where I can have a freezer and physically stock my chop.

If your vet was selling reasonably priced frozen veggie chop, would you be interested in buying? If so, what is a reasonable price? How would you want them to be packaged? Right now, I store them in the same ice cube tray where I freeze them after making it, but it's a really nice & relatively expensive tray (it has silicon on the bottom to assist with popping out the cubes) so I don't think I'd want to include that if selling the chop, but they would all stick in a mass in a bag together if they're not individually wrapped to some extent. I thought about cupcake paper or something that I could individually wrap them in but could also be used when feeding the bird as a forage activity... I actually tested it, and my chop is dry enough that the cupcake liner wasn't soggy after thawing, but I'm genuinely not sure if anyone other than me thinks that's a good idea lol

I would really like to hear everyone's thoughts. I have a pretty long relationship with my exotic vet, and I think he would hear me out if I suggested this, but I have been kind of too shy to bring it up because I'm genuinely unsure if there's a market for this. I feel like I would have bought it, had I happened upon it before finding my own chop routine, but idk.

 

[wrench13]

While the idea of premade frozen chop sounds like a good deal, think of the added expense of keeping it frozen during shipping. Dry ice and some sort of styrofoam container has to be added to the cost, plus shipping. I know when I make a batch of chop. it costs me around $100 for the veggies etc and about 3 hours to make enough chop for a good 3 months. I put 3 days worth into sealable freezer baggies, and just bash off enough for a days worth.

 

[hiriki]

While the idea of premade frozen chop sounds like a good deal, think of the added expense of keeping it frozen during shipping. Dry ice and some sort of styrofoam container has to be added to the cost, plus shipping. I know when I make a batch of chop. it costs me around $100 for the veggies etc and about 3 hours to make enough chop for a good 3 months. I put 3 days worth into sealable freezer baggies, and just bash off enough for a days worth.

Yes--for sure, if I wanted to grow this into a real big deal of a business, shipping would be a complicated expense! Right now, I'm thinking of options that would involve me simply transporting the chop to a brick and mortar location near where I live, where they would have it available onsite in a freezer for people to peruse. Honestly, as much as it would be exciting for this to be a successful enough venture for me to think about selling orders online, I think the work involved with making the chop to fulfill those orders would make it less fun lol. On the one hand, there's certainly a gap in the market for non-dehydrated chop for online ordering, but to some extent I think that gap is probably only there because the complications with shipping frozen items make it not very worth it lol.

I definitely think I want to try to do this. I'm not really trying to make a living out of it, if anything it'll be a side hustle hobby, but I think it could be fun and it might make healthy diets more accessible for folks who aren't really sure how to start.

 

[Vampiric_Conure]

I know if you were closer, I certainly be interested in chop! SHipping is SUCH a challenge. Maybe if it were freeze dried?

 

[wrench13]

Lots of things in life sound like fun to do, and maybe they are initially, but most turn out to not be so much fun if you try to do it as a hustle. Example: I ride motorcycles and I like to write. SO i got a gig writing a technical column for a motorcycle magazine. Not as a main form of employment, just a side gig. But after awhile, the constant pressure of having to come up with new stuff every month, deadlines, editors hassling me over content and even word choices made it a drag and not much fun anymore.

Just sayin'.

 

[hiriki]

I know if you were closer, I certainly be interested in chop! SHipping is SUCH a challenge. Maybe if it were freeze dried?

I think maybe birdie bistro is freeze dried? Not sure if it's freeze dried or dehydrated. Hmmm, I'm also not sure what equipment is needed for freeze drying lol, but this is an interesting idea!

Lots of things in life sound like fun to do, and maybe they are initially, but most turn out to not be so much fun if you try to do it as a hustle. Example: I ride motorcycles and I like to write. SO i got a gig writing a technical column for a motorcycle magazine. Not as a main form of employment, just a side gig. But after awhile, the constant pressure of having to come up with new stuff every month, deadlines, editors hassling me over content and even word choices made it a drag and not much fun anymore.

Just sayin'.

You're 100% right, and I've been trying to think to myself how much additional work on top of my full time job would start to burn me out. I really don't know, and I also don't know how much this product could sell.

This is about 3 hrs worth of work. Granted, it took a bit longer because I was painstakingly weighing every ingredient so I can get a better idea of the nutritional breakdown of my recipe, since I more or less fly by the seat of my pants when making it. But it's still a lot of work, and for my five birds lasts me about a month, but if I get a significant customer base who is also feeding my chop regularly, how will I fulfill orders? It's a lot to think about.

 

[wrench13]

LOL, its like renting one of those stupid little paddle boats. From the shore it looks cool, but 100 yards from the dock, you realize 'screw this, this is no fun at all!!'.

 

[SailBoat]

Would not be a buyer and would not recommend the undertaking as 'Chop' contains one of the most common 'foods' that end-up being pulled because of contamination as its main ingredient.

Getting caught in one of those recalls would be a dreadful.

 

[hiriki]

Would not be a buyer and would not recommend the undertaking as 'Chop' contains one of the most common 'foods' that end-up being pulled because of contamination as its main ingredient.

Getting caught in one of those recalls would be a dreadful.

Out of curiosity, what is that ingredient?

 

[SailBoat]

Out of curiosity, what is that ingredient?

It's green, leafy and comes in several variations/species.