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When i serve my birds vegetables, i try to chop them up as good as i can, but EVEN THEN they seem to have problems with chewing properly its like they "nom" on the food and then drop it on the cage floor because they cant chew it! This means that every with every vegetable serving, comes cleaning the cage. Right now i have corn all over the cage bottom

Do you have any tips for serving veggies - which way do you find is the best way to chop the vegetables so that they can be eaten easily ?

I have tried serving the corn whole, for example, you know without taking all the corn off the "stalk", but my birds seem to be afraid of big vegetables they dont dare to taste if i dont chop things up

RigorMortisKitten wrote:When i serve my birds vegetables, i try to chop them up as good as i can, but EVEN THEN they seem to have problems with chewing properly its like they "nom" on the food and then drop it on the cage floor because they cant chew it! This means that every with every vegetable serving, comes cleaning the cage. Right now i have corn all over the cage bottom

Do you have any tips for serving veggies - which way do you find is the best way to chop the vegetables so that they can be eaten easily ?

I have tried serving the corn whole, for example, you know without taking all the corn off the "stalk", but my birds seem to be afraid of big vegetables they dont dare to taste if i dont chop things up

I use a shredder or finely chop up the veggies using a knife or sometimes throw them into the food processor for a few quick spins. It depends on what Im giving them. They still get food on the cage floor as it sticks to their beaks and they pick it up it clumps sometimes.

I chop my veggies up into small pieces. I try to get down to about 2 or 3mm square, so they can get it all into their mouth.
The hard stuff (carrots, yam, etc) gets done in the mini food processor.
All the soft stuff (kale, lettuce, chard, etc) gets done by hand w a knife. I have to use a knife because the soft veggies get flung onto and stick to the side of the food processor and do not get chopped up.

I serve it in a small shallow dish.
Normally they do not fling the veggies around the cage.

Funny you mentioned this today...I use a frozen mixed vegrtble mix from time to time...serving it whole it mess, either they peck at it or use the green bean as a toy and fly around as another chases them....finally I took the food processor out and finely chopped the mix up after warming and draining the veggies.

Served it up and all I saw in all the cages were tails in the air.

Romaine I usually leave as a whole leaf and clip it to the cage, they eat everything excet the thick white center.

Whole carrots get finely grated, broccoli gets the tops shaved off, sometimes these are mixed with grted egg.

If you line the bottom of your cages with newspaper - it makes cleaning much easier. Just remove the dirty newspaper and replace with new.

L in Ontario wrote:If you line the bottom of your cages with newspaper - it makes cleaning much easier. Just remove the dirty newspaper and replace with new.

Love Liz's idea! I usully serve messier foods on the mornings I change out the papers or the afternoon/evening before.

When i serve my birds vegetables, i try to chop them up as good as i can, but EVEN THEN they seem to have problems with chewing properly its like they "nom" on the food and then drop it on the cage floor because they cant chew it!

Birds don't chew their food, they swallow the item and the gizzard breaks it down. http://www.essortment.com/digestive-sys ... 49064.html so I would say the pieces will need to be small enough for them to swallow or they need to be able to tear off pieces to eat.

debbie276 wrote:

When i serve my birds vegetables, i try to chop them up as good as i can, but EVEN THEN they seem to have problems with chewing properly its like they "nom" on the food and then drop it on the cage floor because they cant chew it!

Birds don't chew their food, they swallow the item and the gizzard breaks it down. http://www.essortment.com/digestive-sys ... 49064.html so I would say the pieces will need to be small enough for them to swallow or they need to be able to tear off pieces to eat.

Ahhh - that explains it all!! I didn't think they had teeth - but that their beak was sharp, making it possible for them to chew better. My societies dont seem to have a very sharp beak though today, they just savored the corn and then dropped it on the floor, they were'nt able to get it into their mouth - so the pieces of corn must have been too big! Its easy to forget that they dont have teeth though you solved the mystery of the dropped corn, debbie!


Thank you all for very good tips i'll try them all! I've already tried the knife though, i always chop the softer veggies so that they are in very very small pieces, but sometimes it seems like it isn't enough even like that! The grater has given me better results with carrot for example - but i will try out the mixer/food processor!


Cindy: i laughed at what they did with the green beans the fact that they were using it as a toy made me giggle

I can see from the kitchen sink down the hall into part of the bird room. I could see a few with green beans in their beaks trying to turn and fly away from the others that were trying to take them away...it was so funny... "mine, mine, mine!!!"

cindy wrote:I can see from the kitchen sink down the hall into part of the bird room. I could see a few with green beans in their beaks trying to turn and fly away from the others that were trying to take them away...it was so funny... "mine, mine, mine!!!"

Lol i wish i had seen it with my own eyes!!