Utilizing the Parrot Chop Principle to Improve Chicken Diets

Very helpful article!

Excellent ingredients...& my Chickens agree!
Not only does it provide more nutrition but it also satisfies their foraging instincts & is downright fun for them...the various colors, tastes & textures keep them interested.
I've even put a scoop of chop in a half cantaloupe or watermelon...they love it!

I have my live "mealworm farm" & my mealworms are fed the chicken layer feed & yams, so they're a nice addition to the chop, too. (Not with frozen food.)

Excellent article! I love this for winter variety! I do have to ask, how much do you give, and how often? Thank you!

Excellent plan! There are several ingredients there I never would have thought of feeding to chickens, I like the new ideas!

I completely agree with the thoughts on commercial feeds here. They provide the bare minimum of nutrients the chickens need. It is up to us to supply the rest of the things a truly healthy chicken should have!

Question: how much of each of the dry ingredients do you start with: 1/2 cup; 1 cup? Do you use smaller amounts of the fun add-ins? Just trying to get it right. Thanks.

@angeldiver The answer to your question is in the context of the article “Ratios are general, and I usually grab a handful of the mix to test for dryness. If it turns into a giant ball of glop, it is too wet and I will add dry ingredients until the consistency is a uniform crumble.”

It’s a mix as you will till you reach a crumble consistency. Since they mix it in with their fermented feed (which on my place ends up pretty wet) you wouldn’t want it to have additional moisture.

Excellent article! Most of us supplement with greens but I never thought of freezing!

My bantams have been eating my big parrots left over chop for years and loving it. It gives a fantastic beetle sheen and feather luster! However I don't suggest Chilli as it gives some avians the runs. Mustard greens and Chilli are both that way.

Making cheap chop just for chooks, means a chop freezer for a big flock, finding cheapest greens year round, manual food processor it into little portions while fresh, then freezing those cheapest greens year round. You will keep a fine selection of baggies to choose a mixture from and defrost the night before, in the sink, each time you serve!

A bantam will eat two to three tablespoons per day, depending on season, morning and evening, and her scratch mix the rest of the time during the day.

Chop can occasionally have a lot of tinned Fresh Water Tuna thoroughly mixed in, once or twice a week to boost vitamins, minerals and omegas. Or other no-fat, fine diced, lean meats. So no skin if you give them chicken or Turkey.

3 times a week is optimal for these meat/fish boosts for the premium diet.

Amazon Cheap ~$30AU Manual Food Processor
or
Tupperware ~$130AU Manual Food Processor

Either will get you to approx quarter inch square pieces for bantams or just under 1cm square pieces for big chooks aka large fowl.

Whole peas, whole corn kernals, whole grapes, whole small berries, add all these for interest UNchopped. (I buy frozen berries in bulk packets and add them in by the handful, defrosted, as in Australia the fresh berry selection of small berries is minimal).

No onion and no mushrooms, not healthy and dont want fungi spores growing in their crops.

Any fruit works perfectly fine to freeze and defrost ideally already mixed, like frozen poultry fruit salad portions in ziplocks ready to go in with their vegetables.

No it wont look look pretty, but it will taste fantastic. Only citrus doesn't work so well except with very small mandarin segments.

Once it's all a pile of soggy ziplock bags in the sink in the morning, open each, drain any excess moisture out, and empty each into a mixing tub - a plastic washing up tub or baby bath works depending on flock size.
Then get out your wooden spoon and gently start turning it all in, mixing it gently.

Pre cook any grains to make them swell entirely for safety so they don't swell inside a bird after being eaten!!! DO NOT serve hot!!!
Mix in once cooled.

Add whatever you have fresh, fruit or veg, in with the defrosted stuff, to give more texture interest too.

Serve once ready!

Final Note - Remember that apple, though they love it dearly, temporarily restricts their egg laying for about 6 to 12 hours, depending on how much they eat.

Hopefully this helps!
Good Luck,

Dr Alicia Manolas
Avian Specialist Trainer
Western Australia

Great info thanks.

Great info and instruction! And applicable to pet birds like cockatiels
Parrakeets etc.

i do this too! i also sprinkle some of the extra vitamin/mineral powder leftover from the scratch&peck bag over the shredded veggies plus i sprinkle on some kelp. i only use veggies & a few fruits - no starches. in season, they get an ear of corn to peck - they love that.
i also throw sunflower seeds into my worm farm and when they sprout, they get that too, which they absolutely love, almost as much as the worms!!!

A great little article full of usefull information.

I can't wait to give this a try! Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

It's the chop bit that's important; and what you chop of course. I chop everything I feed to chickens. I found they eat a wider range of foods if they are chopped into very small bits.
I've never frozen veg for them. I've always cooked it, let it cool and then chopped. Most of the chickens I've known won't touch raw carrot but serve it cooked and chopped and they'll eat it.
Good call on the limitations of commercial feed.
I've only cared for free range chickens and the nutrients they'll get from your feeding method they've got from a wide range of forage in the past.
I'm glad someone has written an article in improving the variety of a chickens diet. I think it's a very important topic which tend to get snowed under in the promotion of commercial feeds.
For the backyard keeper your mass production may just be an answer for providing a varied and balanced diet with minmum fuss.

Love this! Greens and other veggies are SO important for a healthy liver, chickens eating strictly a formulated diet that don't get enough exercise are prone to Fatty Liver. These ingredients are wonderful detox and help flush the liver, kidneys, beef up the immune system, add trace minerals and vitamins they may not get from their chicken feed. Excellent article!

Great article, informative and practical, with good tips for assembly. I can do this in smaller quantities (my freezer space is limited).

This is such a smart idea. I normally buy kale or collard greens and whittle them down in my food processor, I do liver, hearts as well and the obvious treats occasionally of blueberries, watermelon, cantaloupe, etc
But your idea is so good bc I do this daily and it's a big drain, but mixing it up and having only one or two days of buying and processing makes it so much easier. I'm really glad you posted this. Thank you!

I’ve read this before, but wanted to leave a rating now. This is an excellent article outlining a simple way to add varied nutrition and interest, especially for chickens living in a run most of the time. I have found some of the “chop” can be done by running the veggies over a cheese grater when making small batches of this. For someone making this fresh in small batches, another thing to consider is sprouting some of the grain.

Great article. I have been looking for recipes for chop for chickens since my daughter mentioned using chop for her pet conures.

I'm definitely going to try this, although will start small. My girls ignore cabbage, barley sprouts, squash and several of the things they're "supposed" to love. They do adore berries, though. I think maybe the tiny pieces will help, especially for banties.
I appreciate the combination of detail and flexibility in your "recipe".