More Food Prep Tips…

Like just about everyone else in these crazy times we live in, I lead a typically busy life and am therefore constantly looking for ways to minimise time spent on the `work’ aspects of parrot ownership whilst maximising time spent on the `play’. Food preparation has always been a bit of both work and play for me. I actually really enjoy thinking about the three pillars of effective diet management (Composition, Presentation and Timing of Delivery) and get a bit of a kick out of the aesthetics of it all when I put together a veritable smorgasbord of culinary curiosities for my flock. I have to admit though – getting the time to do that in-between my intense career demands, family needs and extra-curricular pursuits can be a challenge. It’s especially time consuming when you have more than one or two companion birds. Our flock fluctuates between 12 and 15 birds depending on what’s happening here so preparing food and feeding out can definitely become time intensive. 

I had always shied away from pre-preparing fresh food in advance and utilising cold storage until I watched Pam Clark and Kris Porter’s excellent DVD `Feeding Our Parrots Well’ (see review – http://parrotconsultations.blogspot.com.au/2010/02/feeding-our-parrots-well-new-dvd.html). Usually the problem you get is that fresh food doesn’t last well when sliced and diced to the small size I prefer but Pam’s technique layers the foods in such a way that it maximises freshness for the few days it gets stored. I took that onboard and what I do is stack the airlock Tupperware containers such that the final layer is frozen peas and corn. This tends to create a blanket layer that is already frozen/chilled on top of the rest of the fruit and vegetable mix and seems to aid significantly in keeping the rest of the contents fresh for up to 3 days in the fridge. In a good airlock container you get a nice `esky’ effect. It takes me only a fraction longer to prepare 3 days worth of fruit and vegetable mix at a time. I then allocate 1 portion of that for that mornings feed and store the rest for the following two days. I’ve gone from doing fresh food prep every night or morning to every third day. Less time on `work’ – more time for `play’.

Using good quality, airtight containers, layering fresh food and placing frozen peas and corn mix as the top layer significantly helps to keep cold stored diets fresh for up to 3 days.