I know we don't love pellets - but I have a pellet question

[DexMom]

I feed Dexter a varied diet of fresh fruit, veggies, beans, healthy grains and nuts. He gets very occasional sunflower seeds as treats for good behavior. Even though he's a great eater and I'm providing him a high quality diet, I choose to leave a dish of pellets in his cage for between meals, in case he gets hungry between breakfast and dinner and in case there is some diet need I'm not fulfilling with his fresh food. For the most part he picks at them, actually consuming very little. I also like to use pellets in his foraging toys because I can bury them and not worry about spoilage if he doesn't find them right away.

When I first brought him home, the hand-raiser had him eating Zupreem Naturals pellets and he chowed through them like crazy. Knowing that our Ekkies are special little snowflakes that can't eat what all the other parrot species eat, I knew the Zupreem had to go since they are loaded with vitamin/mineral supplements. As a replacement, I had chosen Goldenfeast Golden'obles, since they have outstanding ingredients and don't have any added supplements. The problem is that Dexter doesn't really seem to like them. He tosses more than he eats.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a pellet food that is appropriate for Eclectus parrots, that their bird loves? I'm looking at Tops, but it's costly and I can't find a local retailer to try and score a sample. I made the mistake of buying a large container of the Golden'obles, which is not being eaten. I'd rather not make that mistake twice.

 

[Aquila]

I'm no Eckie expert, but it seems there's not much available for pelleted diets.

Pretty Bird has an Eckie specific diet, I think I've read about feeding the low iron softbill foods too, but from what I saw those have added vitamins and minerals as well.
Pretty Bird Eclectus Special

Harrison's also lists Eclectus on their feeding list but I'm not sure how I feel about it, though it'd probably be better than the Zupreem.
Pet Bird Diets: Harrison's Adult Lifetime Coarse Bird Food

Mazuri's softbill diet says it's good for any frugivores, but again, added vitamins and minerals, but I'm not sure of the amounts or anything. They're decently priced and I'm trying the breeder formula, I might switch my others from Zupreem to the maintainence Mazuri once I run out.
ZuLiFe® Soft-Bill Diet for Iron Sensitive Birds # 5MM6 - 2 lb


And some googling lead me to this:
AVIAN PELLET FOOD

Ingredient list seems decent, but the website is kind of meh. Fairly inexpensive, especially since you're not using much. Hopefully I've been some kind of help!

 

[chris-md]

What about a dried fruit and nut mix? I also give Parker mostly fresh fruits and vegetables, but at night before bed I put this (link below) in his cage in case he gets peckish at night. Additionally on the rare day I'm not able to provide fresh fruits and vegetables, like if I'm getting up two hours earlier than usual for work and I don't want to leave fresh stuff out the extra two hours (meaning it would get left out for14 hours), I can rest assured hes still getting his fruit and vegetable serving if I give him this rather than pellets.

20 lbs Higgins Fruit to Nuts : Bird Food

If you want another good foraging treat that won't spoil, get Nutriberries. Parker goes nuts for them and they are anywhere from 25 to 30% pellets, the rest being various kinds of dried fruit (pepper, mango, papaya, etc). You can get this from Petsmart or Petco. I've heard they can be somewhat garbage-y, but as long as you're only giving him four or five a day you're perfectly fine.

 

[DexMom]

The Pretty Bird, Harrison's and ZuLife pellets all have vitamin and mineral supplements, which I'm trying to avoid. These are high quality pellets that would serve most parrot species well, just not Eclectuses (Eclectees? Eclecti?). Oversupplementation can cause toe tapping, wing flapping and plucking in Ekkies.

[rant mode] It KILLS me that the Pretty Bird is calling their food a species specific variety made for Eclectus parrots when it's the worst of the lot. It not only has supplements which are harmful to Ekkies, but also artificial colors (which dull the natural feather color) and BHT as a preservative (which is also used in embalming fluid - yum!). [/rant mode]

Chris - I thought about going to a dried fruit/nut blend outright. Right now I'm mixing in about 25% of that with the pellets I'm serving (which Dexter is quite adept at picking out and leaving the pellets behind). Perhaps I could just loose the pellets altogether. But, for some reason I'm hesitant to do that. I guess I don't trust myself to feed him properly without a pellet "safety net."

 

[Taw5106]

My vet gave me a Harrison's pellet sample and both fids said no. I tried Zupreem, another no. I tried Rowdybush, Venus goes to town on it, Buddy my GCA still says no lol. I started giving Venus a tablespoon of Rowdybush with each meal. That's three times a day.

 

[Mimsy01]

i don't have an ekkie, so I have limited knowledge on their diets. But I the goldenobles are the only ones I know off hand that have no added ingredients.

Foo isn't fond of them either. I ended up sprinkling cinnamon and cayenne pepper in them and shook it all up. She will eat them up now, so if Dexter is a fan of either you might try that.

 

[Anansi]

I know there are people on this forum who feed their ekkies pellets, so hopefully they'll chime in soon enough.

I used to give mine a small serving of Harrison's. 5 at breakfast, 5 at dinner. Like you, it was a safety net in case I was missing anything. (Plus, Bixby used to go insane for them!)

Eventually, though, I just made the switch to just fresh foods. And it's worked out pretty well.

 

[friendcaique]

so if i gt a black headed caique can i just leave a dish of harrisons pellets and some fresh food food him to eat while i'm am at school along with his regular feedings during the day. What about at night do i just give them some pellets? also last question how much of the fresh food and pellets and what times. thanks in advance. sorry if someone asked this before. theyhavent asked about how much and when and they werent asking about for a caique.

 

[Anansi]

Hello. No need to apologize, but you'd likely be better served starting a thread in the Caique section about this. You'd have a far better chance of having your questions answered by members with lots of caique experience.

 

[katie_fleming]

I recently started giving Jasper pellet berries (I forget the name right now, I'd have to check at home). They were recommended by the vet due to black tips on his feathers. While I make all of Jasper's food and he has a great variety, my vet said he might not be eating everything and getting all the vitamins/nutrients/etc that he needs.

He had toe tapping on Harrison's pellets which I discontinued last year so I was very hesitant, however these pellets have been totally fine. No toe tapping what-so-ever. I give him 2 pellet balls a day (started with 1 per day) so it's not a lot, but still getting that into his diet.

Edit: Found them. They're the Lafeber ones: http://parrotdiseperch.com/east/lafeber-pellets-berries-parrot

We all feed our parrots differently so it's really up to you with what you feel is best for them

 

[Anansi]

Hi, Katie! You and Jasper have been on my mind. I'd been meaning to ask how he's been lately. No more toe-tapping?

 

[katie_fleming]

Not since April! Or before. I can't remember its been so long!

 

[Anansi]

Sweet! I'm glad!

 

[DexMom]

I might try the Nutriberries. I was concerned, again, by the supplements, but I guess if it's just a couple per day it's such a small part of his total diet that it should be OK.

 

[chris-md]

There are a few ekkie owners here I believe who provide nitro errors to their birdies. It's how I wound up giving them to Parker. He loves them!

 

[Anansi]

There are a few ekkie owners here I believe who provide nitro errors to their birdies. It's how I wound up giving them to Parker. He loves them!

Nitro errors? Sounds a little hard core, man! I think I'll pass on those! (No wonder poor Parker is feathering in so quickly! He's "juicing" on Nitros! For shame! )

 

[DexMom]

There are a few ekkie owners here I believe who provide nitro errors to their birdies. It's how I wound up giving them to Parker. He loves them!

Funniest auto-correct ever!

 

[Jayson_Black]

Im not sure if these are available outside of Australia but we use "Vetafarm" - "Paradise Pellets" High Quality stuff, not so cheap though ~$100.00 AUD for 10 KG Bag. They smell like dried fruit and are quite sweet to taste (Yes I tried some, they smelled so good I had to know). However, our Male Eclectus Just growls and tosses them out. We change their pellets out every day, at the same time give them their fresh fruit and veges. Quite Often he just growls and tosses them out immediately, while eating a few in between tosses. I don't think its because he doesn't like them. I think he just likes the sound of them hitting the floor. This Male in particular (We Have two Males & 1 Female) is very sound Orientated. He love Generating sounds. Banging things, dropping things from height and also dropping pellets. In Fact we are in search of ways to limit his ability to Toss his pellets out or somehow teach him to not do it. The Female that is in there with him occasionally eats the pellets but never ever throws them out or tosses them out.

 

[chris-md]

I’ll spare you the full take down, jayson, but paradise pellets are garbage pellets. Very low quality for any bird, definitely not suitable for ekkies.