Pellets, the good, the bad, and why or why not use them

[Maria_Metropolis]

Well, Muffin did try some butternut squash yesterday, but today he wasn't as interested. I even made him a hard boiled egg mashed with wheat germ, and he was meh. He does like my son's organic toasted honey oat cereal (sugar). He attacks it. I have to keep him away from it because once they get a taste of sugar, that's it.

It seems once he touches something "wet" like a fresh fruit or veggie, he'll not eat it as much. He likes crunchy things.

I wish he would eat fresh fruit and veggies because I would buy more for him, but he just throws them away. I wonder if he would eat kale chips. I would have to make my own because there's too much sodium in the store bought brand.

 

[Maria_Metropolis]

Mine gets sick of a brand after a while, so I rotate Harrison's spicy and those oven bites mention by wannabeparrot. I just emailed golden feast for a sample of their golden oldies or whatever and they replied immediately and are sending them, their ingredients are way better then Harrison's. if I can get him to eat them is another story . I agree with dailytsuka that smaller birds benefit more from a less pellet heavy diet. I look at them as something to fill in the gaps. I feed my conure pellets first thing in the morning, then veggies, a green, then fruit. Pellets comprise about 20% of his diet, with the rest being organic fresh produce nuts and some seeds. And he eats lots of pollen, he could fill his whole crop with pollen if I let him. It's a great natural supplement.

Good idea, I'll do that too.

 

[WannaBeAParrot]

@boomboom. It doesn't come in small bags, but i the price is similar to others. Amazon had a good price with amazon prime. I tried Harrison's in the past with no luck, so i kept looking for something else, hence this product.

 

[Maria_Metropolis]

Well, I found out that Zupreem naturals, which is what I've been using, has a toxic vitamin K substance, Menadione sodium bisulfite complex. I stopped using it, and instead, I'm sprinking avian safe herbs, spirulina, paprika over his Goldenfeast variety mix. I mix three different varieties of Goldenfeast. I like that they do not use synthetic vitamins.

Here's more on that toxic substance.

https://companionparrotonline.com/Menadione.html

I'm currently waiting on a package of Goldenfeast Goldn' obles pellets instead. I've heard mixed things about Harrisons (some birds hate them, some love them), but all the reviews for Goldn'obles are very positive with birds accepting them.

I hope he likes them. I also try to give him fresh veggies, but he sparingly picks at them.

 

[riddick07]

I use TOPS for everyone and they really love it but all parrots are different in what they like. I know some will refuse to eat TOPs but mine refuse to eat Harrisons so its all personal choice really lol. They will eat Zupreem but I don't like Zupreem... When you open a TOPs bag it smells really good! I just started using the crumbles for mine instead of the regular size and they seem to waste less of it now.

 

[DallyTsuka]

personally, i'd take the article with a grain of salt... mostly because if you read the full thing, the writer even states that she "presumes" that "vitamin K supplement" must be the toxic ingredient... she herself isn't even 100% sure. so, thanks for posting it, however, i still see no reason to label foods as "bad" based on one person's apparent opinion

 

[cassiepengo]

not what you want,im sure
http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rc...Wh_29HRm3LiOue4ZQ&sig2=ePmF9v3zOD44akbptVeN3g
http://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rc...Hc3_a740ls2C3AeDw&sig2=4hhb20A0OnUmUEuBZaug7w
dont screw me up for this!! i know so surely this is not what you want,but well...you know

 

[Maria_Metropolis]

Well, I just got the Goldn'obbles today and ground them up and sprinkled on his food, so we'll see how those do. I rather use those than the Zupreem anyways because the Zupreem are processed at high temps, which ruins much of their nutrients. The Goldn'obbles smelled wonderful, I wanted to eat them. LOL!

 

[wjgonzalez]

Maria, vitamins are chemicals, whether they come from organically raised vegetables, or a chemical factory. There is absolutely no difference between vitamins made in a factory, or vitamins extracted from, broccoli, for example. The following is a link that shows the chemical structure of retinol, or vitamin a. It has carbon, oxygen and hydrogen atoms bonded in a particular way. There is no way to distinguish vitamin a extracted from carrots, or made in a laboratory. They are identical.
Retinol - Vitamin A Chemical Structure