For a while, the only pellets my parrots would eat were TOPS & Nutriberries. Someone once told me that all pellets/mixes are basically the same, but they are not - and I think the alfalfa, which gives TOPS their scent, is probably an attractive ingredient to birds.
Having looked up the ingredients & liking to offer my parrots foraging opportunities, I make sure they get a few of various kinds of pellets in their meal, so they can choose for themselves.
I wrote down the main ingredients from a couple different kinds of pellets (after being told they were all alike) & below are 4 examples that are definitely not all alike:
TOPS:
Rice, millet hulled, barley, alfalfa leaf (the following ingredients comprise no more than 5% of total volume each] sunflower seed hulled, sesame seeds unhulled, quinoa whole, buckwheat hulled, dandelion leaf powder, carrot powder, spinach leaf powder, seaweeds (purple dulse & kelp), rose hips powder, rose hips crushed, orange peel powder, lemon peel powder, rosemare whole leaf, cayenne ground, crushed red chili peppers, nettle leaf.
Harrison's High Potency Coarse Pellets:
Ground shelled sunflower seeds, ground hull-less barley, ground soybeans, ground shelled peanuts, ground green peas, ground lentils, ground yellow corn, ground rice, ground toasted oat groats, psyllium, ground sun-dried alfalfa, calcium carbonate, spirulina, montmorillonite clay, ground dried sea kelp, sea salt.
Tropical Nutriberries:
Corn, hulled white proso millet, safflower, soybean meal, red millet, papaya, wheat, peanut granules, pineapple, mango, canola oil, corn syrup, ground limestone, gelatin, corn gluten meal, whole egg, iodized salt.
Roudybush Maintenance Pellets:
Ground corn, ground wheat, soy meal, soy oil, calcium carbonate, rosemary extract, yucca extract, dried yeast, biotin, natural apple flavoring.
