zupreem pellets

[mellykyitus]

well i've tried to feed my bird harrisons but no one would touch it, even angel, ad macaws are known to eat pretty much anything! then i tried kaytee exact...again no one was interested. i'd just about given up when northern parrots were selling zupreem pellets for £8.99 instead of £17.99.
i handed everyone a pellet this morning and everyone ate it...even rocky who is a really really fussy eater, for him its seeds or walnuts. i literally have to warm and mash all his veg and spoon feed him!!
but he enjoyed the zupreem pellet. so i put a handful in all their dishes and they all tucked in! i'm really impressed with them too, they smell yummy.

but i have a question, i've been told that if you feed a pellet diet you have to limit the amount of fresh fruit and veg. as the pellets are nutritionally balanced, feeding to much fruit could lead to overdosing on vitamins. i have read about excess vitamin C causing something called iron storage disease. i really would like to know what you guys think on this, and how much fruit and veg is right?

thanks x

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Where did you hear this? Another member heard something similar recently too ... from what sounded like a bad source. But if this idea is out there I'd like to know where it's coming from and who's spreading it.

It sounds like one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. If parrots are on a good pellet they may not require as much fresh fruits and veggies as a bird that's fed seed. But not requiring as much and requiring less are two totally different things.

It is possible to overdose on some vitamins ... *possible*, but not likely.

But consider this: if a 100% pellet diet would not cause an overdose of any vitamin, and a 100% fruit/veg diet would not cause an overdose, is there any proportions of a mix of the two that could? No.

 

[birdmama61]

oh my goodness I have never heard of anything so silly . I feed zupreem avian entrees garden goodness and I also feed fruit pellet and then a mix of some seed and they seem to love this mix and my vet has said that he has never seen such a healthy bunch as my birds and he also loves the fact that he never has to clip their wings , trim their beaks or their nails as I do all this myself .I also feed fresh fruit full of anti oxidents and brocolli and other veggies and hard boiled eggs every other day . This is a very well rounded diet according to my avian vet .

 

[mellykyitus]

thanks guys. i can't remember where i heard it, i think i read it somewhere. also (more questions) the zupreem pellets contain artificial colors, Artificial flavors, etc has anyone had any problems with this. and on the packet it says "Adding vitamin or mineral supplements is not recommended and could upset the balance of nutrients and be harmful to the bird" i have a pro-biotic supplement and i use spirulina sometimes too. would these still be ok to use?
sorry for all the questions, but if you don't ask, you don't learn, right? x

 

[kerry]

I have heard from the owner of the local parrot toy & food/supply shop here "Parrot Island" that some of the nutrients in pellets are not absorbable for parrots so it is very important to give them other healthy foods also. I never heard the info that you should limit the amount of fruit & veg given when on pellets, I don't think that is true. I switched my female Yellow Naped Amazon to Harrisons from only sunflower seeds that she was being fed when I got her. The vet had said that she was over weight which I never would have known on my own, to me she doesn't look over weight at all. Now she is on a 4 pellet blend. The store where I get the 4 pellet blend believes that no 1 pellet can give a parrot all that it needs nutritionally so feeding a blend of 4 pellets covers more "nutritional bases" than just feeding 1 pellet. I don't feel that I can argue with that logic.

 

[mtdoramike]

I think it's a toss up on what to feed and what not to feed. The way I look at it is, if you try to stick with pretty much what they would eat in the wild, then you really can't go to wrong there. I use Zupreem for my Senegal and also give some to my Eclectus. I have tasted the Zupreem pellets and it's not bad tasting at all. I won't give my animals anything that I'm not willing to try at least once.

My wife would look at me strange for a long time when we first got our black lab. I would grab a handful og her dried dog food when ever I would feed her and walk around the house nibbling on it. She would go "Ooooooooo, how on earth can you eat that. I would laugh and say, if it's good enough for our dog, then it's good enough for me. If I won't eat it, then she isn't going to eat it and she would literally eat anything that I ate.

Take my Eclectus, he eats pellets and snubs his nose up at most veggies and fruits. I think the previous owners didn't feed him much fruits and veggies other than an apple every now and then. I'm pretty sure on the apple thing becausehe goes around most of the day talking about "apple". I'm trying to get him off of too much pellets. I have been putting two table spoons of pellets with a table spoon of seed in one bowl in the morning. I will remove the bowl around 9:00am and put fresh chopped up veggie mix in another bowl. He will tsake a few nibbles then start trying to pull the bowl out of it's holder.

Then at around noon to 1:00pm, I will switch out the bowl with the veggie mix to a fruit mix. Same thing, he'll take a few nibbles and then growl and try and flip the bowel out of it's holder. Then in the afternoon, I will put the bowel back in his cage with the pellets. He reminds me of my daughter when I used to try and get her to eat veggies.

 

[kerry]

mtdoramike, I have read that dog food can carry salmonella.
I am very certain to wash my hands well after I feed my dog or give her a treat.
My vet's office has a sign posted in the lobby that you should not let your dog lick your face. I don't think that too many dog owners probably follow that 'tho.

 

[suebee]

i got the zupreem as well since it was on offer lol and reading the ingredient list, to me it reads like a starchy protein flour biscuit bake with added vitamins an minerals, and the 80% pellets and 20% fruit an veg recomendation

they smell better then the harrisons and have some (very little) taste lol cos i tried one, no wonder its so hard to make the seeds to pellets switch lol cos the zupreem just drew all moisture from my mouth

if your birds are eating the pellet diet well i wouldn't give any suppliments that are vitamin an mineral based

nut is on pellets, lafebers, some seeds and a vast amount of fruit an veg, basically as she only really crunches up the pellets. her poops are often nice big, formed and moist looking, rather like those of wild birds, not like the little dry ones she use to drop when she 1st came, with the occassional splatty ones after she's eaten some fruit.

i think variety is important, simply because it makes for a more interesting day for our birds

 

[Auggie's Dad]

If the food contains salmonella you shouldn't be giving it to your dog either!

 

[kerry]

Augies DAD, Gotta feed the dog something.
I buy a good brand of dog food that is mostly chicken & NOT CHICKEN BY PRODUCT MEAL!!

 

[mellykyitus]

thanks guys. i will continue with the pellets and still feed the same fruit/veg. will see how it goes. i guess there are pro's and cons with both...parrot nutrition is a bit of a mine field!
as long as my birds are happy and healthy than i'm happy too. x

 

[mtdoramike]

mtdoramike, I have read that dog food can carry salmonella.
I am very certain to wash my hands well after I feed my dog or give her a treat.
My vet's office has a sign posted in the lobby that you should not let your dog lick your face. I don't think that too many dog owners probably follow that 'tho.

I've heard that as well, but I have never gotten sick from it and as far as I know, neither has my dog or anyone else's dog that I know. I figure you have about as much chance getting it from chickens, eggs and egg products.

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Kerry, I didn't mean to imply that what you feed is not good. I meant to (more than imply) that there is no salmonella risk from dog food.

There was a pet food recall a couple years back due to the discovery of salmonella in some of the food ... this is what they do if there is salmonella: they recall it.

Not long before that there was a nationwide recall on spinach, because a major spinach supplier was found to be contaminated with E. coli.

There is probably not any food that has not been contaminated with something in history.

Spinach, in general, is perfectly safe. So is dog food. The sky is not falling.

 

[mellykyitus]

i found where i read about iron storage disease and pellets...Macaw Food & Treats

 

[Auggie's Dad]

You really think you should believe anything written on some web forum devoted to parrots ...

Oh .... wait ...

 

[Auggie's Dad]

In all seriousness though, if you want information on avian diets you should look into the peer reviewed, empirically based, scientific literature rather than just asking for opinions someone who "really really really loves birds".

Here's a good article:
"Nutrition of Birds in the Order Psittaciformes: A Review"
Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery 15(4), Dec 2001

This highlights all the problems with, and reasons to avoid, just mimicking a parrots 'natural diet' and argues quite clearly for the use of pelleted diets with ingredients that match quiet well with most of the common pellet foods.

That should not be surprising as the people who make the pellets work with veterinarians, food scientists, nutritionists, etc. They are quite familiar with the scientific literature on which foods are best for pet birds ... they DO most of the research.

Our society has a disturbing distrust of science and scientists that I have never really been able to understand - but personally I'll go with the decades of applied science over the whims of some hippies who just "really love animals".

 

[suebee]

Our society has a disturbing distrust of science and scientists that I have never really been able to understand - but personally I'll go with the decades of applied science over the whims of some hippies who just "really love animals".

lmao

 

[mellykyitus]

LOL i think i'll feed pellets and seed and stay on the "fence"

 

[merlinsmom13]

Our society has a disturbing distrust of science and scientists that I have never really been able to understand - but personally I'll go with the decades of applied science over the whims of some hippies who just "really love animals".

Its all that thinking that leads to distrust.