Proof you should feed your birds PELLETS.

[robert]

Shilohpaulie,you might be interested in reading this and other material in the feeding section.
from Robert and Precious

[vankarhi]

I didn't tell you guys that I won a competition in which I won some roudy bush pellets. Yes I can hear you all now "what Tracey is wanting to try pellets after everything she has said in the past"

Well I have had so much trouble with Toe Tap and wing flip with Erik that I have resorted to buying (well I was given it free as I cannot buy it in Qld yet so the supplier gave me a free bottle) fruit and vege wash and I thought I would try pellets just to see how he went..........well ................ they went on the floor He does not like them and tossed them on the floor. lol

[Robyn]

I am not for or against pellets. I have fed them to my birds only to find them on the floor of the aviary. Which i find very wasteful, but the dogs wait under the cage to get them as they drop.

I watch my birds very close as regards to what they like to eat. First they demolish the fruit and veg mix, then the nut mix, the pellets will sit there for a day or two before they even look at them, but most get tossed out so for me its a waste of money to even buy them. Not to mention some brands go very moldy up this way in the wet weather.

My birds are not seed junkies either, i have only 1 eclectus that thinks he'll die without his sunflower seeds but he gets them sprouted so he is getting good protein & not fat. Guess i am lucky in a way as i don't go through much seed at all.

When my eccies have babies the hens love a warm porridge mix i make up for them to eat twice a day. Or they all get the leftover H/R food. If i buy breeder pellets i soak that for them as well.

Tracey it'll be interesting to see what the new Vetafarm Eclectus Pellets are like. Has anyone tried them yet? Think I'll stick with what i know works for me.

[vankarhi]

I didn't win the vetafarm.......I won Roudy bush ;D Today he has tossed all the pellets and seed out of the dish. lol

Yes my birds don't get a lot of seed. They do like it though, but they LOVE their fresh stuff too.

[cheekybird]

May I please jump in here? I work in parrot rescue and rehabilitate pluckers and birds which are chronically ill, and have seen too much damage caused by too many pellets in the diet. May I also add to the warning already given above that eclectus parrots should never be given a pelleted diet - they're extremely sensitive to the synthetic vitamins in them. Pellets may be a good addition to some diets where the owners may have no time to make sure the diet is complete, but, and that is a big BUT, please think about it carefully - would you want to feed your family in the same way each and every day?? I don't think so. Pellets will provide the same vitamins (synthetic to boot) in the same amounts every single day. On top of which, they are a "dead" food - they don't provide live enzymes, minerals, vitamins and bioflavonoids provided by fresh foods. While a bird may initially show signs of improvement when fed pellets after he is in bad shape, you have to remember that you could have achieved the same results just by supplementing his diet with things like natural vitamins, wheatgrass, barleygrass, omega 3 oils, etc - I really don't believe in overloading a bird's system with synthetic vitamins in a dried food which has been subjected to all kinds of processes including separating food into various parts (as in meal and oil), high temperatures, baking, grinding, reconstituting, and then had all the vitamins they've just destroyed added back in a synthetic form. I've just seen an African Grey die this way, with a hugely enlarged liver two weeks ago (vet confirmed liver damage due to diet), and it really breaks my heart every time this happens, which is why I always try to warn everyone about the dangers of pellets. They are not always the miracle food they are made out to be, and we should remember that.

[conureowner1]

Thanks for the information cheekybird i have one bird here who will not touch seed at all not even if its soaked. The breeder weaned him onto pellets fresh fruit and veggies. My other birds are eatting seed but in the progress of converting them to pellets. All my birds exept for my quaker eat broccli,zucchini,cucumber,bok choy,corn,beans,snowpeas,capsicum,cauliflower,chilli peppers,apple,pear,mango,orange,strawberry,grapes any fruit on hand.

[vankarhi]

oops I just re read my post here and noticed it was roudybush not vetafarm pellets I won........I think I commented on a recent thread that they were veta farm. Sorry guys......I will have to be more diligent when "speaking" and make sure I am correct

[vankarhi]

This pellet topic is such a sensitive one. I always end up feeling guilty for not giving mine pellets after such a discussion and end up "thinking" seriously about getting them pellets.

I find I really struggle with "artificial" food for all my animals.........not saying they don't get some from time to time........but on the whole mine get fresh food mostly.......my dogs getting mostly heart, tripe, bones, chicken wings/legs/frames and our scrapes as well as some dry food.....but not daily and not all the time.

My birds get a good variety of food fresh and cooked as well as some seed (my pair of adult ekkies do not have seed available all the time).

I am not anti pellets......but I guess what I mostly worry about is people who put their birds on a mostly seed or pellet diet. A lady at work has been coming over to my birds and commenting on the food in their cage.....they all think my birds eat like kings actually and are surprised at the fresh things in their cage. She never thought in the 14 years she has owned her cockatiel that he would like some fresh veges/fruit until she saw my baby birds. She commented to me that she has started to give her tiel some veges and he apparently just demolishes it ...... or should I say devours it.

Ok off track here, but I just needed to get this out and I guess get my guilt out for feeling like I am not giving my birds "what some" may consider the "best" in their dietry requirements. I may still buy some pellets just for something different for my birds.

[conureowner1]

Vankarhi my guys aren't just on pellet or seed diet well exept for Aqua, my guys get plenty of fresh fruit and veggies daily, i may give fruit every second day sometimes daily. My green cheek conures will drive straight onto the veggies but will still go to there seed or pellet bowl. I forgot to mention MoJo is now converted onto pellets has had nothing but pellets in her bowl for 2 days now plus fresh fruit and veggies. MaYa is eatting a little bit of pellets but not much, My boyfriend reckons he has seen Aqua eat some pellets but so far i haven't seen him touch them.But i've only just started converting like 3-4 days ago, Not bad MoJo has already converted i'm monitoring her and my other birds still. I thought MaYa would have been easy to convert too but she is being a bit stubborn.

[cheekybird]

Conureowner1, funny you should mention a quaker. They're one of my favourite birds, and I have a half naked female quaker here right now who is being rehabilitated - she came to me a screaming, biting, plucking, nervous wreck with hardly any feathers left. I've modified diet to a totally fresh one and we're working on behaviour training, and for the first time in 8 years, she has feathers coming in where she never had them before and a wonderfully shiny beak (it was flaky when she arrived. Please be careful with quakers and pellets - the two don't go very well together, and of all the birds I've seen with health damage (mostly liver) due to pellets, quakers make up the largest number, with a well known brand of pellet being the number one culprit (begins with Z). Quakers are such fun birds!
Vankarhi, you shouldn't feel guilty about not feeding pellets. None of the birds I've either owned or rehabbed or worked with have ever seen a pellet, and they were all in the best of health with good colouring and shiny feathers. As you say, mostly seed or mostly pellet diets are not good news, though I must say that in my experience, and from what I've seen, birds which have been on mostly seed diets have fared much better than those on the mostly pelleted ones, more especially so when they are smaller birds like the parakeets and the smaller South American species. We tried to rescue a male Ekkie, a few years back, from a place where, for years, he was being fed only seeds with a few bits of apple and carrot , and I have to admit he looked in good feather even on such a limited diet. Hopefully they have now improved his diet after the council officials threatened to remove all the parrots.

[Robyn]

Guys i think its the manufactures & distributors that are to blame for flogging pellets as a complete diet for parrot also Vets. For some people believe anything they are told so until we can get through to these people to offer their birds a well balanced diet some parrots are going to suffer. My motto for my birds is fresh is best, bit of pellets & seed offered as well. I think on the same lines as Tracey & in all the years of keeping parrots i have never had a health issue with them.

My biggest pet hate is when i sell an eckie i like them to have small parrot seed not large. I even give a bag of seed with the bird along with instructions of the variety of fresh food they need. I can guarantee when they go to the petshop for more seed they are sold large parrot seed. So today after yet another of my customers have been sold large parrot i am off to the petshops to try an tell them please don't sell large parrot for eckies.

Robyn.

[vankarhi]

Yes Robyn I also give mine small parrot seed. For many years I did buy large parrot seed for my bigger birds and a few years back someone actually saw my birds and saw the seed........and commented and suggested I used small parrot seed. I find now there is much less wastage.

I am sorry for my little "rant" last night.........but sometimes I really feel guilty and I guess I feel like my birds are missing out on something. I do actually think my birds are healthy and apart from toe tap and wing flip problems from time to time with my ekkies (and Gunny's plucking the chicks and himself ........ although his plucking himself does seem to have eased) .......... I dont think I do a bad job with my birds.

Also my comments were not in any way shape or form aimed at any one in particular. I just find I feel this way after "pellet/seed" topics and I just needed to get it out and with the posts by "Cheekybird" it was good to see someone else who sort of thinks along the lines of me (and obviously Robyn too ;D )

Oh and also I have done an information sheet (well 3 sheets actually) on how and what I feed my birds and I give this to the people who buy my birds (I have only just started breeding birds too, so I have not sold many but have owned birds all my life). In my leaflets I have pics and I give information on foods and toys, bathing........all the things I think a new bird owner should know.......even if they are not new, quite a lot are new to eclectus parrots. I tell them what my birds eat and show pics. I have also suggested small parrot seed or pellets alongside heaps of fresh food and veges etc. I also mentioned licencing for ekkies too as most people once again are not aware they need to have a licence for their ekkie......in Qld anyway.

Ok well gee I hope I feel better now I have all this off my chest

[Laraine]

I feed all mine (big and small) Peachface mix. That way they can all eat it and it doesn't have too many sunflower seeds in it to make them too fat. One of my Crimsons is too fat so the vet tells me. I might pick up a bag of pellets and try them on it to see if they like them.

[cheekybird]

Robyn, I totally agree - it's the manufacturers and distributors to blame for flogging pellets as "the" thing to feed, to the detriment of birds' health. I have worked a lot online with Americans and one of the problems was vets telling people to feed only pellets. This has now changed and most vets now say if pellets are included in the diet, they shouldn't make up more than 15 to 20% of it, to avoid health problems (whereas before they denied pellets had anything to do with it).
Vankarhi, if you're not feeding pellets and still seeing toe tapping and wing flipping in your ekkies, have you tried eliminating certain foods to see if that helps? Ekkies are sensitive to added vitamins, soy, spirulina and a couple of other things. If you want, I can dig out the diet and other recommendations we use for ekkies and send it to you.

[vankarhi]

Thanks Cheekybird.........I have worked out the problem with it with my birds and each one is an individual as to what sets them off. Usually I see it in Summer due to the heat and food going "off" very quickly so I have to change food two or three times a day ....... even more oftne at times. With my younger male Erik his seems to be more sensitive and now I only buy fruit/veges from Australia ........ or try to anyway and I wash all fruit and veges in "vege wash" and we seem to have his problem under control now. With Erik I just have to be a bit more careful/diligent.......but he was by far the worst as he had both wing flip and toe tap at the same time. I was going to take him to the vet if it didn't stop but I did manage to get it under control and we haven't seen it now for probably 6 months or more. My husband is now fitting an air con in the house for the birds ;D (note it is not for the humans lol) so when we are not home and cannot leave the house open we can still keep the house cool.......it normally gets to around 41 degrees in my house during the worst part of summer ...........and that is around 1pm with no stove or anything on.

We painted the aviary roofs with thermobond about 2 weekends ago and already I can feel the difference when i enter the aviary (we painted our roof with it too and it definetly drops the temp by a couple of degrees).

[asharee]

41!! your lucky, it gets 47 here

[CatsChair]

All of my birds get pellets and seed...the little guys get mostly seed, with pellets for variety, with the converse for the tiels and ringies. Everyone gets fresh fruit/veggies along with rice/bean/etc mixes. Most of them took to the pellets very quickly, some had to be weaned using a mix of seed and pellet and slowly removing the seed completely until they decided the pellets were pretty yummy. Now they will try any kind of pellet, and will eat a mix of both (offered separately)

[Laraine]

I received a flyer from Vetafarm (I don't know if anyone else is on their mailing list) advertising Paradise Pellets for birds. They claim they provide a complete diet for birds. I guess with pellets they can add vitamins etc.

[conureowner1]

I had nothing but problems with vetafarm south american pellets with 2 of my birds. Bailey was weaned onto them. The pellets caused his poos to stink and were sloopy and he pooed alot i mean alot. MoJo who also feed the pellets had lack of energy,very quiet,mushy poo and loss of condition. Since putting Bailey onto seed his poos no longer stink or sloopy and his not pooing as much as he did before. I've also noticed that Bailey now seems to have more energy not so tired as he was when on the pellets.

Like i said all my birds get seed fresh fruit and veggies everyday this diet seems to be working great for my birds so i won't be changing a thing.

[vankarhi]

honestly I hate the term "complete diet". I really do.