Daily Maintenance Diet Poll

[BirdLady13]

Please submit your votes from the poll choices provided!

 

[Shezbug]

There’s only one brand there that I’m familiar with.... the other brands I use aren’t listed. So I’ll just keep an eye on what everyone else seems to use.

 

[RainbowFlo]

I'm interested to see the what the most popular brand is

 

[RainbowFlo]

My guess is Zupreem or Roudybush

 

[Clueless]

My guess is Zupreem or Roudybush

I'm currently using roudybush but I used ZuPreem natural also.

 

[Mizzely]

Purchase? All of them!

Actually get eaten?

Zupreem and Pretty Bird (not natural gold though)

ETA never heard of Sleek and Sassy

 

[clarousel]

I feed Preeno Zupreem now but would like to get Harrison's or TOP'S in future

 

[RainbowFlo]

ETA never heard of Sleek and Sassy

Sleek and sassy sounds more like a hair product than a bird food

 

[Mizzely]

Sleek and sassy sounds more like a hair product than a bird food

I was thinking a high end cat food

 

[Destiny]

Why does it only allow two selections? I am using seven or eight different brands right now.

 

[BirdLady13]

Purchase? All of them!

Actually get eaten?

Zupreem and Pretty Bird (not natural gold though)

ETA never heard of Sleek and Sassy

My mistake on Pretty Bird - I thought the only line was Natural Gold.

 

[BirdLady13]

To those that buy multiple brands: select the 2 that are more widely accepted among your flock, or the brand that provided the smoothest transition to pellets.
To those that only use 1, or maybe none, of the brands listed: select the single brand you use(d), and/or the brands you have heard people rant and rave about.

 

[Destiny]

If anyone is curious, these are the brands I use, ranked in order of personal preference:

TOPS Mini Pellets
Harrison's HP Super Fine
Roudybush Nibbles
Mazuri Small Bird
Lafeber's Daily Diet Parakeet
Higgins Intune Parakeet
Zupreem Fruitblend Small Bird
FM Brown's Tropical Carnival Parakeet

I am feeding a large flock of parakeets and decided to transition them to a more varied diet that included free-choice pellets, daily veggies/sprouts, dry/fresh grasses and dry seeds as forage/training/enrichment. I tried a wide range of pellets to see what I liked and what the birds would accept. I like the ingredients in TOPS pellets, since they are not primarily corn-based like most pellets. I like the long history of safe use for Harrison's and Roudybush. I got Intune, Zupreem, and Tropical Carnival to see if the birds enjoyed the variety of colors and fruit flavors (and added sugar), but they were not that interested.

In terms of acceptability, there was no clear winner. None of the pellets was uniformly loved or hated. All of them will get eaten as long as I hold back on offering seeds until the pellets have had a chance. They seemed to show the most interest in Mazuri, TOPS, and Harrison's, but the other pellets will get eaten (or at least ground down into a fine powder), given enough time.

I plan on slowly phase out most of the brands over the long term, but since the birds are willing to eat them, I figure I might as well finish off the open bags. At this point, I have various feeding stations set-up with three different pellet blends in my aviary as their base diet, so they can pick from all the available options - some birds seem to favor certain brands, but I need to watch them more closely to determine the "top" pellet.

I think the parakeets would probably vote for millet, if that was an option.

....

Of the listed brands, I also happen to offer Goldenfeast Australian Blend and Sleek & Sassy Garden Parakeet mix, but those are both primarily seeds, not pelleted feed.

 

[SkyLark]

I'm currently using Zupreem fruity, just converted Corky from Kaytee to Zupreem. Planning to mix Zupreem with Labrafer's (is that how you spell it?) later on.

 

[Mizzely]

My mistake on Pretty Bird - I thought the only line was Natural Gold.

They actually have a ton! They have a lot of species specific ones. Currently I'm feeding Daily Maintenance but want Ripley on the African if he keeps refusing the Harrison's High Potency because of the extra calcium, etc

 

[Shezbug]

My mistake on Pretty Bird - I thought the only line was Natural Gold.

So I don’t use the natural gold but I do use pretty bird- shall I tick that box too?

 

[Ali]

So I don’t use the natural gold but I do use pretty bird- shall I tick that box too?

Yeah!

 

[Shezbug]

Yeah!

I think I will.
There is only two brand names there I use but they’re not necessarily the favourite or main ones. There’s one other brand I’ve used on that list but neither Burt or I liked it.

 

[Ali]

I liked it

Have you been eating the pellets too?

 

[Shezbug]

Have you been eating the pellets too?

I actually do not feed Burt anything I haven’t tasted so that would be a yes! Lol.