jmfleish
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Wow, this thread took quite the turn since yesterday when I tried to read the article! LOL! I'm not even going to bother finishing the article because I agree with a few of the first posters...it's biased and BS. I hate diet threads because I think there is just too much we don't know. I've had parrots for 14 years now and I have a variety of species too. I've gone from feeding all fresh foods to feeding almost extensively pellets, I also have chickens and man do those people put their foot down on diet! I've done the research and what I've learned is that our parrots are a bit different but more the same than different and that we will never know what they eat in the wild and that it doesn't really matter what they eat in the wild because the parrots we are looking out for shouldn't eat what their wild counterparts eat. I do think there's a big difference between the smaller species and the larger species and that seed is needed in the smaller species, especially if the smaller species were used to eating seed in the wild, such as a lot of the smaller Australian species.
I have Linnies, they get a mix of Roudybush and small parrot Goldenfeast as well as some mash just about every day. I have Ekkies, I'm trying to give them mash of some sort, mostly raw, every single day but they also have access to Roudybush every single day. I have Amazons, Galahs, a single smaller D2, greys in their 20s, they all have pellets avialable to them 24/7 and they get mash most days. Sometimes I don't offer it to all of them because they don't all like certain things. This last weekend I made a mash with beans and rice in it and fresh veggies and a few fruits and some palm oil. My two Rosies, Kishka and Fozzie go absolutely crazy for it and have it all over their beaks and faces. The Amazons could care less and some of the greys hate it. If I do just raw veggies like I normally do, Kishka and Fozzie are less interested but my Amazons and greys like it more. They ALWAYS have pellets! ALWAYS!
The thing about pellets that I cannot get away from is that they have the stuff in them that is fairly complete that I can't guarantee I have in every mash diet I serve them and I don't know what they're pulling out of the fresh food I make for them from week to week. Each one of my birds is such an individual and I can chop that stuff as small as possible but can't guarantee that every single one of my birds is going to eat every single thing I put in it. I'm not a nutritionist either. I can't feed myself, much less know what my birds need. I think most people are like that, no matter how much they know about food and forget supplements. I think the majority of us on this forum are smart enough to tell you that you do not supplement unless your vet tells you to! And you don't put it in your bird's water, that's the worst way to do it. That's where the fortified pellet comes in. That's your supplement! That's what puts the mash together as a full diet! And if I have a crazy day where I just can't feed mash...well, it isn't going to kill my birds to just get pellets that day but I do really try not to do that to my Ekkie boys because of their physical body composition and the simple fact that they do pick those synthetic vitamins so much easier than the rest of the birds do and it makes them do weird things like toe tapping and wing flipping.
I think that pellets do have an important role to play in every one of my bird's diets. That's just me but give it a thought. My oldest bird is Clancy CAG and he will be 25 in September. I worry about him a lot. Greys are notorious for dying of heart related issues in their 30s and 40s and I'd like to keep him around as long as I can. I'd like to keep them all around as long as I can and of course diet is a huge part of that. I have two other greys who are in their 20s or entering their 20s. All my Amazons are entering their teens or are in their teens. Diet, diet, diet...it's never far from your mind!
I have Linnies, they get a mix of Roudybush and small parrot Goldenfeast as well as some mash just about every day. I have Ekkies, I'm trying to give them mash of some sort, mostly raw, every single day but they also have access to Roudybush every single day. I have Amazons, Galahs, a single smaller D2, greys in their 20s, they all have pellets avialable to them 24/7 and they get mash most days. Sometimes I don't offer it to all of them because they don't all like certain things. This last weekend I made a mash with beans and rice in it and fresh veggies and a few fruits and some palm oil. My two Rosies, Kishka and Fozzie go absolutely crazy for it and have it all over their beaks and faces. The Amazons could care less and some of the greys hate it. If I do just raw veggies like I normally do, Kishka and Fozzie are less interested but my Amazons and greys like it more. They ALWAYS have pellets! ALWAYS!
The thing about pellets that I cannot get away from is that they have the stuff in them that is fairly complete that I can't guarantee I have in every mash diet I serve them and I don't know what they're pulling out of the fresh food I make for them from week to week. Each one of my birds is such an individual and I can chop that stuff as small as possible but can't guarantee that every single one of my birds is going to eat every single thing I put in it. I'm not a nutritionist either. I can't feed myself, much less know what my birds need. I think most people are like that, no matter how much they know about food and forget supplements. I think the majority of us on this forum are smart enough to tell you that you do not supplement unless your vet tells you to! And you don't put it in your bird's water, that's the worst way to do it. That's where the fortified pellet comes in. That's your supplement! That's what puts the mash together as a full diet! And if I have a crazy day where I just can't feed mash...well, it isn't going to kill my birds to just get pellets that day but I do really try not to do that to my Ekkie boys because of their physical body composition and the simple fact that they do pick those synthetic vitamins so much easier than the rest of the birds do and it makes them do weird things like toe tapping and wing flipping.
I think that pellets do have an important role to play in every one of my bird's diets. That's just me but give it a thought. My oldest bird is Clancy CAG and he will be 25 in September. I worry about him a lot. Greys are notorious for dying of heart related issues in their 30s and 40s and I'd like to keep him around as long as I can. I'd like to keep them all around as long as I can and of course diet is a huge part of that. I have two other greys who are in their 20s or entering their 20s. All my Amazons are entering their teens or are in their teens. Diet, diet, diet...it's never far from your mind!