Pellet recommendation for lovies

[Peachfaced]

I currently use the mix by Totally Organics so the following seeds are in it: Barley, Rye Berries, Spelt, Kamut, Buckwheat, Millet, Sunflower seeds, Pumpkin Seeds and Rice. You can get seeds from Sproutpeople.com or chinaprairie.com. Sproutpeople has several birdie mixes. I've purchased one of the bird mixes but it hasn't arrived yet. I also got some wheatgrass seed from them since the grass is super nutritious. BTW Sproutpeople are SUPER nice. Any questions you have, they can answer. They're really prompt and they have videos online that give details on what to do.

I use an EasySprout, pour in about 1 tbsp of the mix and I add a pinch of quinoa. I rinse the seeds with cold water while swirling for a minute. Then I leave a few inches of water in the sprouter and leave that on the counter top for 8-12 hours. Basically twice a day you want to rinse the seeds and drain them VERY well. Be diligent and get as much off as you can. I think it takes about two days and once I see little tails poking out, it's time to rinse and drain again. I spread the sprouts on a paper towel to dry for an hour or so and then transfer to a container in the fridge after giving Sherbie his morning serving. Then I wash out the EasySprout with hot water and Dawn dish soap and repeat the whole thing over again.

And no, I don't use any GSE... I've read it does pretty much nothing in terms of killing bacteria. I don't usually use anything as I've had zero problems (and I live in humid Florida!) but you can use apple cider vinegar and water (rinse off with clean water after!) before feeding.

 

[Arisa]

@Peachfaced Oh my goodness, thank you so much for giving me the links and all that info! Just what I needed. I just checked out SproutPeople, they look sooo good!
For anyone else who wants to check out their bird mixes, here's the direct link: Bird Seed Mixes - Just for Pets
They also sell sprout supplies which I think is awesome.
I'll probably buy from them. Even the sprouts that they have for people look so good, lol I might just try them out myself.

 

[Arisa]

Update! I made an order on SproutPeople for my bird, and also since the sprouts look so good, I ended up ordering some for myself too, lol. It might be my bird who is converting ME to a healthier diet.
Also, I got the Zupreem pellets and he is willing to eat it. ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

 

[Peachfaced]

Birdy things are so expensive that you pretty well have to eat healthier! LOL We'll all have a diet of pellets (that your parrot didn't like) and the veggies they can't finish.

 

[fluffypoptarts]

Poor Twinkie jumped onto his refilled bowl only to find more pellets. Kaytee Rainbow Exact, this time. But he actually started digging around and crunching through some of the small pellets (though he wouldn't touch the bigger ones) before giving me a forlorn look and hunting around his cage for more seeds. So I guess I have to buy the parakeet version of the pellets to see if he'll keep trying them.

 

[Justlinda]

Nothing wrong with eating healthier! When I made a huge buch of chop, I froze some smaller portions and ate some myself. It was pretty tasty!

 

[Dgirard]

I have a mix of Roudybush nibbles and some small pellets that are Kaytee brand (because that's what the previous owner had). For the longest time Sherbie wouldn't touch them. Then on a whim I bought Harrison's fine and he dove right into it. I'll be honest though he still doesn't touch much of the pellets. He eats sprouts and veggies so I'm not super concerned that he doesn't consume much of the pellets. He only gets plain seed if he forages for it or if he's having a training session. There's hiding spaces all over the cage and each night I tuck away small amounts of birdy crack (millet) and small bits of an Avicake here and there.

I really like your method of feeding here. That way they still get some seed, but they have to work for it, instead of just feasting on the fatty stuff. And they are probably hungry enough to try the veggies and sprouts. I just got my bird Zazu, and he eats mostly seed, even though the breeder fed all her birds Roudybush pellets, veggies, and sprouts. I don't think Zazu actually ate any of that stuff though. He tasted one of his pellets once, but when he bit it both halves pinged across the room. Maybe I should add some water to the pellets, or crush them up a bit smaller (they are the mini size).

Did you have to work hard to get your bird to eat healthy or did it just work out?

 

[Peachfaced]

I had to work at it. It's still a work in progress. I pretended to eat plain seed and then offered Sherbie some, then once he was used to getting yummies from me I tried giving him veggies. It took lots of trial and error but he decided to try carrots. Now he's more willing to try other things if I continually use that same method. Sprouts weren't that bad. I gave him soaked millet and he took to that so when offered other sprouted seeds it was good too. Some of the bigger sprouts like chickpeas or lentils he hasn't tried but I think he will soon.

 

[Happynme]

Happy has had everything under the sun offered to her. The only thing she will eat (and sparingly at that) so far as pellets is the zupreem fruit blend finch size.
She has been a turd and thrown more than she eats as of late. So i fixed that by throwing it in the nutra bullet with her veggies and making a interesting looking (read yucky looking) mush that she will eat several bites of. Ive had the most success with collards carrots corn black eyed peas green peas blueberry sweet potato and green beans. She destests bananas .
She does love bread of any sort (we had a tiff over my plain waffle yest morning)
So im going to attempt.birdy bread and see how she goes.
I am about to get some roudy bush and throw some of that in the nutra bullet mish and see how she goes as im truly wanting nutrition IN HER...not flung as far as she can fling it...lol

 

[Beanurita]

My lovie is picky on her pellets but she eats sprout and fresh daily! I've tried what seems like every kind of pellets and sizes possible without much luck for my lovie....I end up putting it in their birdie bread. My GCC won't eat the Orange or purple fruity pellets so those go into birdie bread as well. They don't even realize there are pellets in it!!!

 

[fluffypoptarts]

Happy has had everything under the sun offered to her. The only thing she will eat (and sparingly at that) so far as pellets is the zupreem fruit blend finch size.
She has been a turd and thrown more than she eats as of late. So i fixed that by throwing it in the nutra bullet with her veggies and making a interesting looking (read yucky looking) mush that she will eat several bites of. Ive had the most success with collards carrots corn black eyed peas green peas blueberry sweet potato and green beans. She destests bananas .
She does love bread of any sort (we had a tiff over my plain waffle yest morning)
So im going to attempt.birdy bread and see how she goes.
I am about to get some roudy bush and throw some of that in the nutra bullet mish and see how she goes as im truly wanting nutrition IN HER...not flung as far as she can fling it...lol

I am going to try the finch size pellets of the Kaytee as that has been the ONLY brand of pellet I have seen Twinkie crunch at all. I don't know if any of them would touch mush!! I've tried to offer a little of my smoothies to them, and even juice, but NOPE. LOL, Twinkie hates bananas, too. With a vengeance. It doesn't help that the antibiotics I've had to give him also often come in banana!

Hehe, poor Happy. Mama won't give her that justly deserved waffle! That mean mama!

I'm about to try making birdy bread, too.

I had no luck with Roudybush, either. They drive me crazy. Trying to get nutrition into these little monsters is more difficult than it should be!

 

[Happynme]

I am going to try the finch size pellets of the Kaytee as that has been the ONLY brand of pellet I have seen Twinkie crunch at all. I don't know if any of them would touch mush!! I've tried to offer a little of my smoothies to them, and even juice, but NOPE. LOL, Twinkie hates bananas, too. With a vengeance. It doesn't help that the antibiotics I've had to give him also often come in banana!

Hehe, poor Happy. Mama won't give her that justly deserved waffle! That mean mama!

I'm about to try making birdy bread, too.

I had no luck with Roudybush, either. They drive me crazy. Trying to get nutrition into these little monsters is more difficult than it should be!

Oh she got some waffle....she just decided that her bite wasnt as good as my syrup covered one..and went after mine. Had to say no because i doubt syrup would be on the ok to feed your bird list..lol
She was NOT very happy with mama. AFTER SCREAMING at me and trying to lick the syrup off my lips ..SHE FINALLY went back to her previously not good enough bite of waffle and down it went.
Little brat!

 

[fluffypoptarts]

Oh she got some waffle....she just decided that her bite wasnt as good as my syrup covered one..and went after mine. Had to say no because i doubt syrup would be on the ok to feed your bird list..lol
She was NOT very happy with mama. AFTER SCREAMING at me and trying to lick the syrup off my lips ..SHE FINALLY went back to her previously not good enough bite of waffle and down it went.
Little brat!

Of course, yours is always better than theirs, even if it's the same food! Yeah, no syrup for birdies... Haha, she's so adorable!! Welll, you know, if you deny Queen Happy, you get screamed at! Perfectly understandable!

 

[Happynme]

Of course, yours is always better than theirs, even if it's the same food! Yeah, no syrup for birdies... Haha, she's so adorable!! Welll, you know, if you deny Queen Happy, you get screamed at! Perfectly understandable!

Thankfully she just screamed at me.....i was expecting a nip. Lol

 

[Happynme]

Forgot to add..happy dosent like to bite into an orange slice for some reason...but if i.get the juice on my finger she will lick the juice of and then patiently wait for me to coat my finger with it again and lather rinse repeat. I offer her a teaspoon of the juice...she literally shakes her head no and.walks away.

 

[Dgirard]

Happy sounds hilarious. I swear she is the epitome of lovebird clownish behavior.

 

[Happynme]

Happy sounds hilarious. I swear she is the epitome of lovebird clownish behavior.

Shes a hoot. But naturally when i turn the camera on she stops all antics. So i.never have proof of her clowning

 

[fluffypoptarts]

Shes a hoot. But naturally when i turn the camera on she stops all antics. So i.never have proof of her clowning

NATURALLY. There are things I'd love to capture on video, etc, but the little beasties won't cooperate!

 

[fluffypoptarts]

Oh my GOD, it happened! TWINKIE ATE PELLETS. I bought a package of the finch-size Kaytee Rainbow Exact since he had picked some of those out of the lovebird-sized mix and showed some slight interest in them. So I poured some of the small mix into his bowl this morning and he DOVE in and started eating them right away! He did that for a couple of minutes before switching to the other bowl where his fruit and veggie seed mix resided. HOW EXCITING!!

Thank goodness since I was running out of pellets for him to try. I hope he keeps liking them and eating them. Now I have to figure out what the others will eat.

 

[Happynme]

Oh my GOD, it happened! TWINKIE ATE PELLETS. I bought a package of the finch-size Kaytee Rainbow Exact since he had picked some of those out of the lovebird-sized mix and showed some slight interest in them. So I poured some of the small mix into his bowl this morning and he DOVE in and started eating them right away! He did that for a couple of minutes before switching to the other bowl where his fruit and veggie seed mix resided. HOW EXCITING!!

Thank goodness since I was running out of pellets for him to try. I hope he keeps liking them and eating them. Now I have to figure out what the others will eat.

Yay twinkie...good bird!