Pellets? Seed? Combo?

[Cary]

Fiona should be coming home next week. I was told by a breeder (not hers) to feed in thirds, seed, pellets and chop. Her breeder (a specialty bird store) says seed and chop no need for pellets. Online I hear pellets, no need for seed.

I planned on doing the thirds because that seemed the best compromise. Now I’ve got her food and I’m wondering. Should I feed mostly pellets and mix seed in? Split them into different dishes? Did I get decent food? Ugh! New Mom panic!

I bought Higgins Intune pellets and Higgins Mayan Harvest seed. Is this going to be ok?

 

[Mizzely]

I do about 60% pellets, 35% fresh food and 5% seed.

Seeds and fresh veggies are unfortunately devoid of one vital nutrient: Vitamin D3. If your bird gets ample sunlight (not through a window) year round, you might not need pellets are long as the other nutrients are jn balance. But for most people, pellets help fill those gaps.

Here's an article I just wrote about D3
https://www.lilmonstersbirdtoys.com/single-post/VitaminD3-for-our-Birds

I mix in the bowl. Both of those are good foods

 

[Cary]

“If your bird gets ample sunlight (not through a window) year round, you might not need pellets”


We live in Wisconsin Pellets it is!

 

[Mizzely]

“If your bird gets ample sunlight (not through a window) year round, you might not need pellets”


We live in Wisconsin Pellets it is!

Yeah I live in Michigan, same story!

 

[BirdManDan]

I do a nice chop in the morning then pellets in the evening. I use seed or nuts for training treats and I use seeds, nuts, palm nuts/fruit, pandanus kernels and pellets for foraging.

Overall seed and nuts are limited to 5-10%.

Food pyramid for Birds that tends to keep our pet birds healthy.
5-10% Healthy Seeds & Nuts
5-10% Healthy Table Foods including Well Cooked Meats
10-20% Healthy Sprouts Mix
10% Leafy Greens & Red, Yellow and Green Vegetables
10% Healthy Fresh Fruits
40-60% A Well Balanced Pellet Blend-I use an organic cold pressed pellet. THIS PRESERVES THE NUTRIENTS & VITAMIN SO THEY ARE NOT DESTROYED BY A HOT EXTRUDING PROCESS.

You need to get Vitamin D3 for your birds, preferably through direct sunlight if not then supplement it in food or water or an organic pellet that contains D3.

Foods to avoid - Alcohol, Apple seeds, Avocados, Beans (Dried or Under Cooked), Caffeine, Celery, Chocolate, Garlic, Junk Food, Peanuts, Shellfish, Stone Fruit Pits, Raw Dairy Of Any Kind, Raw Mushrooms, Raw Onions, Rhubarb, Salt, Tomatoes Leaves and under-cooked Meats.

Remove fresh foods after 2-3 hours to avoid Bacterial contamination.

Pellet Based Diet
As avian experts studied nutrition, they have found that seed only diets contained too much fat and in turn, were likely to result in fatty liver disease and quite possibly, early death. Pelleted foods is a rather recent innovation in bird nutrition and provides birds with the optimal nutrition they require. Pellets often also contain added vitamins and minerals. You may read on many seed diet packaging that they are vitamin and mineral enriched. These "supplements" are usually sprayed on and when the seeds are hulled....... you guessed it, those good vitamins, etc. end up on the floor of the cage.Pellet based diets are balanced nutrition and contain a much wider variety of ingredients than seed diets. If your bird has been on a seed diet, it is never too late to convert him or her over to a pellet based diet. (See link below for a free PDF report on converting from a seed to a pellet based diet)

One last word about bird diets. If you will take note, I have used the term, "pellet-based" and not pellet diet. Pellets are a source of protein and feeding a 100% pellet diet is too much protein, such as seed diets are too much fat. Too much protein for birds is likely to damage the kidneys. I feed my own birds a cold pressed organic pellet based diet as well as generous amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables. I frequently make for them a nice birdie mash and add to it at the completion of the cooking the following in various combinations: frozen - mixed vegetables, kale, green beans, peas, broccoli, mango, papaya, blueberries, and squash. By doing this you take a wonderfully nutritious food and kick it up many notches on the healthy scale.

 

[Peachfaced]

I feed both of mine fresh chop and sprouts at breakfast and dinner. Pellets are available to them all the time and I see them frequent those bowls. I give out treats before bedtime and between meals if we're doing training.

 

[nu2birds]

Mine haven't developed a taste for chop.........so it's sprouts first thing in the morning.........then pellets mixed with about 5% (like Shawna does) seed. They are birds and in the wild seed is definitely part of their diet so I do give them seed, but a small proportion compared to their pellets. They do dig for and eat their seed first, another reason why I only give about 5% at a time. Sometime later in the day I will add another small amount of seed to their pellets. But this way I can see that they are actually eating their pellets........just not first.

 

[Birdbabe]

@BirdManDan ,I give my birds celery leaves, they love it, I dont give the actual stalk unless I peel all the " strings" out,,,never had a problem...

 

[iamwhoiam]

My conure gets a mixture of Volkman Avian Science Super Hookbill and Super Cockatiel No Sunflower. He also gets Caitec Oven Fresh Bites pellets but generally just tosses them. In addition he gets mixed veggies and every now and then Avi-cakes (small bird size) and Lafeber Parrot Popcorn. The Avi-cakes are a combination of pellets and seeds.

 

[painesgrey]

One last word about bird diets. If you will take note, I have used the term, "pellet-based" and not pellet diet. Pellets are a source of protein and feeding a 100% pellet diet is too much protein, such as seed diets are too much fat. Too much protein for birds is likely to damage the kidneys.

Roudybush studies have shown this to be a common misconception:

From here:

"Q: I have heard that processed foods cause kidney disease in birds. Is this true?
A: There are many misconceptions about this issue in birds. Tom Roudybush participated in a study at UC Davis in 2000/2001 in which normal grey cockatiels were fed diets with up to 70% protein for one year. No clinical signs of kidney disease were seen. The kidneys were examined microscopically at the end of the experiment and no significant abnormalities were found. Toxic levels of Calcium and Vitamin D3 may cause kidney damage, and kidney problems may be an inherited defect being bred into lines of color mutation birds. Until more information is available in psittacines, Roudybush, Inc. advises bird owners and breeders to exercise common sense and feed their birds diets that lie within safe ranges (safe from both deficiency and toxicity) based on research performed in any avian species studied so far, including poultry. Don’t feed your birds a deficient diet in order to protect the few birds that might have an underlying kidney malfunction."

 

[Monica]

My conure eats primarily pellets since seeds are difficult for him to eat - due to an injury to his beak.

I've been using sprouts as a base and adding fresh foods, primarily vegetables, to it, and feeding this in additional to the pellets, which he has taken to enjoy.

 

[camelotshadow]

Higgins is good quality. Rio likesthe intune & mayan...

The rest is give a varied diet veggies grains fruits pellet seed nuts (even differentpellets so in case we can't find a speciifc one) & its up to the bird to eat it so we cando the best we can.

 

[BrianB]

Most of my birds get a pellet diet with fresh fruit and veggies, and a small bit of seed. Two of them are on a strict pellet and veggie diet at the recommendation of the vet. I feed Mazuri parrot maintenance or breeder pellets, a hookbill mix, and the other is usually kale, chopped bits of celery, carrot chips, apples, and fresh corn. I buy a frozen veggie mix that comes in 5lb bags. It has no additives or anything. Some of the birds like it frozen so they play with it until they decide to eat it.

 

[alshgs]

I feed Harrison’s with fresh veggies (mine don’t really like chop) and the only seeds they get are flax seed, chia seed or seeds from their nutriberries

 

[MixieMoxie]

Loki gets Roudybush, Nutriberries, Higgins conure food, Goldenfeast bird food right now we are finishing up Madgascar delight. I rotate through flavors. He has no issues eating it even though it is meant for larger birds other than the big nuts and I crack those for him. They have a conure formula. He gets fresh fruits and veggies. Very Small amounts of cooked pasta. Cooked egg, Hamburger, or Chicken. Occassional organic human baby food whose ingredients and a veggie or fruit plus water only.

He eats better than I do.

 

[d_msparkles]

I'm confused about all of this too. The pet shop is sending us home with a 1lb bag of sprouting mix (yay!) but we've had no conversation at all about pellets. To be fair, the day I put my deposit down I was about to pass out from excitement & probably only 60% listening so I may get better info when we actually pick Waffle up for good.

 

[Cary]

When do you get Waffle? Fiona’s coming home Sunday!

 

[d_msparkles]

Yay, exciting for you!
Hopefully next week! Just waiting to hear from the store on when s/he’s fully weaned & ready to go...

 

[finchly]

Cary, here is my opinion on this. Pellets were created as sort of a short cut food because, the mfctrs said, people "were lazy and would not feed their birds the full nutrition."

Now most of us bird owners are anything but lazy! If we were we'd have goldfish instead. But the question becomes how well are you really going to cover all her nutritional needs? I'll use myself as an example. I make chop nearly every day of the week, and a lot of times I add hard boiled egg to the chop. I feed a lot more than 5% seed (because of the types of birds I have). But although I work really hard at the chop and grow sprouts and provide flax seed and various oils AND calcium/ D3 AND a multivitamin - I still feel that I should use pellets - because -- often my veggies are only 3 or 4 types. I don't branch out and use 10 or 15 kinds of veggies in a week. Therefore I assume there are 'holes' in my nutrition. So I feed pellets.

I provide "some" dry pellets and also wet the pellets and mix them in with chop. They eat it all so I know that at least that portion was 'whole' nutrition. I then cut back on the vitamins (to offset the fact that they're provided in the pellet). Also, if I go on vacation I can ask the bird sitter to serve pellets and seeds, and my birds are already used to pellet food.

If this sounds like a lot of work, it is! But we both work from home so we can feed 3 times a day or more. That's the other thing - pellets are convenient when compared to chop. So it is good to keep them eating pellets for that reason too.

That's probably way more information than you wanted !

 

[finchly]

Roudybush studies have shown this to be a common misconception:

From here:

"Q: I have heard that processed foods cause kidney disease in birds. Is this true?
A: There are many misconceptions about this issue in birds. Tom Roudybush participated in a study at UC Davis in 2000/2001 in which normal grey cockatiels were fed diets with up to 70% protein for one year. No clinical signs of kidney disease were seen. The kidneys were examined microscopically at the end of the experiment and no significant abnormalities were found. Toxic levels of Calcium and Vitamin D3 may cause kidney damage, and kidney problems may be an inherited defect being bred into lines of color mutation birds. Until more information is available in psittacines, Roudybush, Inc. advises bird owners and breeders to exercise common sense and feed their birds diets that lie within safe ranges (safe from both deficiency and toxicity) based on research performed in any avian species studied so far, including poultry. Don’t feed your birds a deficient diet in order to protect the few birds that might have an underlying kidney malfunction."

Rachel, thanks for posting that information. It's really important to know this since it is probably the most quoted statement about pellet food.