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Pellets? Seed? Combo?

SquawksNibbles

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My birds get chop, seed, and pellets. For me, pellets are important and I therefore feed them everyday. Morning time is chop/veggie time so I feed them a mix of different veggies and grains. I also sometimes include boiled egg in there as well. After they’ve finished with their fresh foods, a bowl of a pellet/seed mix is put into their cage and left there pretty much the rest of the day. The pellet/seed mix is mainly pellets, though it does have seed in it as well. I also sprinkle some of the Higgins Sunburst Leafy Greens & Herbs for them to pick out when they want/need it. Different treats and other fresh foods are fed throughout the day, as well. Then when bedtime comes I give them some late night seed and millet.

Just try to give a variety a healthy foods. Fruit can also be fed, though I haven’t found a fruit that my guys will eat. Sprouted seed is worth a try and can become a favorite quickly.

And congrats on you soon-to-be new family member. Sounds like she will be in a caring and good home. :)
 

BrianB

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I have 10 chicks in various stages of weaning. I start them on pellets because I find it easier to see that they are eating. With seeds, it's not always easy to tell shells from intact seeds, especially when they are scattered all over the cage. I start with a small dish of pellets. When it's been ground up into powder, then I know they are at least picking it up with their beak and crushing it. Once I know they are eating, then I start to introduce seeds and fresh veggies / fruits.
 

karen256

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Seed and chop with no pellets are fine but you need to be extra careful about what goes into your chop to keep it nutritionally balanced. You will probably also need to add a vitamin supplement.
Pellets are really nice to provide to just sort of balance out the diet and help prevent nutritional deficiencies. Pellets are convenient if you're busy or on vacation and just don't have a chance to make nutritionally balanced fresh foods.
If your baby's been weaned to seed and chop, he might not like eating pellets, though. They are pretty boring compared to 'real food'.
 

cheryls

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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
what is "chop?"
 

cab124

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My conure will not even look at anything that is not a seed or an apple (and now, she appears to be eating less and less apple). She eats Nutri-berries (but just picks out the seeds), and Avi-cakes (but just picks out the seeds). I have tried everything and spent lots of time and money trying to get her to eat pellets, fruits, veggies, chop, etc. but she will have nothing to do with any of it. I feel like giving up and just giving her a bowl of seed mix every day, but I know I can't do that. I have to find the magic bullet!!!!
 

Farlie

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Farlie has two feed bowls. One is for seeds and pellets and dry stuff like that. The second bowl is for 'wet' stuff like fresh fruits and veggies.
I'm about 75% pellets and 25% everything else.
 

Monica

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My conure will not even look at anything that is not a seed or an apple (and now, she appears to be eating less and less apple). She eats Nutri-berries (but just picks out the seeds), and Avi-cakes (but just picks out the seeds). I have tried everything and spent lots of time and money trying to get her to eat pellets, fruits, veggies, chop, etc. but she will have nothing to do with any of it. I feel like giving up and just giving her a bowl of seed mix every day, but I know I can't do that. I have to find the magic bullet!!!!
Have you tried any of the ideas in the following thread?

Converting Parrots to a Healthier Diet - Tips | Avian Avenue Parrot Forum
 

cab124

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Zettobi

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Unlike everyone else here, I don't feed pellets to my sun conure. She gets about 90% veggies, sprouts (seeds, grains and legumes) and a cooked mix of legume and grains plus 10% seed every day. Her veggie mix consists of 6-7 different veggies with a new mixture every 3 days (a base of leafy greens and veggies high in Vit A). Her sprout mix also consists of 6-7 different ingredients and her cooked mix has 2 different legumes and 1 type of grain. So every day she has a huge variety to help cover he nutritional needs!

Sometimes I will scrape some cuttlefish bone onto her chop mix for extra calcium if her mix doesn't have much of it. I've got a list of all the vitamins and what veggies/fruits are high in each so I can make sure I'm giving her a little bit of everything. Every weekend she gets a variety fruit salad and if the weather hasn't been good (lacking in sunlight) then I'll cook her some scrambled egg with coconut oil. We recently bought a mineral perch for her to nibble on if she feels like it. She came back with a perfect bill of health with nothing to worry about in her blood test from her last vet visit.

Her breeders have never fed pellets to any of their birds and they are all healthy and active so I believe with good planning it is possible to feed without the need of pellets. However, if one day her tests come back and showing a vitamin deficiency I will not hesitate to add pellets to her diet (as a small portion), at the moment that is not a concern.

At the end of the day, feed what you think will give your bird the best diet they can have (and will eat). I'm very lucky to have a sun conure that isn't picky at all and willingly tries new foods.
 

PamBeasley

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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! :lol: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 !
I'm a new conure owner and have been leaving food in the cage and in his perch at all times. Is that not supposed to be the case? I've also been feeding mainly seed with some pellet and fresh, and hadn't even heard of chop from the shop we got him at, so I'm panicking, though I'm telling myself it's only been 2 weeks so I can probably undo any damage going forward. I'm just confused about whether or not to leave food available all day and night and what exactly should be in chop.
 

BrianB

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"Chop" is pretty generic really, that's why we all have our own recipe. Basically any vegetable, bean, fruit, etc that your bird will eat. All of mine love apples. One in particular loves raspberries. She looks like she's committed murder after she's done. Red all over herself and anything close by. I have one pair where one bird likes strawberries and the other hates them. It will throw them out of the bowl and the other bird has to go get them if it wants to eat. I'm just not making different recipes for every bird, so they all get the same basics, and once in a while certain pairs will get something extra as a treat. No use wasting it if they won't eat it.
 

finchly

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I'm just confused about whether or not to leave food available all day and night and what exactly should be in chop.
hmm. I leave food available at all times. (dry food) Then I provide chop for one meal a day, and sometimes a fresh snack -- but I remove those after some hours so they won't spoil. The more you can vary their fruit/veggies/sprouts etc., the healthier your bird will be. Just like you!

Search this site and you will find lots of chop info.
 

Farlie

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Chop? I leave dry food out 24/7. Chop? Broccoli, cauliflower and carrots are a morning medley treat and Farlie loves 'em. Haven't found a fresh fruit he likes as of yet. I clean that bowl out right after lunch. :yes3: If I ever find a fruit he likes, I'll give that to him in the afternoons. :yes3:
 

PamBeasley

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@Farlie @finchly Many thanks for your replies. I may lose my marriage over how much time I spend pouring over these pages :laugh: But seriously, thank you for your direct feedback. My Westley loves cooked squash SO much and likes pears, apples, grapes and frozen banana quite a lot. He eats bell peppers, kale and carrot, but I never realized I could make it as a chop. Happy Thanksgiving!
 

Brittany0208

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Java's diet is about 70% chop (vegetables, legumes, grains, herbs) 10% pellets, 10% fruit, and 5% nuts and seeds. Since he requires more animal-based protein and eats more fruit than most parrot species, I'm still trying to find a balance that isn't too much but also isn't too little. He doesn't seem too interested in animal-based protein, but he'll eat fruit all day if I let him. Thankfully, he isn't that picky with food and will eat almost anything I put in front of him, so I try to make sure he gets a variety, but vegetables and grains make up the forefront of his diet. I'll give him pellets 2 or 3 times a week to fill any gaps, but I try not to rely heavily on that on my lazy days. Granted, he'll eat the pellets with no problem, but he seems to prefer produce.
 

BrianB

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I give mine a mix of cooked beans once a week or so. Every day isn't a good idea as it can have too much iron. I get 1 pound bags of various dried beans and mix them together with orzo and brown rice. I put about a cup and a half in a big bowl, then cover it with water and microwave for 15 minutes. Once it has cooled, I give each bird a tablespoon of the cooked beans. They love it. What they don't eat in a few hours gets thrown away, and there might be a little left over for the next day. Any left over after that gets thrown away. It makes a nice treat for them. You can buy bean soup mix that already has a variety of beans, but make sure it has a separate spice / flavor package. If it is premixed, don't use it because it may have garlic or onion powder in it. I save the spice package for something else.
 

Mark & Da Boyz

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I have always fed my fids. a wide range of food. A base diet of a good seed mix, pellet and fresh food.

What's a good seed mix? Well no peanuts or Sunflower seed as bot are very high in oils and fats. look and see what else might be in the mix you're buying that you wouldn't feed your birds, I got a mix that had all kings of dried fruit with a very high sugar content needless to say I never bought it again. Another thing is to look and see what's left when you change it out, I had a brand that my crew would pick out their favorites and leave the rest, they were eating about 10% and would starve before they'd eat the rest. I found another brand where they only left about 20-30% and saved a bunch of money.

What's the best pellet? As Dr England told me once "The best pellet is the one they'll eat". I try and stay away from the fruity colored sugary brands. Some are said to be great BUT the biggest name in the healthy pellet game that "all" the vets say to feed was a bust I couldn't even get the wild birds to eat much less a bunch of picky Cockatiels. After many bags wasted I ended up feeding my crew Roudybush Minis.

Fresh and cooked food. I offer a wide variety at least once a day. From rice and other cooked grains and pasta to chopped veggies and greens. You may find that the greatest thing they ever had by cleaning their plate and looking for seconds one day goes untouched the next. Even a staple like rice for the Tiels will by left to tossed if offered all the time. I also offer, small amounts, of chicken (no one my guys knew!) and fish (Baked) to them and it's gulped down after all birds, even Tiels, will eat bugs in the wild.

The hardest thing around here is to offer FRESH, CLEAN, WATER. The little Dingbats poop in it, toss food, toys feathers and any and everything in it, so be ready to change it often.

Lastly here's a link to safe and unsafe thing to eat and in general.

safe
Safe food and plants list for parrots - ExoticDirect

Parrot Diet and Nutrition Basics

Unsafe
Toxic Foods Your Bird Should Never Eat - ZuPreem

Poisonous Foods for Parrots | BirdSupplies.com
 
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