Pellets

[Guava123]

So I heard, among all the pellets brands, that Harrison or Roudybush is considered the best of the best. But Harrisons has peanuts, corn, millet and sunflower. It has a lot of nice ingredients, but then it lists a bunch of supplements which I heard you shouldn't give your bird unless recommended by your vet. So why do you guys seem to like it so much? Roudybush has corn as it's first ingredient. Why not something like Tops?

 

[Aves]

Tops doesn't have vitamin D3 like other brands do. Harrison's is organic and has vitamins.

 

[Mizzely]

You shouldn't give a vitamin supplement separately if you are already feeding a fortified pellet. That is because you can actually overdose on vitamins that way. It is really hard to overdose on vitamins in pellets; much easier with a separate vitamin supplement.

Harrison's is backed by decades of research and feeding trials, as are Roudybush and Lafeber. Harrison's is organic, has a zero tolerance for aflatoxins (the main reason to avoid peanuts), and is dye and sugar free.

Roudybush is also dye and sugar free.

TOPS is organic, corn, sugar, and dye free, but it is lacking D3. They claim they have it as alfalfa and seaweed contain small amounts of D3, but everything I have read leads me to believe it is not a sufficient amount. If your bird gets unfiltered sunlight (ie, not through a window) several times a week year round, then your bird may not need a fortified pellet. However for a lot of us, that isn't an option for one reason or another.

There is no perfect pellet. Pellets for Parrots

Here is my info on D3: Vitamin D3 for Our Birds

There is nothing inherently wrong with corn and millet. It's an excess of anything that is bad.

 

[finchly]

So I heard, among all the pellets brands, that Harrison or Roudybush is considered the best of the best. But Harrisons has peanuts, corn, millet and sunflower. It has a lot of nice ingredients, but then it lists a bunch of supplements which I heard you shouldn't give your bird unless recommended by your vet. So why do you guys seem to like it so much? Roudybush has corn as it's first ingredient. Why not something like Tops?

Some of us do like TOPS.
(Well obviously somebody does, or they’d be out of business.)


TOPS is the only pellet that’s not heat extruded, to my knowledge. Heat extrusion removes much of the vitamin content and changes the protein structure. More info: Refuse This Ruined Food That Snips Away Your Pet’s Life One Bite at a Time

I feed TOPS to most of my flock. If you’re interested, there’s a FB group that’s mostly into whole, fresh foods for birds - look for Dr. Jason Creane. There’s also an excellent monthly bird food package at Parrots | Collaborating 4 Avian Wellness.

 

[budgieluv3]

Just stay away from ones with artificial colour and flavour. These ones usually contain sugar which is not good for your bird.

 

[Chomskypom]

I always feel compelled to defend dyed and sugared pellets because compared to a seed diet, they’re still so much better nutritionally. If that’s what your bird is willing to eat, then I’d still much rather that be what they eat!

Look at the difference between my tiel’s baby feather on a seed diet vs a new feather on Zupreem. It’s not a “perfect” food but it still made a really visible impact on his health while we work on trying new foods.

 

[taxidermynerd]

If you are moving a bird from an all seed diet, even a pellet with sugars and colors will be better than an all seed diet, every time.

 

[tka]

Look at the difference between my tiel’s baby feather on a seed diet vs a new feather on Zupreem. It’s not a “perfect” food but it still made a really visible impact on his health while we work on trying new foods.

Do bear in mind that a bird's first set of feathers are usually duller and less well-formed than those in adulthood. This is because a baby bird needs a huge amount of resources over a very short period of time - it has to grow bones and organs and eyes and beak, it has to put on weight in muscle and fat AND it has to grow feathers on top of that in just a few weeks! It's a hugely energy intensive process. Nature aims for "good enough". There's no point in diverting maximum resources to growing pretty, strong feathers if that means that there isn't enough going to healthy bones. Baby feathers are "good enough" - they work and will allow the bird to fly, but the pretty, strong feathers come later when the adult bird isn't going through such rapid growth and can afford to devote the resources to growing nice feathers.

In addition, duller plumage marks the bird as a juvenile and it may be treated differently by adults. So it's in their interests to have a visual marker of "I'm a juvenile and I don't know what I'm doing" so they're granted more leeway by adults.