Seed Recommendation

[SunnySandi]

I want to preface by saying that I know seed shouldn’t be the main diet.

Valkyrie came from the pet store on Vita Seed Cockatiel mix, since then I’ve been able to get her to eat some Roudybush maintenance pellet which I always offer/mix w/ her seed. She only receives seed when she’s in her cage, otherwise she has a bowl of pellets by the couch where she spends most of her time with me. She will pop over there and munch some pellets every so often.

I recently saw a bag of Vita Prima Cockatiel mix and was wondering if anyone knew if it was a good seed? Google is of no use to me with these sorts of things, haha.

My struggle w/ her current seed is that she only wants the millet, she’s uninterested in the larger seeds, kibble looking pieces and sunflower seed to the point where I sift most of them out as I found myself throwing away lots of good seed among what she wasn’t eating.

I haven’t made the transition to pellet as I’m a little afraid that she just won’t eat, and it’s not like I can let her throw a hunger tantrum like I would w/ the dog when she’s being picky.

I know diet can be a tricky subject, but please be kind

 

[Mizzely]

Don't ditch the seed completely with a cockatiel anyways All pellets can be just as bad as all seeds!

Sunseed Vita Prima mixes seem to always have a weird cheerio style pellet none of my birds eat, and then they add a lot of dried corn which also doesn't get eaten. So overall I seem to have had a lot of waste with them.

Goldenfeast, Higgins, Volkman, Zupreem Sensible Seed...those are usually what I stick to for seeds.

 

[Spearmint]

Not sure if it actually contains many nutrients, but it's a nice treat mix. I use a brand called "Forage".

 

[Tara81]

Don't ditch the seed completely with a cockatiel anyways All pellets can be just as bad as all seeds!

Sunseed Vita Prima mixes seem to always have a weird cheerio style pellet none of my birds eat, and then they add a lot of dried corn which also doesn't get eaten. So overall I seem to have had a lot of waste with them.

Goldenfeast, Higgins, Volkman, Zupreem Sensible Seed...those are usually what I stick to for seeds.

I find it funny volkman says their mix without sunflower seed is for overweight birds, but they have lots of safflower seed and mention peanuts in their mix.

 

[Mizzely]

I find it funny volkman says their mix without sunflower seed is for overweight birds, but they have lots of safflower seed and mention peanuts in their mix.

Yeah you have to pick and choose among most of the brands to find ones that you like! Sunflower free mixes I feel are more for marketing than the bird's benefit

 

[Tara81]

I think it’s probably best to feed them a budgrigar seed blend, then add a few seeds yourself , like extra grains , canary grass seed, the budgrigar seed mix should have lots of millet anyways. Also, a way to get your bird to eat the other seeds is to pick out the millet then put the other seeds in a dish near your birds favorite perch, and put the original seed mix at the bottom of the cage. And lastly, you can sprout millet seed to give it more nutrition.

 

[VanSwss]

I really like the Dr. Harvey's Colossal Cockatiel mix. Any thoughts on it?

 

[CeciliaZ]

I use Dr. Harvey's cockatiel and parkakeet blends. The cockatiel mix contains some dried fruit, veggies, sunflower seeds and safflower seeds. My tiels will pick out the smaller seeds and so much of the tiel mix ends up being wasted. My tiels seem to prefer their parakeet mix over the cockatiel blend. I do have a tiel that seems to like the cockatiel blend so I buy it mostly for her. I am considering just using the parakeet mix.