General Feeding Questions for an Amazon

I adopted Buddy on June 30, and he came with tons of stuff, including a really nice HUGE cage.

He is being fed the same food he came with, for now:

Zupreem pellets
and
Premium Universal Blend for small to medium birds made by Eight-in-One

Some loose peanuts that appear to be roasted but not salted. Wouldn't raw be much better for him?

I'm concerned about the "Universal Blend" because it has some obviously dyed safflower seeds in it. Not a lot, but you have to wonder.

I've seen Zupreem mentioned in other posts, and it's made in the USA so apparently it is safe? Though if it is made from ingredients bought from China all bets are off.

I'm a very careful and responsible dog owner and know about premium foods and the pitfalls of trusting pet food companies. I need to get up to speed on what is safest for Buddy. So if someone could post a list of the best foods, I can then go from there. I live in a small town with only two locally-owned feed stores, and one big box store (not Petsmart, the other one). I generally avoid the big box store because most of what they have is junk/toxic/very questionable.

I owned parrots 25 years ago and there were no parrot pellets at that time. What we did back then was feed Purina monkey chow, fruits and veg, and safflower/sunflower. Things have changed!

My other feeding question is how much fresh/extra stuff can I safely give per day so that he doesn't get diarrhea? I've forgotten which fruits and veg tend to affect them that way. Can someone give me a guideline on things like apple, orange, lettuce, nuts?

One more question: we used to put vitamins in the water. Is this still done? Is it necessary, considering I'm feeding pellets.

Thank you for your help!

It sounds like Buddy came with a great quality diet. There are plenty of choices which I will mention, but if you live by the adage 'if it aint broke don't fix it', I'd say Buddy's diet aint broke! )

I feed Zupreem as Auggie's primary food. I couldn't be happier with it, nor could he - he's tried other foods but he loves his Zupreem. My first vet recommended Zupreem, and the other vets I've know have all thought well of Zupreem.

Eight-in-One I'm not as familiar with, but overall they seem to make good quality products.

Now if you are looking for the ultimate, best, most nutrient dense food you can find with no colors, no artificial anything (hell the bags are often made of paper) then you might want to check out Harrison's and RoudyBush. I don't have an unkind word to say about either of those foods which are certainly premium diets, except that they're a bit over the top.

I'm quite an advocate for high quality foods for our pets, but once you reach a certain level more nutrient packed food just means there will be more nutrients left in their droppings. Most of my animal work has been with dogs, and I often had to encourage dog owners to not by the crap that's sold at the average grocery store and get something nutritious. Then I worked with other dog owners who special ordered a food made with free range bison, stream caught salmon, venison, quail, and occasionally the ground up endangered species just to make it even more posh ... I couldn't help but laugh at them.

So what's the "BEST" parrot food, that rather depends. I'd say the best food is a combination of a healthy food made by a reliable company that Buddy will enjoy eating. That last criterion is sometimes overlooked.

Anyhow... Harrison's, RoudyBush, and Zupreem are three brands I know to provide excellent nutrition to our feathered friends, and there are certainly other brands that other members will be able to recommend.

It seems that there is a rebellion against colorful parrot food at the moment that I don't quite understand. I've looked for the facts on why people think the dies are so dangerous and I have not found anything objective or well reasoned. Auggie's Zupreem is the "fruit flavor" blend with many colors - his food is interesting, and he loves it. Just like me: I eat healthy, but I'm not going to live life on nothing but tofu and granola no matter how healthy people think they are )

<steps down from soapbox>

There are many things that are verifiably bad for our birds such as chocolate, caffeine, onions, garlic (I think), avocado (or guacamole), and several others. These should be avoided, but most other foods that are good for us are good for them. Depending on who you ask you'll get slightly different proportions for pelleted food to fresh fruits and veggies, but they usually range around 3/4 pellets 1/4 fresh foods.

It works well for me to have Auggie's pellets always available as his staple food then I offer fresh foods whenever I can. Few of us live in a situation where we would have to opportunity to give our birds too MUCH fresh food.

As for digestive upset this may be because of too much fresh foods or simply the wrong kinds. It came up in another thread recently that asparagus upsets the digestive system of many birds. It is not toxic per se as those dangers listed above, but it is hard for them to digest - so that should be offered in small quantities if at all. You will likely find that there are certain foods that Buddy handles better than others.

Ideas for fun healthy foods in addition to pellets and fruits/veggies are cooked sweet potatoes (they're loaded with nutrients, particularly several minerals), boiled chicken, eggs (including the shell crushed up).

You may also want to be careful with peanuts in general as they often harbor aspergillus (fungus). I've had this verified from a couple veterinarians, though I have never got a strait answer on what if anything makes birds more susceptible to aspergillus than humans, but in the mean-time I've passed on peanuts as a bird treat. That was hard to do as Auggie LOVED his peanuts. I first replaced them with dried banana chips and now dried blueberries. For those of us who barely have time to cook for ourselves dried fruits are a life-saver of a parrot treat.

I hope some of this long drawn out post is useful )

Thank you very much for the long answer.

I will give the peanuts to the woods and the voles can eat them. The dogs want them because they KNOW they are treats, but we'll pass on that. I had no clue about that and really appreciate the information!

You may think I'm one of those nutty dog owners as I feed Fromm Surf & Turf, a low carb, grain-free human-grade food made with wild Alaska salmon. Now I happen to know that farmed salmon is pretty toxic (folks, you shouldn't buy that stuff, it's loaded with toxins, real toxins, not imagined ones) and I'm happy to support Alaska's fishing community as well.

After the last few years when the toxic food from China killed thousands of dogs and cats, I personally think being as careful as I can be can't be all bad.

And as for dyes, well, they are made from coal tar, and coal tar is a notorious carcinogen. It also makes some children extremely hyper. Going along with the idea that birds are much more sensitive, it make sense to me to limit exposure to that kind of thing.

So call me a hippy weirdo if you want, I don't care!

Getting back to birds...fresh fruit and veggies are not that easy to come by or afford up here but buying them for Buddy will make me better about eating MY veg! All good.

I really appreciate the rough estimate of 3/4 dry pellets/seed to 1/4 fresh stuff. I've been offering him various things. A baby carrot didn't go over at all. He ate apple but wanted me to hold the piece of apple so he could take bites (adorable!).

The old standby for both me and the dogs is frozen mixed vegetables, and it sounds like we'll add Buddy to the list when I make those. Not served frozen, of course.

Everything can be a carcinogen in excessive doses.

I'd bet you eat more of these products that a parrot would get from their food.

Auggie's Dad said:

Everything can be a carcinogen in excessive doses.

I'd bet you eat more of these products that a parrot would get from their food.

Click to expand...

No doubt I do, but then again, I'm not nearly as sensitive as a bird.

I feed my Amazon fresh fruits and veggies along with Roudy Bush and some peanuts as a snack but I won't feed them to her a lot she will eat lots of popcorn ( air popped only ) she loves green beans, apples, and some times will eat oranges but she loves her veggies, she all so likes dry toast (yuck ) as for carrots it took red 3 or 4 months before she would eat one and now loves them too, it took time to find out what she liked and now she looks good and plays hard