TOPS pellets

Hi all just a question. I feed my crimson bellied conure Harrisons super fine pellets, Roudy-bush crumbles, and Zupreem natural pellets. I also give him Volkmans hook bill seed only a couple times a week as a treat. He gets his fresh fruits, nuts in the morning and fresh veggies in the evenings. I was wondering if this is adequate or I am thinking of adding TOPS pellets crumbles to his pellet mixture. Is this too much in the way of pellets or is it ok to add them to the mixture. I only want him to get a good variety of fresh foods and pellets. Should I add TOPS or leave it as it is or maybe substitute one of the present pellets for the TOPS? Is TOPS the best pellet out there? Thanks.

I would give up the Zupreem or Roudy-bush in favor of the TOPS, much better pellet imo.

thats a lot of different pellets if you are feeding all of them regularly....

We are TOPs fans here... the Harrisons adds a clay we are not comfortable with, not to mention no one here will eat them. We are trying a couple birds on Roudy Bush because they are not eating TOPs as much... guess like people, they get tired of same pellets all the time. I would drop the Zupreem altogether in my opinion. You can alternate between pellets, but would not put all of them out at the same time. But, that's my opinion only.

Valentino was raised on Tropican which is a Canadian food. This pellet has to be ordered in a 20 pound bag from Amazon and will last my bird for about 6 months. I freeze the surplus to keep it as fresh as I can.

I tried converting Valentino from Tropican to TOPs but no matter what way I tried he plainly hated the TOPs pellet. Valentino would go as far as to throw the pellet at me when I was within range. One time I ran out of Tropican and Valentino would not even touch the TOPs. He displayed begging behavior until I was able to offer him the favored pellet.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prVYLnTBhBQ"]Begging behavior short - YouTube[/ame]

Poor baby parrot. Begging for his Tropican. Anyway I have a 5 pound bag of TOPs that is unopened and sitting here because my parrot won't eat it. Valentino does LOVE Zupreem. However this is refereed as birdy crack in our house and is only given to Valentino as treats or for training. LOL

So what exactly is wrong with Zupreem natural pellets?

goalerjones said:

So what exactly is wrong with Zupreem natural pellets?

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There's nothing wrong with the natural pellet, but a lot of people feed the "fruit" kind, which had dyes in it, which isn't good for your bird.

The important thing to do is read the list of ingredients on any pellets to see what is in them. Some are more complete nutritionally and have more wholesome ingredients than others. Some have by-products or ingredients that might not be so good for are birds. One brand might be of a higher quality than another.

goalerjones said:

So what exactly is wrong with Zupreem natural pellets?

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Its not that Zupreem is bad or wrong... there are just better, healthier choices. But, if your bird will only eat Zupreem natural, then feed it! If its no pellets or Zupreem natural, then definitely go Zupreem.

Its like food for people... a big mac is obviously bad for you... a hoagie from Subway is a better choice, but a homemade sandwich using 12 grain bread with freshly roasted turkey is way better...

Pellets are really subjective and its all a matter of what is acceptable. Some people swear by Harrisons, but they put clay in their pellets, that's not a choice I would pick for my birds. No pellet is perfect... Zupreem is not 100% organic, TOPs is, but if your birds won't eat TOPs, but loves Zupreem, then in that case, which is better for your bird? Others will argue that TOPs does not meet every single nutritional need of a bird because its missing Vitamin D. But eggs provide some Vitamin D and if your bird gets some sunshine, well, Vitamin D covered.

Someone here once posted that the best pellet for your bird is the one it will eat!! And there are times when that is so true!! And everyone will have their order to list the most popular pellets best to worst.

Jenphilly thanks so much for your great advice. It is so nice to find others here with so much good experience. I will drop the Zupreem naturals here when I am out of them. I will also drop the Harrisons since it has clay in it. I will continue with the Roudy-busy and try to alternate it with the TOPS pellets in the crumble form here. I will also try the Goldenfeast mixtures you mentioned. Is it ok to mix the alternating pellets (Roudy-bush & Tops) in with the Goldenfeast mixture? I would only give Ziggy like a tbsp of the pellets mixed with the GF. Is that ok or is it better to just feed the GF separate with no pellets mixed in? Thanks again and what is the best GF for my conure? I could alternate GF mixes from month to month for variety. Thanks.

We mix the Goldenfeast everytime we purchase, who wants to eat the same thing all the time

We mix the pellets right into the Goldenfeast. For Ivory who won't eat a pellet if her life depended on it, I actually put the pellets thru the nutribullet so its almost a dust, then dump the pellet dust into a container with Goldenfeast and shake it all up so its coated. That way she has to eat the pellets, whether she wants to or not!!!

Schmitt's original is a great choice for Goldenfeast. I usually mix that with another one that is a huge hit is the Bonita Loco. Their Gardenfloro is a great one to have around to add in couple times a week or as a treat (its pricey and needs to be kept in the fridge to keep it from drawing bugs). We've also tried the hookbill mix, but think I only had that for Ivory, but they do have two sizes.

The only catch with the mixes is to keep an eye on what is eaten and make sure they are eating some of everything and not just picking out a favorite thing. Ivory will pick out nuts first, then grains and seeds, but again if the pellets are dusted on everything, no matter what she picks, she is eating pellets too!!

The green cheeks also love dried hot peppers too. Think couple of the mixes have the dried peppers or you can purchase them separately and just hang them in the cage like millet!

I've heard a LOT of good things about TOPS. And Harrison's has clay in it??? No waaay! Why didn't I notice that on the ingredient list? Well, definitely not getting that for my Meyers! I'll see if I can get TOPS from this one website, if not, I'll get some Roudybush. Screw that, man... clay? wowza.

I did not notice it myself, someone else pointed it out way back when I was going thru pellet after pellet to find something Ivory would eat. Unfortunately I did spend the money and had a bag of them.

Funniest part... the wild birds would not touch them!!! They eat all our leftover food, I dump the birds bowls into a large plastic bowl and put it out couple times a week. Birds love the mixes and TOPs, but I had to clean up the Harrisons cause it was making a mess with the weather.

My galah LOVES her TOPs. I'm actually shocked, as no other bird of mine will touch it, and a few short months ago she was a seed junkie. The only other pellet I've found that she's really into is Caitec Oven Fresh Bites. Will not touch Harrison's, and isn't into Zupreem at all anymore.

I've read that TOPs are not a "complete" pellet, though. They are made from 100% natural, food-grade ingredients, which on the one hand is awesome -- but on the other hand, the lack of synthetic vitamins means no D3 supplement. Also, vitamins A and E are very important...TOPs pellets do contain ingredients that are naturally high in those two, but just in case, I would only feed TOPs if your bird has full-spectrum lighting, and eats a lot of fresh foods as well.

Oh, wow. We give our wild birds jam (especially grape and blueberry), small amounts of lard (in the winter), mealies, seed mixes, etc. I never thought about feeding the leftover foods! That's a great idea but unfortunately, a squirrel that somehow got on our roof (literally NO idea) leaped onto our bird feeder and knocked it off... so it's on the ground now... but that's okay, squirrels need to eat too and they HATE jam! But they'll gorge themselves on the seed... but we have a place here that sells bulk seed mix VERY cheap (like, $5 for a 20# bag!) so that's okay.

That is a wonderful idea though, giving the leftovers to the wild birds. I would've never thought of that-- thank you! Unfortunately, this site online doesn't sell TOPS, so I'll get a bag of Roudybush. I'd really like to try TOPS though, once I get my little guy. I've heard so much good things about it, never a bad thing!

(totally didn't mean to hijack, sorry!)

aether-drifter said:

My galah LOVES her TOPs. I'm actually shocked, as no other bird of mine will touch it, and a few short months ago she was a seed junkie. The only other pellet I've found that she's really into is Caitec Oven Fresh Bites. Will not touch Harrison's, and isn't into Zupreem at all anymore.

I've read that TOPs are not a "complete" pellet, though. They are made from 100% natural, food-grade ingredients, which on the one hand is awesome -- but on the other hand, the lack of synthetic vitamins means no D3 supplement. Also no vitamin A or vitamin E, which are very important. So I would only feed TOPs if your bird has full-spectrum lighting, and eats a lot of fresh foods as well.

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That's not accurate... Vitamin Dd is the missing component people raise the flag about...

TOPs has sunflower seeds and spinach flower, both high in E.

Carrots and multiple peppers in TOPs provide Vitamin A.

Dandelion leaves provide Vitamin D, but its specifically the D3 that is always raised as the flag.

But giving your bird scrambled eggs as a treat is a source of D3 which is found in the yolks. Otherwise, sun is the obvious solution for all of us!!

I don't believe any pellet is a complete diet, but its a base to start from

jenphilly said:

That's not accurate... Vitamin Dd is the missing component people raise the flag about...

TOPs has sunflower seeds and spinach flower, both high in E.

Carrots and multiple peppers in TOPs provide Vitamin A.

Dandelion leaves provide Vitamin D, but its specifically the D3 that is always raised as the flag.

But giving your bird scrambled eggs as a treat is a source of D3 which is found in the yolks. Otherwise, sun is the obvious solution for all of us!!

I don't believe any pellet is a complete diet, but its a base to start from

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Yeah, edited my post to add that I do know TOPs contain ingredients naturally high in vitamins A and E (though I'm not sure how high a percentage they make up in the pellets). However, there's no vitamin D3 at all, which is needed to metabolize calcium. Where I live, weather only permits giving birds natural sunlight about 4 months out of the year, so I think it's a good idea for birds that aren't getting a D3 supplement in their diet to at least have full spectrum lighting.

You're right though, no pellet is a complete diet. Flower does not really like eggs, unfortunately. But at least since she does eat the Caitec pellets too, I'm not that worried.

I have full spectrum lighting for Ivory too... but then there is debate about that as well... sometimes you can't win I do not put the light on all the time, heard it can cause eye damage, but put it on a few times a week, figure long as it ain't hurting, might help

Your bird does not like scrambled eggs! I thought that was a standard for all birds, kinda like all kids like candy.

We were just looking at the Caitec baked pellets when we were at Birds Paradise. The conures are starting to get tired of the TOPs, so we were looking at options.

Glad I looked in on this thread. I didn't know that eggs were a source of vitamin D3, and I've been concerned about that lately since I tend to steer clear of pellets for Bixby. (Being an eclectus, pellets are potentially problematic) I live in Jersey, so sunlight is limited during the winter months, and none of the fruits and veggies I know of have significant levels of vitamin D3.

So it's good to know about eggs, but for obvious reasons I can't really feed that more than once every 1-2 weeks or so. Are there any other foods with significant D3? Or am I just going to have to step down from my no pellets stance and start giving him some in VERY small amounts?

I've read about giving birds dried milk fat, but not sure I'm okay with that... having lactose problems myself, chocolate with dried milk fat can still bother me, so I am hesitant to let birds have it... but do some of your own reading about that source, you might be more comfortable!

A full spectrum light is the other big topic for debate. Some say it does nothing, others swear by it. I don't live too far from you! I am in Upper Bucks in PA, so have the same kind of months where natural sun is not an option (even for humans for that matter!!!). I did purchase a full spectrum for Ivory because she came to us with some nutritional problems, so my logic was having it on for short times couple times a week MIGHT help, but could not see where it would do more harm. My vet recommends them, but its one of those topics that have lines drawn and sides taken

I have read about Eckie's diets, for the longest time, they were what I thought was my dream bird then a pretty white chicken bird forced her way into my heart. Anyway, I do not know if eggs are a concern for Eckies to have frequently. But an easy easy way to give a little egg without alot of waste would be hardboiled eggs.

And by the way, from your avatar, Bixby is absolutely gorgeous!

Thank you, Jen! Both for the compliment to Bixby and the info.
My only concern about the eggs isn't so much an eclectus specific issue as one of cholesterol. He does love a hardboiled egg, but thus far I've limited his intake to once every 1-2 weeks. Most times it actually works out closer to once every 3 weeks. Though I was only giving it as a source of protein and calcium (via the shell)

I definitely won't be messing with the dried milk fat for the same reason you listed. Which leaves me with either full spectrum lighting or pellets. Unless anyone else knows of another source of vitamin D3, anyway. And the only problem with the lighting that I can see is the uncertainty as to whether or not it's actually doing anything... which would leave me in the same boat wondering about his D3 levels. Conundrum.