Menadione Sodium in Bird Pellets

I've been hearing a lot of negative feedback on Menadione Sodium, a synthetic vitamin K supplement that is added to dog and cat food. There are claims that it's a potential toxin which, in humans, promote allergic reactions, weaken the immune system, cause toxic reactions in liver cells and induce hemolytic anemia (red blood cell toxicity). The FDA has actually banned the use of Menadione Sodium from over-the-counter supplements because large doses have been shown to cause these dangerous biological effects.

I was randomly reading through the ingredients list of Roudybush and was shocked to see Menadione Sodium. I checked Zupreem and Lafaber, even parakeet pellet and seed mixes like Fiesta and Sunseed VitaPrima - all contained Menadione Sodium. I am sure there are a lot more other brands that have it. The only two brands that I saw did not contain Menadione Sodium are Harrison's and Ecotrition's parakeet seed mix. I did not do an exhaustive search so there may be others.

Has anyone come across the Menadione Sodium controversy before? Is it something to fear or is the jury still not out?

I couldn’t find it in the list of ingredients in TOPs either (checked the label in the freezer). Now I’m going to do some reading, you have my curiosity piqued and I haven’t heard of this....

hmmmm... will look into this in the A.M.
I am too tired to check labels at the moment, but bird is sleeping so it wouldn't matter if I did lol.

Jen5200 said:

I couldn’t find it in the list of ingredients in TOPs either (checked the label in the freezer). Now I’m going to do some reading, you have my curiosity piqued and I haven’t heard of this....

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Another reason for TOPS!
No soy, and no added nutrients! AND, JoJo loves them!
Sustainable, Ecologically Grown Ingredients: ecofarmed rice, organic millet hulled, organic barley, ecofarmed alfalfa leaf, [The following ingredients comprise no more than 5 percent of total volume each.] organic sunflower seed hulled, organic sesame seeds unhulled, organic quinoa whole,organic buckwheat hulled,organic dandelion leaf powder, organic carrot powder, organic spinach leaf powder, organic seaweeds (purple dulse and kelp),organic rose hips powder, organic rose hips crushed, organic orange peel powder, organic lemon peel powder, organic rosemary whole leaf, organic cayenne ground, organic crushed red chili peppers, organic nettle leaf. Pellet Processing: TOP's pellets are cold-pressed (not extruded or baked) to keep natural enzymes, vitamins, and other nutrients intact. Made in the USA

I'll look closer into TOPS now. I like that it has no menadione sodium. I have to stay suspicious of it until I know more.

I am in the process of converting my birds to pelleted diets so I'll keep my eyes on the ingredients in the brands I try (still testing out brands to see which one they'll like).
And given the good word for TOPS I may give them a try.

Hagan Hari Tropican Lifetime pellets don't contain Menadione Sodium (I checked the Cockateil Lifetime pellet ingredients).

None of my pellets have it- tops, goldenfeast, and harrisons

Wellllllllllllllllllllll... the ol' Rb has eaten Harrison's for 30+ years now, so I guess we'll be hanging in there! Thanks for this information.

Yeah, I switched from Zupreem to Tops recently. Now glad I did.

lplummer52 said:

Yeah, I switched from Zupreem to Tops recently. Now glad I did.

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How easy did your sun conure transition to TOPS? My sun conure was eating Zupreem then transitioned to Harrison's but he's not liking it as much. Was thinking of trying TOPS to see if sun conures like the taste better.

I'm probably wrong but didn't Roudybush switch from synthetic K to putting alfalfa in for K? This is about the time everyone got mad at them because the look and smell(probably taste) was different.

I've heard of the Menadione Sodium controversy but don't have the background to evaluate. Another reason why I converted my entire flock to Harrison's.

BoomBoom said:

lplummer52 said:

Yeah, I switched from Zupreem to Tops recently. Now glad I did.

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How easy did your sun conure transition to TOPS? My sun conure was eating Zupreem then transitioned to Harrison's but he's not liking it as much. Was thinking of trying TOPS to see if sun conures like the taste better.

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2 of my conures transitioned from Zupreem to TOPs really easily (put it in bowl, I said “nummy” to them, and they ate it). My 3rd conure is now on Zupreem natural and will eat eat TOPs from my hand but not her bowl so far (I think it won’t take much....she likes to eat)

I did some research on menadione sodium a while ago (when I fed Zupreem Natural), and every study, journal article, or write-up/article I read on it said that there are Zero cases of any health issues at all, such as hemolytic-anemia, from pet food or livestock food, because the amount of menadione sodium necessary to cause these issues is massive, and the amount that is added into pet and livestock food is minute.

Does that mean you should continue to feed it to your pets? Well, that's a personal choice. Pretty soon we're going to find out that every single synthetic additive in our food is potentially harmful, I swear...But yeah, if I'm being honest, I feel better that I switched anyway, lol..

TiredOldMan said:

I'm probably wrong but didn't Roudybush switch from synthetic K to putting alfalfa in for K? This is about the time everyone got mad at them because the look and smell(probably taste) was different.

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When I saw the Menadione Sodium in Roudybush's ingredient list, it was on a photo of it's packaging as posted on Amazon. I tried looking on their website for the most up to date list of ingredients but at the time could not find an ingredients list. I would like to know if they indeed removed MS from their products.

Jen5200 said:

BoomBoom said:

lplummer52 said:

Yeah, I switched from Zupreem to Tops recently. Now glad I did.

Click to expand...

How easy did your sun conure transition to TOPS? My sun conure was eating Zupreem then transitioned to Harrison's but he's not liking it as much. Was thinking of trying TOPS to see if sun conures like the taste better.

Click to expand...

2 of my conures transitioned from Zupreem to TOPs really easily (put it in bowl, I said “nummy” to them, and they ate it). My 3rd conure is now on Zupreem natural and will eat eat TOPs from my hand but not her bowl so far (I think it won’t take much....she likes to eat)

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My conure is a pellet snob He used to eat Zupreem as his 'dry dessert' after a meal of fruits, veggie mash and cooked grains. He fooled me into thinking he liked Harrisson's and now ignores it. So far your suns and Iplummer's seem to enjoy TOPS so that's promising for me! As far as TOPS' nutritional content, can anyone please direct me to a site that shows their guaranteed analysis (vitamin, mineral content). All I could find is an ingredients list but it doesn't tell me how much vitamins / minerals per serving / day.

EDIT: I found TOPS' guaranteed analysis but all it said is: Crude protein minimum 13%, Crude oils and fats minimum 6%, Crude fiber minimum 11%. This does not tell me how much vitamins and minerals my bird would be getting...