Kaytee Rainbow pellets opinions?

Lilly is my Pineapple Conure, and she's 18 months old roughly, I got her when she was 14 months old. I have no idea of her previous pellet diet...



The first bag of pellets I bought for her were Kaytee rainbow, because of all the good reviews everywhere I was looking to buy... She took to them immediately and can't stop eating them... As experts and parrot lovers, what are your thoughts on it? How much should she have a day? Or should I replace them completely?

One thing I noticed is that since eating them, she's started barbering her feathers, is this a direct result from the pellets? I saw someone say it was true but i'd like to get it confirmed! Please! I have ordered some Harrisons as backup. Because I saw a few negative remarks about the Rainbow pellets over the last few days. So I thought I'd better be safe than sorry!!

Thanks a lot everyone!

I feed Harrison's, supplemented by fresh healthy treats. My first, and later, my current avian vet recommended it. 30-ish years ago, Harrison's was still a small company. My vet was actually able to talk to Dr. Harrison about my bird's species and status, and they decided on the High Potency. Pellets are out all day... fresh treats a few times a day.
The Rb has been eating them for about 25-30 years, and so far so good.

Barbering should always start with a visit to your Avian Vet to determine if you Parrot has a medical related problem. Then if none is found, then other possibilities can be considered!

Pellets: 'ALWAYS' check the Ingredients! Target Human grade, Human Processing facilities. That is a statement of general quality! Next as part of the ingredients, little to not sugar and little to not salt! As with all ingredients, that listed first is the greatest volume, that which is listed last is the least.

Also target pellets are are not colored. Colored pellets 'can' cause variation in the color of their stool.

Personally I think any bird food with the Kaytee name on it is not a quality food. More so the company. They are known to run bill mills in Florida under assumed names. These mills supply the pet store trade and guess what kind of seed/food is sold in those stores!

I like Harrisons and Roudybush.

I use Zupream (not sure the spelling). I mix the veggie mix with the fruit (for my cockatiels)
\I give the strait fruit flavor to my large birds with a little seed mixed in. Makes them have to hunt for the seeds.
I stay away from Kaytee. I read somewhere that the artificial coloring they use is bad for the birds.

You really can't go wrong with Harrison's. There's also less waste in general because there's no "favorite color" for them to pick out.


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The food coloring is not really a great additive! For my JoJo, I use a combination of roudybush, TOPS, Zupreem Natural, Zupreem Fruit blend(food coloring). His favorite is TOPS! I also use a lot of sprouts, and my favorite is Abba Seed Soak! Remember the same pellets day in day out, it's like you living off of a granola bar diet! It may keep you alive, but, hey just how exciting is it?
This is a good thread to ponder!
http://www.parrotforums.com/parrot-food-recipes-diet/28242-ingredients-pellets.html

Oli said:

You really can't go wrong with Harrison's. There's also less waste in general because there's no "favorite color" for them to pick out.


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I must say I don't agree. I tried Harrison's with my amazons.
After putting them in the food bowel I herd BANG...BANG...BANG...
Those cubes hitting the bottom of the cage. Was a total waste.

I might try again sometime after soaking them in fruit juice.

I read on the forum somewhere that the best pellets to give your birds are the ones they actually eat. LOL.

texsize said:

Oli said:

You really can't go wrong with Harrison's. There's also less waste in general because there's no "favorite color" for them to pick out.


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Click to expand...

I must say I don't agree. I tried Harrison's with my amazons.
After putting them in the food bowel I herd BANG...BANG...BANG...
Those cubes hitting the bottom of the cage. Was a total waste.

I might try again sometime after soaking them in fruit juice.

I read on the forum somewhere that the best pellets to give your birds are the ones they actually eat. LOL.

Click to expand...

Lol! Maybe Juliet is just way less picky. I do give her other food to throw around, like dried fruits and stuff- because I know they like to have SOMETHING to throw.


Edit: she eats fresh fruits and veggies as well! Just realized that I may have implied she only eats pellets and dried fruit.

Also OP, if it helps at all, Juliet is a pineapple as well.


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texsize said:

Oli said:

You really can't go wrong with Harrison's. There's also less waste in general because there's no "favorite color" for them to pick out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

I must say I don't agree. I tried Harrison's with my amazons.
After putting them in the food bowel I herd BANG...BANG...BANG...
Those cubes hitting the bottom of the cage. Was a total waste.

I might try again sometime after soaking them in fruit juice.

I read on the forum somewhere that the best pellets to give your birds are the ones they actually eat. LOL.

Click to expand...

That is to a degree correct, especially when the Parrot was or is being coverted from a cheap seed diet. Once they are off that cheap seed diet, the target is to move them to a Healthy Natural Diet in which the pellets make-up a much smaller percentage of the overall diet. As part of that process is to move them to a healthier pellet, by starting at Level 1 and improving from there.

Pellet Classifications:
Level 1: Human Grade Ingredients, Human Grade Processing Facility. This provides some level of assurance of a higher Quality Pellet.
Level 2: Low to no Sugar and Low to not Salt. Neither of these are at all good for Parrots at the levels found in many Pellets. They are added to get the Parrot to eat them (Sugar) and then to provide extended life (Salt).
Level 3: No Coloring regardless of its classification. Color formulas are rarely provided and have along history will problems in Humans. Also, those colors can /do cause change in the Parrot's stool that can result in a mad rush to the Vets!

Noah loves Goldn'obles (Goldenfeast) and TOPs. My budgies like the Goldn'obles, but I think Alice is allergic to soy, so it's kind of a pain. Neither pellet has artificial colours or flavours. Anything that has artificial colours or flavours is garbage. Parrots are extremely sensitive to anything artificial (pretty much anything man made). It can cause cancer, neurological problems, allergies, and weakened immune systems, among other things.

Never feed them any food that isn't human grade. Never feed anything until you've read the ingredients. Fudge, apparently the pellets you've been feeding have menadione sodium bisulphite! It's banned by the FDA for use in humans because of its toxicity. In pet food, it's a dangerous vitamin K supplement. Here: https://cocosflock.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/vitamin-k-and-menadione/

I never buy any of my companion animals food without first reading the ingredients, insuring it is human grade, and learning about the company. I also like to check for recalls and see how the company has handled recalls in the past.