Harrison's

[ingrehd]

I heard about Harrison's High Potency recently and decided to look into it since it is recommended for birds recovering from disease or some that have been on crappy diets for most of their lives.

My question is, why is it so "good" if their fist ingredient is sunflower seed?
I thought those were high in fat and should be limited in a bird's diet?

 

[Featheredsamurai]

It's all about the ratio of each ingredient. If we were to feed our bird a seed mix they would pic out their favorite pieces and only eat that. The pellet is a a big mix of things and packed with nutrition. I don't feed any sun flower seeds to Rosie or Kenji, but they both eat Harrison's and I am very happy with it.

 

[WannaBeAParrot]

Harrison's is organic. It's always a good thing to have organic. Some people argue that "organic" is not always "organic" (various percentages, etc.), but for me, even some organic vs. all conventional is a good thing. Pritti won't eat Harrison's, and I've tried different sizes.

As for the ratio of ingredients in their pellets, I can't say much about that since I don't recall the nutrition analysis. But, if you are against he idea of your bird eating a product with a lot of sunflower seeds in it, then you might want to contact Harrison's for some detals - they will definitely answer your questions, as they are very attentive to custmers.

 

[LakeDesire]

I heard about Harrison's High Potency recently and decided to look into it since it is recommended for birds recovering from disease or some that have been on crappy diets for most of their lives.

My question is, why is it so "good" if their fist ingredient is sunflower seed?
I thought those were high in fat and should be limited in a bird's diet?

I was wondering the same thing! I bought the big, $40 bag of high-potency for my nanday conure because she has some health problems and I thought it would have more micronutrients, but I saw the first ingredient was sunflower seeds so I donated it to the parrot rescue so they could fatten up their underweight birds! My conure loves the "lifetime" pepper formula so I give her that now. I mix with zupreems because it is cheaper at my amazon doesn't like Harrison's.

 

[kaybear]

the high potency feed (15% fat) is only meant to be used for a short time, 6 months as a conversion feed, for babies or for animals needing the extra fat so breeding bird, unwell or underweight, once they've finished their 6 months, they go onto the maintenance diet, which is only 5.5% fat, MUCH better.

 

[henpecked]

Thank you kaybear, Hi=Pro is not what your pet amazon needs. It's OK for breeder birds but way too high in fat for pet amazons. Fresh VitA rich foods would be much better in your case.

 

[Mayden]

Sunflower seed isn't actually toxic or harmful to birds - as long as it's in nice quantities. Harrissons High Potency like someone has mentioned is for breeding birds, birds in extremely cold climates (extra fat to keep warmer), birds suffering from illness (extra energy to promote healing) and for a conversion period of up to 6 months for birds new to Harrissons.

We didn't bother with the HP conversion and threw Merlin straight on Adult Lifetime (Fine). Which is much better. Merlin is slightly 'podgy' at the moment as he's not getting enough exercise compared to how much food he's getting - but we're happy with Harrissons on a whole. He can't pick out his 'favourite' seed or whatever and get too much of one (sunflower seeds for example). We encourage foraging by putting marbles in his bowl so he forages for the Harrissons.

Harrissons is lovely in my opinion.

 

[kaybear]

it's a good idea to have fledgling babies on HP as well, they need the extra fat for their development.

 

[Mayden]

it's a good idea to have fledgling babies on HP as well, they need the extra fat for their development.

Harrisson's do a handfeeding formula too for the 'real baby baby' type birds. But I guess when they're done with that HP is a good next step!

 

[kaybear]

it's a good idea to have fledgling babies on HP as well, they need the extra fat for their development.

Harrisson's do a handfeeding formula too for the 'real baby baby' type birds. But I guess when they're done with that HP is a good next step!

Definitely, they're weaned but still have a LOT of growing to do, learning to fly takes a lot out of them, and they need to develop their flight musculature, as well as their first big moult, it's a lot on a young birds body. Once Kynuna is 6 months or has his first big moult if that is sooner, I'll switch to the adult maintenance diet, but i'll continue with everything else that I feed as well which includes chop, fresh greens, herbs and spices, fresh safe flowers and occasionally fruit.