Healthy pellet brands

[Stella04]

I’m looking for new healthy pellets as my sun conure is very picky. I’ve tried so many different brands, but right now I can really only get her to eat Harrison’s power treats, Caitec oven bites, and tropican pellets. Although Harrison’s power treats is the only thing she consistently will eat. She used to love ZuPreem fruit blend pellets but she doesn’t really care for them anymore. When I show her new food she’ll pick it up, taste it, then drop it and won’t touch it again. Any ideas for picky birds?

 

[Scott]

There are varieties of pellets and *most* are healthier than an all-seed diet. Some are better than others, but the healthiest pellet is the one your bird will eat. Precisely because they are so picky!

Most cost effective method is to get samples, if available, of various pellets. Sadly, your bird will likely reject many. I'd feed them as stand-alone food to quickly determine their fate. Interestingly, ZuPreem Fruit Bend tends to be a favorite, though boredom can set in.

I successfully switched my flock of 8 to Harrison's Adult Lifetime Course in 2 weeks. Not plugging the brand, but I'd call attention to their conversion protocol as it worked well and ought be successful for any brand: https://www.harrisonsbirdfoods.com/using-our-foods/large-bird-conversion/

 

[Stella04]

In addition to what I first mentioned I also give her a mix of Harrison’s lifetime coarse, Harrison’s pepper lifetime coarse, zupreem nut blend, zupreem veggie blend, zupreem fruit blend, and tops pellets. She likes none of those(or would just nibble on them a bit and leave them), and I’ve been offering them for months now.

 

[Jen5200]

I’ll echo what Scott said - they can be picky and reject many foods. None of my conures will eat pellets that are very large - so we have eventually landed on the smaller pellets. Some of mine used to eat TOPs, but won’t touch them since they made the pellet formula harder. None of mine will touch Harrison’s, no matter how many times I try. I tried Zupreem nut blend recently and none of my 6 will eat it. Tropican was not accepted either. All this to say - prepare for lots of rejections, and buy sample sizes!

Where mine are at:

Baby & Tango: Zupreem natural (cockatiel size) and Roudybush daily maintenance mini. Will eat Zupreem fruit (cockatiel size) as a treat but get tired of it quickly.
Bindi: Will only eat Zupreem natural (cockatiel size)
Stanley: Roudybush daily mini. Will also eat Lefaber pellets.
Mr Tee: Zupreem fruit (cockatiel size). Will sample other pellets in someone else’s bowl, but won’t eat them in his own bowl - sigh.
Screamer: Zupreem fruit (cockatiel size) - any other pellets are the devil and should be avoided at all costs (she’s a bit of a diva).

 

[Flboy]

My JoJo is a fan of TOPS!

 

[fiddlejen]

I have a separate small dish for my Sunny for her pellets. She does get Seedmix and or Nutriberries (Tropical flavor only!) for her regular food, and fresh veggies. The pellet dish is located on the other side of the cage, and she treats it kinda like a human might treat Doritos: "oh, I think I'll have a crunchy snack now." The pellets usually need refilled a couple times per week, sometimes more sometimes less. You might try offering them like that.

As far as pellet-type. My Sun is quite happy with Harrison's. However my budgies won't touch it no matter what, even using their protocol. I think Harrison's must contain some flavor that one of the budgies dislikes.

Sunny also likes Lefeber's. She acts interested in TOPS, but seems to have trouble actually chewing them, usually mouths them a while & then drops them. She doesn't seem to care much for Zupreem, although I think she would eat them if she was quite hungry.

I managed to get the budgies to accept Lefebers pellets. I did that by grinding the lefeber's pellets to powder, then adding water until a bake-able consistency, then baking them into sort of biscotti chew sticks. (I wafffled them most recently, and added "surprises" of various seeds into them before baking them hard.) They still refuse Lefebers pellets in their own food dishes, but will happily eat them from Sunny's dish.

 

[Ira7]

Mine won’t touch pellets, so I grind them into powder and sprinkle over those seeds that he’ll eat.