Ingredients to pellets

[SandyBee]

Great thread, thanks for all the info. I have been thinking of switching Bosley over to TOPS, he seems to be pretty tired of the pellet he is on Pretty Bird species specific. This info is great to have handy.

TOPS is great! I love the smell and it doesn't go bad nearly fast as Harrison's. It's also a amazing price considering the quality of food you are buying.

And Bosley hates Harrison's LOL

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Just a update, I went through and put all the ingredients I said to look out for in bold. I didn't do the filler ingredients, I don't know enough about filler ingredients and what is really bad, kinda bad or ok. I know that brown rice, Alfalfa, and barley are better. I do know that anything with the word meal(corn meal) and gluten isn't that great either, it's not recommended for people or dogs so I don't think it would be good for birds either. Also, sodium selenite is a type of salt but I'm unsure if it is bad for birds or not.

Great thread, thanks for all the info. I have been thinking of switching Bosley over to TOPS, he seems to be pretty tired of the pellet he is on Pretty Bird species specific. This info is great to have handy.

TOPS is great! I love the smell and it doesn't go bad nearly fast as Harrison's. It's also a amazing price considering the quality of food you are buying.

And Bosley hates Harrison's LOL

Have you tried Harrison's Fine sized? I tried forever to get Rosie to eat Harrison's at the insistence of my avian vet but she hated it, randomly in the spur of the moment I grabbed the fine sized(I would of tried it earlier but my vet protested saying it is more processed and looses some nutrition) and Rosie took to it right away. I hope Bosley likes TOPS, if he doesn't right away don't give up

 

[SandyBee]

No I haven't tried that yet. I have tried the roundybush fine though as we are also trying to get our african brown head switched over to eating pellets. Neither one of them liked that either.
I will keep trying the different ones until I get one they like. I like the ingredient list in TOPS and I've heard really good things about it.
Our vet said any high quality pellet is fine for them. I finally got Bosley eating nutriberries, he only likes the veggie ones. Still wondering how many of those he should have a day.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

No I haven't tried that yet. I have tried the roundybush fine though as we are also trying to get our african brown head switched over to eating pellets. Neither one of them liked that either.
I will keep trying the different ones until I get one they like. I like the ingredient list in TOPS and I've heard really good things about it.
Our vet said any high quality pellet is fine for them. I finally got Bosley eating nutriberries, he only likes the veggie ones. Still wondering how many of those he should have a day.

My vet is a pellet Nazi lol I love her though XD

When I was trying to get Rosie on pellets I gave her a mixture of different pellets mixed together in a bowl, then a 50/50 bowl with seed and pellets. I only use nutri-berries as a treat, but I know some people give them as a staple. I give Rosie a nutri-berry every other day except on days I feel like spoiling her and I give her a couple

 

[Sherry]

I feed all my fids the Feed your Flock brand. I tried Harrison's and Roudybush but they didn't like it at all. They really love the feed your flock pellets though. It's a bit pricey but I would rather spend money on food they eat than throw away food they don't. I keep it in the freezer so it doesn't go bad.

 

[Thingamagigs]

Thank you so much for this Copperarabian!! It is fabulous to be able to compare all the different foods.

I think Vetafarm just don't list all of them on the website Vetafarm makes extrusion cooked foods (I thought they all would, logically?) and they don't use by-products or seconds, only 1st grade ingredients directly from the source which they extrude themselves... I am not entirely sure why they avoid saying "human grade food", I guess there needs to be a distinction for legal reasons.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Thank you so much for this Copperarabian!! It is fabulous to be able to compare all the different foods. I have a few here for you as well, Aussie brands. You can add them to your post and I will come back and edit this one to leave just the thank you (incase it gets made sticky, which I think it should!!!)

I think Vetafarm just don't list all of them on the website Vetafarm makes extrusion cooked foods (I thought they all would, logically?) and they don't use by-products or seconds, only 1st grade ingredients directly from the source which they extrude themselves... I am not entirely sure why they avoid saying "human grade food", I guess there needs to be a distinction for legal reasons.

I have a couple of ingredient lists here, one a vetafarm product the others are Passwell products, all Australian made pellets commonly available in Australia.

I listed them, I had to move stuff around a little because of the word limit so there are pellets listed in my third post now. I moved two of the prettier bird pellets down and put the Passwell crumbles with them.

Thanks for listing those I felt so stumped trying to find their full ingredients list lol

 

[Karigan]

Tropican really does smell like bubblegum. My sennie is on the smaller pellets and they're her absolute favourite. We're looking for better (and less expensive if possible) brands, but there's not much available here in store and shipping can be outrageous! Right now we're spending about $35 a month on pellets for our three birds, since my greys have recently became pellet-addicts. They get Zupreem natural, which costs about $28 for a five pound bag. The Tropican is about $20 for a ten pound bag.

 

[Roxy_9_2011]

You got me all interested in comparing ingredients now. I looked a little deeper into Harrisons on their website. Harrison's Bird Foods is a family of certified organic pet bird diets that were formulated to make your bird as healthy as it can possibly be. They have 2 tables showing percentages of a bird's diet and a table of additives per kg. Please take a look at that table that shows the additives, it states that Vitamin K is added...and in your initial thread you said Vitamin K is bad...so I don't know why it would be in Harrisons???

 

[Featheredsamurai]

You got me all interested in comparing ingredients now. I looked a little deeper into Harrisons on their website. Harrison's Bird Foods is a family of certified organic pet bird diets that were formulated to make your bird as healthy as it can possibly be. They have 2 tables showing percentages of a bird's diet and a table of additives per kg. Please take a look at that table that shows the additives, it states that Vitamin K is added...and in your initial thread you said Vitamin K is bad...so I don't know why it would be in Harrisons???

I'm not really saying if it's bad or not. I have no idea how Vitamin K effects birds, I only know that it was banned in human foods. Next time Rosie is at the vet I'll ask about vitamin K and see what she tells me about it. I didn't know that it was in Harrison's, I didn't see it on the ingredients though. I'll go look through the ingredients of their other products and try to find which have vitamin K in them.

Also be aware that Vitamin K supplement has been banned in human food for toxicity.

I looked through all the ingredients and I didn't see vitamin K, but it has it on the chart I'm very confused. I think I'll call just call my vet tomorrow and ask about it.

 

[Customcasket]

That was very educational to see all the different ingredients that go into the different brands. I finally got my guys switched away from the Zupreem FruitBlend. They're both on Roudybush Daily Maintenance. I feel so much better now that they're not eating all the artificial colors and whatever else was in that stuff to make it smell and have the same color as Fruity Pebbles (the breakfast cereal with Fred Flintstone on it lol) they both took to the new food right away and I've noticed that Kayak eats all of it because its one color instead of sorting by color like she did with the FruitBlend.

I noticed with my cats that once I switched them from a crappy food that had corn meal and corn whatever as the first few ingredients they all stopped puking so often. It really made a difference to feed them something that had chicken and other meats as the first few ingredients.

 

[blackhawk007]

Wow, this is excellent! Thanks for doing so much work for all of us. This something everyone can make use of.

 

[sodakat]

I feed all my fids the Feed your Flock brand. I tried Harrison's and Roudybush but they didn't like it at all. They really love the feed your flock pellets though. It's a bit pricey but I would rather spend money on food they eat than throw away food they don't. I keep it in the freezer so it doesn't go bad.

Feed Your Flock pellets are made by TOPs and packaged for the Bird Tricks people to resell. I emailed TOPs and she replied and told me this was factual.

I think you can buy TOPs cheaper than Feed Your Flock.

Also, remember that TOPs do not add vitamins so you must find another source of Vit D if you feed these pellets. VERY FEW foods contain Vit D. The best source is direct sunlight of course, but many birds never get direct sunlight, especially during the cold months.

 

[MonicaMc]

Something to keep in mind, many birds are granivorous. They are designed to eat seeds and grains. Corn is a grain.


Here's a website that lists many of the pellet manufacturers.
Cockatiel Sized Pellet Comparison - Artemis Aviary: African Lovebirds; North Carolina, USA

Passwell's uses meat meal in a couple of their products.



I had a great list of articles that were well worth reading, although unfortunately, some of the articles/websites are gone now. Here's the list anyway.
Food For Thought - What's NOT In My Bird's Food (dead)
How Natural is "Natural?" (dead)
Diet
Pellet Comparison - may need updating
The Dog Food Project - Ingredients to avoid --- Has good info regardless of the fact it's for dogs....
Understanding Pet Bird Nutrition
The Truth About Commercial Pet Food (dead)

And I also like some of the articles by Alicia McWatters... here's one in particular... (lets just say she's not a pellet advocate, and if I could go 100% fresh, I would!)
Why Food is Better Than Pellets




And someone who's put together a list just like you are doing. Perhaps you've already seen it?
Complete List Of Pellet Ingredients | HungryBird


Plus an old thread on another forum with additional links to another blog (one link dead)
Complete List Of Pellet Ingredients - BirdBoard



Hope that's helpful in your search for info!

 

[SandyBee]

One of the reasons I'm interested in trying TOPS is because it has no additives and is also cold pressed not extruded.

 

[Featheredsamurai]

@monicmc
I had run across that blog a few times, but not the link with everything together. That's very useful.

Also, many many birds do eat grains but most grains become a filler ingredient because of how the pellet companies use them. Corn isn't a native plant for most pet parrots. If they are eating corn it is a invasive plant put there by humans. I not sure of how true this is, but on Instagram a women found a dyeing galah, I asked her if he survived and she said no. The reason was that the wild Galahs in her area gorge on the corn and die. I believe her, she seemed to care a lot a out animals.Most amazon parrots do not eat grains as a major part of their diet. There is so much going on with wild birds, we have to find out what they eat if no humans were present to screw up their habitat.

@sandybee
I love TOPS for that same reason, cold pressed and naturally preserved. As long as our birds get varied fresh/prepared foods and sunlight, or a full spectrum light, you can't go wrong.

 

[BoomBoom]

Corn isn't a native plant for most pet parrots. If they are eating corn it is a invasive plant put there by humans. I not sure of how true this is, but on Instagram a women found a dyeing galah, I asked her if he survived and she said no. The reason was that the wild Galahs in her area gorge on the corn and die. I believe her, she seemed to care a lot a out animals.Most amazon parrots do not eat grains as a major part of their diet. There is so much going on with wild birds, we have to find out what they eat if no humans were present to screw up their habitat.

Uh oh. I feed my sun conure a lot of fresh corn on the cob. I knew it was high in starch (hence sugar) but didn't know it could kill. I wonder how the galah could die from it and if it was a single occurence. Also a lot of pellets have corn as the first ingredient.

Hmm I guess I'll cut down on the corn just to be on the safe side, but he loves it so!

 

[Featheredsamurai]

Corn isn't a native plant for most pet parrots. If they are eating corn it is a invasive plant put there by humans. I not sure of how true this is, but on Instagram a women found a dyeing galah, I asked her if he survived and she said no. The reason was that the wild Galahs in her area gorge on the corn and die. I believe her, she seemed to care a lot a out animals.Most amazon parrots do not eat grains as a major part of their diet. There is so much going on with wild birds, we have to find out what they eat if no humans were present to screw up their habitat.

Uh oh. I feed my sun conure a lot of fresh corn on the cob. I knew it was high in starch (hence sugar) but didn't know it could kill. I wonder how the galah could die from it and if it was a single occurence. Also a lot of pellets have corn as the first ingredient.

Hmm I guess I'll cut down on the corn just to be on the safe side, but he loves it so!

I wouldn't worry to much, I give Rosie corn on occasion but I cut off a 1" ring for her and I eat the rest. Those galahs are wild and we have no idea if anything else could be effecting them. The women found the galah in the grass so she put him in a tree so a dog wouldn't get him. The next day when she went back and looked at his body she found that his stomach and crop were stuffed full of corn, she said she finds a lot of dead Galah's full of corn so it's not a one time occurance. Unfortunately I know very little information other than that.

 

[MonicaMc]

Corn, unless organic, also falls under one of the GMO foods, too. Who knows what havoc it's wreaking on our bodies, let alone the wildlife!

It really is hard to say if the birds were sick with something and found a food that they could readily eat (i.e. not have to forage for it) so they gorged themselves on it, or if they became sick after eating the corn.

 

[BoomBoom]

Hmm corn belongs to the top 10 genetically modified foods to avoid. I don't know how credible the site is that made the list but better safe than sorry I guess.

Anything organic is expensive so Boomer will just get less of the corn but it will be organic at least. Glad I stumbled on this discussion.