is zupreme really as bad as feeding seeds?

[cateyes221981]

Zupreme fruit pellets do not have a good review is this as bad as feeding our parrots seeds?


Of course we add in lots of vegies but they ignore the vegies a lot of times

 

[riddick07]

Zupreem Fruit Blend has a lot of dyes and preservatives that are not so great for your bird. I would try other pellets that are more natural and without all the added extra dyes and such. There a couple different brands and options to try. Harrisons, goldenfeast, roudybush, TOPs. Even Zupreem natural is better than their fruit blend.

For the veggies I would just keep trying different things and mixes. All my birds love beets so you can try that if you haven't already. Sometimes making a mix with something sweet (like apple) or with quinoa or something similar mixed in is a good option to entice them.

 

[crimson]

here are a few comparisons:

ZuPreem - FruitBlend® With Natural Fruit Flavors XS

TOP Ingredient Highlights

Parrot Food: Parrot Diets Include Seed Blends and Pellet Food Diets

 

[DallyTsuka]

mine prefer their fruity. my tiels anyways. they refuse any other kind of pellet.

in the end, the best pellet for your bird is the one they will eat. its better than no pellets at all. and seed has a bad rep--seed is good for birds in proper portions, since many small species of birds do naturally eat seed in the wild and should actually have a good portion of seed as their diet. variety is key, so dont fuss too much over the brand of pellet, just make sure to give your bird as varied of a diet as possible!

 

[aether-drifter]

Feeding one or the other exclusively would be bad, yes, but as DallyTsuka said, neither is bad as part of a varied diet. The thing about seed is that it's relatively high in fat and low in nutrition; it lacks vital nutrients, such as vitamin A and calcium. A seed-only diet will lead to nutritional deficiencies, fatty liver disease, obesity, etc. Pellets are important for birds that will not eat enough fresh vegetables and greens, but since there's still a lot we don't quite understand about parrot nutrition -- and most pellets are not formulated for specific species -- an all-pellet diet can also be potentially dangerous.

As for Zupreem fruit blend itself being bad, I would not feed it to birds who have weight issues, because of the added sugar. But if it's the only pellet your bird will eat, and it's not ALL they're eating, I don't think it's terrible. I do feed it to my tiels. I've taste-tested many pellets and it does have the most flavor of any brand I've tried so I understand why it's a favorite. Harrison's tastes like cardboard and sawdust, unfortunately, and most other brands aren't much better. I know Zupreem changed their forumula for the fruit pellets last year to contain fewer artificial flavors and more natural ones, so that's something.

A bird can get by without eating pellets just fine, if it eats a variety of vegetables and fruit, grains, legumes, nuts, seed (for seed-eating species), sprouts, etc. But I personally feel better having them around as a source of vitamins (especially vitamins A and D), even if it has to be Zupreem fruity.

 

[riddick07]

I can understand feeding zupreem fruit if your bird won't eat anything else and they are on a varied diet. But if you haven't tried others I would give it a try.

I know when I went away on my Europe trip I ate a hundred times better than what I eat in the USA and I felt much better. Lost weight, better skin, my hair looked like it did when I was a kid. What I ate was a lot more local foods (and fyi goat burger sucks...) and much less of the preserved artificial **** you get in the US. A lot of it is I'm lazy and like going to the big company run grocery stores but the other part is it is just easier to find the bad stuff in the US. What I'm trying to say is sure the other stuff works but it doesn't mean your bird might not like something a bit on the more natural side and has less artificial contents.

Just my opinion on this!

 

[BruceV]

I was feeding my Conure Zupreem fruit blend, then when the Macaw came along I started using the Zupreem Naturals. Turns out the conure likes the naturals better! I throw in a little of the fruit blend for color and flavor, though. Beats throwing it away...

 

[CassMarie]

I agree in saying that the best pellet is the one that your bird will eat. I transitioned my Red Belly to TOPS, and she had been eating Zupreem fruit blend in the pet store for 2 years with no issues. Though she still goes crazy for them if I ever give her a tiny handful in her bowl. I guess they love the sweet taste!

I recently got an African Grey and she is also eating the Zupreem fruit blend at the moment and I am slowly transitioning her to TOPS.

I'm not really a big fan of Harrisons. My Red Belly doesn't like them and I had noticed that when I ran out of TOPS for about a week or so I was feeding my Red Belly the Harrisons I still had left over and that's when she started to get this weird dry skin around her nose and was scratching etc etc. As soon as I started her on TOPS again it went away.

I personally recommend TOPS, I think it is a great product. I don't really like products will additives like vitamins etc etc. A varied diet is the best way to go plus a decent enough pellet, regardless if it is a fruit blend or not and you should be A-Okay.

 

[noblemacaw]

Our rescue Julio came to us eating only the fruity zupreem. I added the natural zupreem and next batch I cut out the fruit ones and THE LITTLE FREAK WON'T EAT THEM. He wil only eat his pellets IF I put in the fruit ones. *sigh*. Just weird.

Valentino was raised on Harrison's and Tropican. When I was mixing the two zupeems into a container for Julio's feed Valentino went NUTS trying to get into the bags and container containing the zupeem. It was like the parrot had to have his fix. I gave him a taste and that was it. Valentino was hooked on Zupreem natural or fruit he does not care as long as he gets his "birdy crack"

So even though the zupreem is one of Julio's staple foods it is only a treat for Valentino. I use it for training and I will put it in his foraging toys and make him work for it. I have been known to stand in front of his cage saying. "Now perch like a good boy and I will give you some crack." Valentino has to perch on a special perch before I open the cage and take him out. When he sees me holding a piece of zupreem he will scramble to his perch and say "good boy"..LOL.

It may not be the best pellet out there but they are keeping Julio as healthy as I can get him and is a wonderful training tool for Valentino. We call zupeem pellets "birdy crack" in our home.

I do remember years ago when I had my noble Macaw in the mid 90's I use to feed him the fruit zupreem. Back them the pellets were a lot more colorful, dark and rich with colors. I stopped feeding it to my Noble macaw when it was causing him to crap the rainbow. Seriously. He would eat the red ones and poop red, then eat the purple ones and poop purple, then the yellow ones would disappear and yellow poops would appear. It freaked me out so bad I had to change the pellets to a more natural one. I will say since they changed how ever they color them Julio never had pooped the rainbow. I use to call Mihijo "skittles"

The funniest memory I have of Fruit Zupreem is when my sister's family came to stay with me. The next morning my brother in law was helping the kids with breakfast and he was giving them cold ceriel. I had made sure in the pantry there was available the kinds they liked to eat. Well I walked into the kitchen and saw my nephew sitting at the table with a bowl of Zupreen and Mihijo's Zupreem container on the counter. Just as he was going to pour milk in Albert's bowl I had to quickly stop him. Albert was about 6 years old and after he realized what he almost ate he thought he was going to turn into a parrot. LOL. Later I caught him eating a sample of it.

Me: "They don't taste too bad do they?"
Albert: "They taste kinda good."
Me: "You know you are not gonna turn into a parrot right?"
Albert: "Yea"
Me: "I need for you not to eat them anymore because I need to be able to have some for the Mihijo right?"
Albert: "Okay"

I can never forget this incident. Even when I am old and have dementia I can never forget that day.

 

[MikeyTN]

The part of weight issue shouldn't feed zupreem I would have to disagree with that! The reason for it is I've tried it before in the past. When I encounter a virus that almost killed all my birds but I was able to save most only losing a few. At that time I couldn't get the birds to gain their weight for nothing. They were all on zupreem fruit blend. I started supplement them with high protein diet to fatten them up. But they would mainly eat the pellets. Still didn't work....talked with a lot of breeders at that time and all told me to feed seeds due to pellets being such a balanced diet they can't gain any weight on them. So I fed seeds and they all gained back their weight nicely in a very short period. Willie have been on zupreem fruit blend for 10 years without issues along with my other birds. I started using zupreem 17 years ago.

 

[cateyes221981]

anyone from canada? what do you feed here? does petsmart carry any good pellets? like tops? I heard GOLDE was good also

 

[cateyes221981]

yeah I guess zupreme has a bad rep because of the dye being used? Regardless it still seems better than seed as a main diet.

 

[Birdman666]

Well, I've been using Zupreem for over a dozen or so years now...

And I have mine well birdied semi-annually. Their lab work has always come out perfect. So, the diet is pretty well dialed in...

Except my CAG who was on Harrisons for the first 18 months of his life, and then was switched over to Zupreem when he got older. (Harrison's is great, but it is also very pricey for a poor man like myself...)

Now, mine get more than just pellets. They get a combination of pellets, a small amount of safflower seed, plus nuts, plus fresh foods (friuts/veggies/ taters), plus nutriberries, plus a little of what ever we are eating (chicken/fish/rice/beans/taters.)

I would never give them just Zupreem alone.

And a little seed as a treat isn't bad. Just in moderation. Especially with seed junkie amazons! SEED ONLY will destroy their livers and eventually kill them. It cuts their life expectancy AT LEAST in half - possibly by two-thirds.

So, yeah, seed only is much, much worse!!!

 

[aether-drifter]

The part of weight issue shouldn't feed zupreem I would have to disagree with that! The reason for it is I've tried it before in the past. When I encounter a virus that almost killed all my birds but I was able to save most only losing a few. At that time I couldn't get the birds to gain their weight for nothing. They were all on zupreem fruit blend. I started supplement them with high protein diet to fatten them up. But they would mainly eat the pellets. Still didn't work....talked with a lot of breeders at that time and all told me to feed seeds due to pellets being such a balanced diet they can't gain any weight on them. So I fed seeds and they all gained back their weight nicely in a very short period. Willie have been on zupreem fruit blend for 10 years without issues along with my other birds. I started using zupreem 17 years ago.

That is good info, thanks. I had always heard to avoid sugar as much as possible with overweight birds, but I've been feeling guilty because Sakura likes Zupreem and hates the Harrison's I keep attempting to force on her. Right now I'm feeding her a mix of pellets but she isn't eating the Harrison's at all. She will eat Zupreem fruit or natural, but they both have sugar. However, with her becoming flighted again, eating more vegetables and not eating seed anymore, maybe I don't need to worry and can just let her eat the pellets she wants.

 

[Girl4Jesus83]

Good for you to research the right food for your birdie baby! When I had my zon, all he would eat was the zupreem fruit blend, cockatiel size. Although I did make him food at every meal (even though he mostly stole my food lol). He just loved plain oatmeal - he would dig in so deep he would end up with his oatmeal beard all over his beak lol. But mostly he devoured any sort of pea pod and cooked veggies. So like everyone else has said as long and there is a variety there isn't an issue.

 

[DallyTsuka]

well, i'm in canada--i order my pellets from My Safe Bird Store, mostly because our freezer cannot store 2 big bags of different kinds. my lovebirds eat the natural zupreem and wont touch the fruity, but the tiels eat fruity and wont touch the natural lol


my experience, mind you this is my own personal experience....

my tiels were on hagen tropican before and one day they just decided they didnt want it. the lovebirds rejected it with a ten foot pole and refused no matter what i did with the tropican.

tried them all on zupreem samples an older friend sent and the lovebirds went for the naturals right away and the tiels ate the fruity like candy. but since theyve been on the zupreem, i have noticed more feather improvement in all of the birds. all my fids are healthy and they do really well on it. when tsuka wasnt on pellets at all, his feathers were super brittle and he had a lot of flight problems and couldnt grow in flights on one wing for over 9 months and he had a lot of trouble keeping those flights. but he improved a bit on the tropican, but the most significant improvement was when he started eating the zupreem. his feathers are beautifully waterproof (he sheds water like a duck) and they grow intact and strong. they dont break like they used to, he has no more stress bars.

even if zupreem isnt as high quality as harrisons or roudybush, ive still seen some amazing improvements in my flock since they began eating the zupreem.


these were the types of feathers that fell out all the time when he wasnt eating pellets



you can see his wings where all the feathers broke off easily, and one wing had no primary flights on one wing for over 9 months






and then on pellets.... look at that nice full strong spread!