New to the forum and need advice

[seagoatdeb]

Nutritionally speaking most pellets may be better for the bird than a seed mix due to everything being all ground up so that the bird can not pick and choose what it likes the best. They also add vitamins and minerals, although they are the artificial forms which do not digest as well.

In my opinion the thing that makes pellets not so good are the use of soy and soy products, sugars, dyes and the various other chemical preservatives, many of which are known to cause health issues in humans and the soy is about to be banned in Australia due to reproductive issues in birds. Also the dryness of pellets causes me some concern. These are things that concern me, but the bird does not care about these things.

They do have organic pellets out there that have no articfical ingredients and use vitamin C as a preservative. ITs harder to get parrots eating it though. Not sure which brands they have in differernt Countries. The dryness of pellets arent too bad in fruit eaters because fruits are mostly water, but you have a good point about dryness and if i have anything dry I have something very wet along with it.

[Wolf]

I am not really prepared at this time to say that as far as seeds vs pellets that one is any better than the other. The only thing that I am doing is sharing my opinion about either of them. This time I shared my concerns about pellets and why I choose to not use them, so I am sorry that you do not see that my concerns about why I do not use pellets as not being valid, but you are welcome to your own opinion.

I have many of these same concerns when it comes to the seed mixes that are available as well. Many of them also have artificial preservatives and soy or other ingredients that I would prefer to not feed to my birds. And the dryness of the seeds are still also a concern to me as well. Still a bird will normally choose a seed mix over a pellet most of the time.

Yes there are " organic" pellets on the market and in most cases the still have soy and soy products and as you say often use vitamin C as a preservative. They are also rather pricey, usually double or triple the cost of the regular pellets.

I am concerned about the use of vitamin C as a preservative due to the fact that vitamin C increases the absorption of iron in the body and that is not usually a good thing in our birds. Still I can find " organic" seed mixes, without the preservatives for considerably less than I can find a comparable pellet.

Still, it was not my intent to unduly influence the OP's choice between pellets and seed mixes. I have mentioned in this thread that I constantly look for better seed mixes, which I also do with pellets and my sharing of some of my concerns about pellets was intended more as a what to look for in either a seed mix or a pellet, although I used pellets in the sharing of this information. I guess that I thought that my statement that I start looking into the seed mixes by reading the ingredients would carry over into the ingredients that I was concerned about in pellets as if I am concerned about them when they are part of the ingredients of pellets that I would be equally concerned if they were part of the ingredients of a seed mix.

[seagoatdeb]

Organic pellets can be expensive, but to someone with one parrot or a couple small ones its not to bad. I serve a lot of sprouted nuts and seeds so I have not that much that is dry, just some birdie bread once in a while that is very dry, but it is served with fruit usually. I change my seed mixes too and right now am using Volkmans as the mix I serve occasionally dry. Both pois are really liking it http://volkmanseed.com/products/feather ... kbill.html

I am not worred about vitamin C. It breaks down rather quickly over time and does not keep like the artificial preservatives, which are likely to do a lot of damage in the long haul maybe. I also feed very low iron so there is not much it can increase absorbtion of.

I buy all my seed on line, there really isnt a store that has a good quality mix in town. So i pay more anyway, since there is always shipping which is not cheap in Canada.

[Wolf]

Actually, at the present time the seed mixes that I am using for my birds are also produced by Volkman. Because of how much I purchase at one time, I can usually get free shipping so that helps some. I have to purchase my seed mixes online as there is no place locally to purchase them. Well there is a pet store that I might have been able to buy bird seed from, but it is a 70 mile round trip so the cost of fuel is like paying for shipping. I am on disability as I can np longer work, so I do not have a lot of extras and must try to budget for all of my expenses.

There are several factors that I try to keep in mind with some of my answers. Prices of foods is one of these. I have a very modest income, but I shop for my birds based first on the ingredients in them with price being second in the choice of what food to purchase. There are many people that may have a bird that may not have any more money than I have, or who may have even less to work with. But then saving a little where we can could benefit just about anyone.

With my birds diet, quality is the ruler, it comes before anything else. What constitutes a better quality for you may be different for you than it is for me, but the ingredient list is where I start and I try to eliminate anything that I consider to be either of no nutritional value or harmful to my birds. There are of course some ingredients that may not be harmful if you are aware of it and adjust their diets accordingly, things such as Vitamin C. The thing about this is that I keep learning more and you have years of experience beyond me, but many of those asking for guidance here do not have this knowledge and they need to get it from someplace. Since they are here and asking, I think it best to share this information as best that I can. They can then decide for themselves what they consider to be important or not. Things that may not be a major consideration to me due to location or manner of caring for my birds, may be more or even of less importance to them for the same reasons, but unless they are aware they can't make an informed choice.

[seagoatdeb]

i do share your concerns with pellets and find it valid, Wolf but many vets still advocate them and so I always suggest to new parrot owners that if they feed pellets that they offer a lot of fruit and vegetables, since they will feed what their vet says anyway. Its good to give lots of info to new parrots owners.

Feeding fresh raw food is the best in my eyes so I do not follow the pellet diet. My nuts are okay for human consuption, so I know they are fresh for my parrots. Shipping is so expensive here, that there is no one who offers free shipping of my parrot seeds so I try to order a lot of things at one time like pine slabs and ropes for toy making and try to make it more price viable that way. Sometimes my daughter and i go in on an order together. I also order from a human raw food place for some of my nuts and seeds I sprout.