high quality seed mix

[DanaandPod]

What brand and what should I look for? Can they even be bought in a pet store?

[Wolf]

I would not be so much concerned with brands, but Harrisons and Tops seem to be the best brands on the market in terms of the quality of their ingredients. But the main things to look for in the better quality seed mixes is no sunflower seeds, and no chemical or artificial ingredients, just seeds and as little sugar, salt and soy as you can find. The closer an ingredient is to being listed first is the index of how much is in the food. the closer to being the first listed ingredient, the more of it is in the mix.

[Pajarita]

For the larger parrots (senegals and up) I use ABBA 1600C which is a cockatiel mix with a bit of striped sunflower in it and add the ABBA Just Nuts (only tree nuts, no peanuts) which I roast in the oven prior mixing. During breeding season, I also add hemp seed to the mix and, about four or five times during the entire warm weather months, some insect protein to their gloop.

[DanaandPod]

I stay away from sun flower seeds to play it safe. Every thing in the pet store has fillers. Yet, if you go to a store that caters to yard and wild birds, they have big bags of seed only. I'll have to look up unless you know because I forgot... When I read about jardines specific seeds were recommended for the blend. So, is the reason you give seed at night because u leave carbs for daily burning?

[Wolf]

The primary reason that I feed the seed mix at night is because it is a high protein food which will provide them nutrition longer through the long periods of darkness during the winter months making the a little less hungry come morning. I also do it because protein foods tend to increase aggressive tendencies in parrots and by feeding it at night they are asleep when this food would increase their aggressiveness. This helps them to be less aggressive when they are up and interacting with us humans.

[Greg]

For the larger parrots (senegals and up) I use ABBA 1600C which is a cockatiel mix with a bit of striped sunflower in it and add the ABBA Just Nuts (only tree nuts, no peanuts) which I roast in the oven prior mixing. During breeding season, I also add hemp seed to the mix and, about four or five times during the entire warm weather months, some insect protein to their gloop.

I have a question, why do you roast the nuts and change their healthy raw oils into saturated ones? Everything I have read you say in previous threads, was to avoid saturated fats and that parrots cant handle saturated fats.

[Pajarita]

For the larger parrots (senegals and up) I use ABBA 1600C which is a cockatiel mix with a bit of striped sunflower in it and add the ABBA Just Nuts (only tree nuts, no peanuts) which I roast in the oven prior mixing. During breeding season, I also add hemp seed to the mix and, about four or five times during the entire warm weather months, some insect protein to their gloop.

I have a question, why do you roast the nuts and change their healthy raw oils into saturated ones? Everything I have read you say in previous threads, was to avoid saturated fats and that parrots cant handle saturated fats.

Dry roasting does not change nuts oils from unsaturated into saturated (see this: http://woman.thenest.com/roasting-nuts- ... -8716.html
and this: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-cond ... 46635?pg=2 ).

I roast them to kill any potential aspergillus in them and thereby reduce the possibility of aflatoxin poisoning. When one buys raw nuts, one doesn't really know how long they've been out there and, if you add this 'unknown' to keeping them stored for a period of time, you are dealing with a risk that I am not willing to take. I had an ex-breeder OWA that I rescued from West Virginia die from aflatoxin poisoning and I don't want to even consider the possibility of this happening again.

[seagoatdeb]

For the larger parrots (senegals and up) I use ABBA 1600C which is a cockatiel mix with a bit of striped sunflower in it and add the ABBA Just Nuts (only tree nuts, no peanuts) which I roast in the oven prior mixing. During breeding season, I also add hemp seed to the mix and, about four or five times during the entire warm weather months, some insect protein to their gloop.

I have a question, why do you roast the nuts and change their healthy raw oils into saturated ones? Everything I have read you say in previous threads, was to avoid saturated fats and that parrots cant handle saturated fats.

Dry roasting does not change nuts oils from unsaturated into saturated (see this: http://woman.thenest.com/roasting-nuts- ... -8716.html
and this: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-cond ... 46635?pg=2 ).

I roast them to kill any potential aspergillus in them and thereby reduce the possibility of aflatoxin poisoning. When one buys raw nuts, one doesn't really know how long they've been out there and, if you add this 'unknown' to keeping them stored for a period of time, you are dealing with a risk that I am not willing to take. I had an ex-breeder OWA that I rescued from West Virginia die from aflatoxin poisoning and I don't want to even consider the possibility of this happening again.

You first link is about trans fats and not saturated fats. The second link is about humans and we can process saturated fats from heating but parrots may not be able to. Many nuts have a higher heating point before their oils become saturated, but they are all different so you need to be carefull.

I am carefull about aspergillus, and so my nuts I get for my parrots are always human grade. I dont roast mainly because it has less nutrition when roasted. Your parrots are healthy so you are feeding well nutritionally. Parrots dont cook in the wild, for that reason, I try to keep cooked foods to a minimum because over the long haul there are no studies to show the effects of cooked foods on Parrots.

Here is a link about the effects of roasting nuts with some good info on how to roast with temperature to keep in more nutrition and not make saturated fat. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... e&dbid=359.

Here is another link which also talk about how roasted nuts go rancid, so they need to be eaten quickly. I cant eat roasted nuts myself, I get hives, especially from walnuts, but all raw nuts I can eat. http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA400930/A ... althy.html

[Pajarita]

You first link is about trans fats and not saturated fats. The second link is about humans and we can process saturated fats from heating but parrots may not be able to. Many nuts have a higher heating point before their oils become saturated, but they are all different so you need to be carefull.

I am carefull about aspergillus, and so my nuts I get for my parrots are always human grade. I dont roast mainly because it has less nutrition when roasted. Your parrots are healthy so you are feeding well nutritionally. Parrots dont cook in the wild, for that reason, I try to keep cooked foods to a minimum because over the long haul there are no studies to show the effects of cooked foods on Parrots.

Here is a link about the effects of roasting nuts with some good info on how to roast with temperature to keep in more nutrition and not make saturated fat. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... e&dbid=359.

Here is another link which also talk about how roasted nuts go rancid, so they need to be eaten quickly. I cant eat roasted nuts myself, I get hives, especially from walnuts, but all raw nuts I can eat. http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA400930/A ... althy.html

Here is a quote from the first link:
"The nutrient content of the nuts might differ slightly from their raw counterparts, but the roasting process doesn't turn the healthy fats into unhealthy fats."

And the second one had a chart with the values or roasted nuts in terms of saturated and unsaturated fats - the values are the same whether people or parrots eat them, Seagoatdeb.

The thing with aspergillus and aflatoxin is that when you buy human grade, it does have a lower pbb of it than the feed grade BUT aspergillus continues to reproduce and it continues to produce aflatoxin so, even when you buy human grade, you have no real guarantee that the levels are low by the time you eat them or feed them to your parrots (I was a manager at a grain company for ten years). Furthermore, neither freezing nor cooking actually destroys aflatoxin so the only thing you can do is kill the aspergillus as soon as you can.

[seagoatdeb]

You first link is about trans fats and not saturated fats. The second link is about humans and we can process saturated fats from heating but parrots may not be able to. Many nuts have a higher heating point before their oils become saturated, but they are all different so you need to be carefull.

I am carefull about aspergillus, and so my nuts I get for my parrots are always human grade. I dont roast mainly because it has less nutrition when roasted. Your parrots are healthy so you are feeding well nutritionally. Parrots dont cook in the wild, for that reason, I try to keep cooked foods to a minimum because over the long haul there are no studies to show the effects of cooked foods on Parrots.

Here is a link about the effects of roasting nuts with some good info on how to roast with temperature to keep in more nutrition and not make saturated fat. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tnam ... e&dbid=359.

Here is another link which also talk about how roasted nuts go rancid, so they need to be eaten quickly. I cant eat roasted nuts myself, I get hives, especially from walnuts, but all raw nuts I can eat. http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/QAA400930/A ... althy.html

Here is a quote from the first link:
"The nutrient content of the nuts might differ slightly from their raw counterparts, but the roasting process doesn't turn the healthy fats into unhealthy fats."

And the second one had a chart with the values or roasted nuts in terms of saturated and unsaturated fats - the values are the same whether people or parrots eat them, Seagoatdeb.

The thing with aspergillus and aflatoxin is that when you buy human grade, it does have a lower pbb of it than the feed grade BUT aspergillus continues to reproduce and it continues to produce aflatoxin so, even when you buy human grade, you have no real guarantee that the levels are low by the time you eat them or feed them to your parrots (I was a manager at a grain company for ten years). Furthermore, neither freezing nor cooking actually destroys aflatoxin so the only thing you can do is kill the aspergillus as soon as you can.

Healthy parrots arent in much danger, and I have rarely seen a case. This is a very small risk. We all need to make a choice about denaturing foods by coooking and heating for ourselves but even more important for a species that has never had cooked foods in the wild. The articles were there for everyones information, and their is information there on which nuts you have to be carefull about roasting heats I also wanted members to be able to look at more info. The dangers of rancidity is another problem with both humans and parrots and that only comes from roasting. It can produce toxic levels and the studies are done on humans. There are none done for parrots and they did not roast their nuts in the wild. I see that as a dangerous practice. So I will have to disagree with the roasting of nuts for parrots. Keeping your parrot healthy and cleaning their cages will prevent most illness.