The Best Pellets?!

[Chantilly]

Awesome! Thanks everyone! We have some vegies growing at home that include zucchini, chilli, capsicum. Allot of herbs and some eggplants(bad for the birdie)

[Pajarita]

Pajarita is right except that when it is frozen it does start to degrade while frozen, so you need to balance how fresh with how long frozen. There is a lot of hype about frozen being better widespread on the internet without mentioning how food degrades while frozen. It degrades less in a dedicated freezer, but in a frost free fridge the degredation is more rapid.

Can you please give a couple of links of studies that would contradict the 'hype'? Because all I find everywhere is that frozen is more nutritious than fresh. And we are talking about buying the frozen product right before you are making the gloop, of course, not leaving it in a freezer for 6 months.

[Chantilly]

Oh, one more question, how much water to grain.. half half?

[Pajarita]

No, it's much easier to put A LOT of water (more than three times) and then drain it. Grain absorbs a lot of water and swells so, when you first start (and even when you've been doing it a long time), it's better to put a lot, that way, you make sure the bottom doesn't stick and get burned.

[Chantilly]

No, it's much easier to put A LOT of water (more than three times) and then drain it. Grain absorbs a lot of water and swells so, when you first start (and even when you've been doing it a long time), it's better to put a lot, that way, you make sure the bottom doesn't stick and get burned.

Ok, Thankyou

[JessiMuse]

They are all extremely dry and generally result in a chronic state of mild dehydration, which is because parrots generally drink twice a day and get the majority of their water from the foods they eat.

Can't you fix the chronic dehydration problem by giving them access to fresh water at all times?

[Wolf]

That is a very good question and it should be easy to answer and the answer seems like it should be yes this would solve the issue, but that is not the case. But then, saying no, is not correct either.
It appears that with it being just a mild case of dehydration that the body does not always recognize this as a problem and it seems to be especially true for those species of parrots that evolved in arid and semi arid regions. due to the general lack of abundant water sources in these areas that these birds have developed internal ways of dealing with the lack of water and they seem to be in conserving moisture. So when we are dehydrated we get thirsty and drink more water and these birds did not have that option. I really don't yet understand the exact nature of the differences except that it appears to me to be in how they conserve water as the way that they get water doesn't appear to be any different than the way that other parrots get water, mostly through their food.

The key factor seems to be whether the body recognizes that dehydration is the problem or not. and since it is something that is occurring through the digestive tract to provide enough moisture to digest the food it seems that many time the body does not recognize it as being out of the ordinary and it becomes chronic and as such represents a new norm and so some of them do not drink enough additional water to prevent or solve the problem. So sometimes keeping fresh water available at all times works and sometimes it does not. Now I know that this sounds like a cop out, but I have recently found out that I also have a mild and chronic dehydration issue. That surprised me to no end as I always keep something to drink on hand although I just sip on it all day long, which may be why I don't recognize it as such and am not thirsty enough to drink more than I normally do. And I rarely eat dry foods, a few corn chips once a month or two.

[seagoatdeb]

Pajarita is right except that when it is frozen it does start to degrade while frozen, so you need to balance how fresh with how long frozen. There is a lot of hype about frozen being better widespread on the internet without mentioning how food degrades while frozen. It degrades less in a dedicated freezer, but in a frost free fridge the degredation is more rapid.

Can you please give a couple of links of studies that would contradict the 'hype'? Because all I find everywhere is that frozen is more nutritious than fresh. And we are talking about buying the frozen product right before you are making the gloop, of course, not leaving it in a freezer for 6 months.

There is lots of info there on degredation while frozen, so I will leave you to research, my life is incredibly busy right now. I only said you need to balance, fresh and frozen. Not everyone buys right before making the gloop. Once you freeze your chop/gloop it is often frozen again, so it is important to watch how long things are frozen.

[Pajarita]

I did do research. I always do before I question a statement that I don't agree with, just to make sure that my memory is correct and that the information has not changed since I last read about it. But I can't find anything that says that frozen is better than fresh been hype - I checked three whole pages worth of references! The only thing I found comparing fresh to frozen with a time degradation factor is this one and it says that even frozen up to 12 months, it's still more nutritious than fresh so, if you have anything that gives a different picture, I would appreciate it.

http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/234-779.pdf

[seagoatdeb]

Thanks for the link it was informative but it did not give enough info. It did not say what temperature food was frozen, and in what type of freezer to have it last the 12 months. It did not go into much depth on each food. I know it is not easy to find good research. I researched over 5 years about all these things when I became a raw foodist.

I dont have time to look for all the research I saw, over so many years, but the original research found that only some frozen was more nutritious than fresh that had become older than a few days. It found that blanched which is used for freezing vegetables kills the enzymes and vitamin C , making that less nutritious than fresh in that particular way. Fruit is frozen without blanching so it retains vitamin C. So there is lots to take into consideration. Also frost free degrades faster than a dedicated freezer, so that needs to be taken into account. The twelve month senario is on a non frost free preserving at a certain temperature. Fresh, that is eaten soon after being picked is the most nutritious of all.

My peeve is only with the continual statements being made that say that frozen is better. Thats what I call Hype. Whenever a study is done, the more times it is written about the more the original content/context is lost.

What I have said is reasonable, just things to take into account. I only made the comment to say that we should take all the factors between fresh and frozen into account. Just my opinion based on my study. It is up to everyone to decide the right way for them.

I am mostly concerned about the amount of cooking being used for parrots, cooking their grains and blanched frozen vegetables, destroying enzymes and water soluable vitamins. Enzymes are important and there are too many being lost if too much cooked is used. That is the point I wanted to make. I feed very little cooked to my parrots and I ony use frozen when I cant find fresh. I dont know if this give a different picture to you or not, but best I can do right now.