Hagen Tropican Alternative Formula

[dragonlady2]

Has anyone heard of this pellet?
http://hari.ca/our-products/bird-nutrit ... ternative/
I believe this is the link. Most of my birds eat fresh foods, but I do give them a pellet to round out the diet. I prefer TOPS, but most will not eat it in the pellet form. My Sennie will eat very little fresh food and will only eat Roudybush and Zupreem. I give him fresh food every day, but he only will eat the raw carrot and corn. I would love to get him off the Zupreem. He also will not eat Harrison's.
I am not a Hagen fan so I need a whole lot more info before I look into this one.

[Pajarita]

They don't look bad as far as pellets go. I no longer feed brown rice because of the high content of arsenic in it and, in my personal opinion, the clay is completely unnecessary... My biggest beef with pellets is the unnatural dryness, the man-made vitamins and the fact that all of them (except Tops) are made with feed quality grains.

Have you tried a gloop-like dish? My senegals love it!

[dragonlady2]

I have pretty much tried mixes and mashes with him. He will eat sprouts and occasionally the sweet potato mash when the mood strikes him. He is an ornery little devil....probably why I love him so much, so I am thinking the lower protein may assist in taking that edge off. If I try to put food in his cage that his highness does not agree with, he will either attack my hand or the offending food....lol.

[Pajarita]

Well, I tell you, my birds don't like anything with a 'mash' consistency. They like their gloop with a real coarse texture, all the grains have to be whole (not overcooked and split open), separate from each other and there cannot be any mushiness in it (I have to drain the grains very well and make sure I am not using any veggie that would release a lot of water after thawing). I've never had any trouble transitioning any new bird to gloop, they all seem to like it and I think it's because they can kind of pick and choose what to eat first and what second - my male Senegal always eats the hominy corn first, then the fresh corn and then the rest of the stuff and the only thing he consistently leaves behind is the chopped green beans but several of my birds don't eat them, either, so it's not just him.

[dragonlady2]

I will look at what is in the gloop. I make a month's worth of sweet mashed potato with quinoa, brown rice, cinnamon and red pepper flakes. I chop fresh everyday....greens, veggies and fruits and I add mixed frozen peas, carrot and corn....keeps the food a little fresher.

[Wolf]

For the longest time I thought that my Grey was my pickiest eater, but that proved to be wrong. My Senegal is my pickiest eater. Even though she always demand a portion of whatever I an eating, she mostly takes it, rolls it around once and spits it out. My Grey, on the other hand will look at the food first and then watch me as I am eating it and then decides if she wants any of it. She normally takes it and rolls it around in her mouth a couple of times and then mashes it to taste the juices of it and then she either eats it, spits it out or mashes it to get all of the juices and then spits it out. She generally eats or extracts the juices from more different foods than my Senegal will eat.

[Pajarita]

Yes, my grays love juicy stuff so they can 'suck' the juice out of 'meat'.

Dragonlady, have you considered using organic red or black rice instead of brown? They are both whole grain rices but they are much higher in nutrition (red is the best, black second) of all the other rices AND they are low in arsenic while regular brown rice is the highest (the organic brown rice is also pretty high). Your other alternative is organic Thai or Indian whole grain basmati -also low in arsenic.

[dragonlady2]

I think I will go to the red rice....thanks for the info. I have seen it on the shelves but didn't really know the difference between rice.

Wolf...my Sennie is definitely my pickiest eater as well. And does not do well with introducing new things...food or toys. He loves to get head scritches from me, but if I dare put a finger or hand in his domain, even if it is holding a treat, he will swiftly let me know of his displeasure by launching himself and attaching his beak to the offending appendage. He is such a stinker....lol. I am going to try this new pellet to see if less protein will curb his enthusiastic and quick retaliation.

[Wolf]

Kiki, my Senegal is also very territorial about her cage and will attack me if I reach in the cage while she is there. She is an absolute sweetheart once she comes out of the cage and spends the majority of her out of cage time on my shoulder.

[Pajarita]

Not my sennies, they completely ignore my hand when I put it inside their cage. As a matter of fact, Zoey waits for me to ask her to step up with my hand from inside her cage instead of coming out on her own (she is a momma's girl BIG time ).