Pellets or Fresh Foods?

[Michael]

Given no other choice, would you rather go all pellets or all fresh foods (fruits/veggies) for your parrot? And I mean more from a nutritional rather than practical stand point.

[miajag]

Ignoring all practical concerns, fresh food and it's not close.

My parrot's diet is pellet-based for practical reasons. Like many (most?) parrot owners I simply don't have the time or particular inclination to buy, grow, prepare and clean fresh foods and serve them multiple times per day. I also don't know how to construct a fresh food diet that provides my parrot with all of the nutrition, vitamins and minerals she needs (and that she would actually eat), so that would require a lot of time to research and work out as well.

I'm not one of those people who believes that an all-pellet diet is ideal for a parrot (mine gets fresh fruits, vegetables, grains and seeds as well) but as a base I think they're pretty good, and I don't feel bad giving her those in lieu of time- and labor-intensive fresh foods.

[pchela]

Fresh foods for sure. I hate the idea of an all pellet diet.

[TheNzJessie]

thats a hard one because my bird is not on pellets.... my bird is grains (hulled oats( and others like wheat mixture with fresh foods like fruits and vegetables


i would have to go with fresh foods

[HyperD]

I pretty much agree with everyone here. Pellets are a necessity if time constraints are present. However I like to give a mixture, give pellets, give fresh food and give some seeds as well.

[Michael]

Ok, when I said practical concerns aside, I obviously did not mean to have a personal chef at your disposal to acquire all ingredients that go into pellets and serve them fresh.

I'm surprised that no one said they'd let the parrot choose. I usually just serve one or the other but on the occasions I serve pellets and fresh veggies, 7/10 times she'll go for the pellets first. Looks to me like she's choosing pellets.

From a nutritional point of view, I don't think I could manage to find and feed everything the parrot needs so once again, I'd probably feel safer on all pellets than all fresh foods. I know I've left my parrot on all pellets when I was away on vacations and she did just fine. I know many parrots live on all pellets just fine. Heck, there are many parrots that reach old age on an all seed diet alone. So it can't be that bad. I'm starting to suspect that I've been over-emphasizing fresh foods on my parrot (used to be 50/50 pellets/fresh) when really she just seems to want her pellets. So now, lately, I've been mixing some pellets into her veggie dinner. It means more waste of veggies but better nutrition I suspect. I think I'm going to adjust her to about 70/30 pellets/other.

I've spoken to Jean Pattison extensively (who is breeding my Cape) and she told me a real life story where she stopped feeding veggies to her breeder flock for a year and nothing but pellets and that their health and yield actually improved rather than worsened. She told me that if given the choice of feeding only pellets or only fresh, she thinks pellets are the more nutritional/safer bet. I used to feel guilty that Kili wasn't getting much or any fresh food when I was away on vacations and I just asked someone to feed her pellets cause it's easier. But now after my discussions with Jean, other parrot people, reading some articles, and my own observation of Kili's pellet preference, I think I'll just let her eat pellets when I'm away for a week without looking back. I am not ruling fresh foods out of her diet entirely but I am pretty sure that if it came down between fresh and pellets, I would go with just pellets.

[lzver]

I voted for Pellets.

Some days I'll put fresh veggies/beans/fruits/cooked veggie pasta into their cages first thing in the morning (if I had time to prepare the night before) and my husband will remove 2 hours later before he leaves for work and replace with pellets. Most days when I get home, I provide a mix of fresh veggies/beans/fruits/cooked veggie pasta for dinner. On those days when I'm busy, I don't feel guilty providing them with only pellets.

If given a choice, both Lucy and Jessie prefer the fresh food mix, but they don't refuse to eat if all they have available is pellets.

I will always provide pellets as a part of their diet. When presented with a fresh food mix, they both pick and choose what they like best, so I'm never certain that they're getting a balanced meal. At least with each pellet, they're eating a balanced meal.

I currently feed HARI's Tropimix as their pellet food. They like the Low Fat Bean Mix best. I do refuse to feed them any pellet food that is artificially colored. I tried a few times in the past and they refuse to eat them. But when I take Jessie to the vet this weekend, I'll be discussing a transition to Harrison's pellets.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

If I HAD to choose I'd choose pellets because that way there would be a better chance of a balanced diet -- but no one actually HAS to make that choice. I don't think my bird, left entirely to his own devices, would necessarily choose a healthy diet any more than a human without any knowledge of nutrition would, and with fresh foods there is always an element of choice. In nature availability plays a big role (and malnutrition is probably pretty common).

[Natacha]

I chose fresh foods.

All my birds eat the fresh foods, some are still weary of pellets. They'll nibble on a few, but it's definitively not a preferred food.

I actually believe in a diversified diets. They get the fresh stuff, the cooked grains, the sprouted seeds and grains, pellets and even some seeds. They fly enough and play vigorously (those toys often got a beating) that I do no feel bad in the slightest to give them a couple of seeds, regardless of fat content. They are by no means overweight and eat a whole lot of other more nutritious things anyways.

[bmsweb]

If I HAD to choose I'd choose pellets because that way there would be a better chance of a balanced diet

I voted the same for the exact same reason, but I know if my conures made the choice, it would be fruit and veggies.