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Should I Feed My Budgie Zupreem?

Talk about bird illnesses and other bird health related issues. Seeds, pellets, fruits, vegetables and more. Discuss what to feed your birds and in what quantity. Share your recipe ideas.

Should I Feed My Budgie Zupreem?

Postby Bananaboohoo » Wed Mar 04, 2020 12:30 pm

I have two budgies and I was wondering - is Zupreem actually a top quality bird feed brand? What are some even better brands? I feed mine the Fruitblend Pellets and the Sensible Seed. :budgie:
Bananaboohoo
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Re: Should I Feed My Budgie Zupreem?

Postby Pajarita » Thu Mar 05, 2020 9:48 am

I don't feed my birds pellets. I've done a lot of research on their natural diets and have cared for multiple birds of many species (so I had to learn about each species dietary ecology) and have found that pellets are not and never will be the best dietary option for them (I can elaborate the reasons why, if you wish). I feed all my birds the same for breakfast: gloop and raw produce (one veggie, one fruit and one leafy green or cruciform) and I change the dinner based on the protein level the species needs. For budgies, it would be a good quality seed mix (ABBA 1600). I also change the diet from resting to breeding season by increasing the protein level (plain gloop in the resting season, gloop doctored by switching millet for quinoa and adding sprouts to it for the breeding season - I also add a bit of hemp seed to the regular seed mix I use for dinner AND I increase the multivitamin/mineral from two days a week to three).

But, if you have your heart set on feeding pellets, I would go with Tops and no other.
Pajarita
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Re: Should I Feed My Budgie Zupreem?

Postby leonflix » Tue Apr 07, 2020 5:40 am

Pajarita wrote:I don't feed my birds pellets. I've done a lot of research on their natural diets and have cared for multiple birds of many species (so I had to learn about each species dietary ecology) and have found that pellets are not and never will be the best dietary option for them (I can elaborate the reasons why, if you wish). I feed all my birds the same for breakfast: gloop and raw produce (one veggie, one fruit and one leafy green or cruciform) and I change the dinner based on the protein level the species needs. For budgies, it would be a good quality seed mix (ABBA 1600). I also change the diet from resting to breeding season by increasing the protein level (plain gloop in the resting season, gloop doctored by switching millet for quinoa and adding sprouts to it for the breeding season - I also add a bit of hemp seed to the regular seed mix I use for dinner AND I increase the multivitamin/mineral from two days a week to three).

But, if you have your heart set on feeding pellets, I would go with Tops and no other.


Zupreem, even natural contains sugar (I'm not against zupreem and personally feed it to my conures) so i just give them less fruit to prevent a chance of a yeast infection. Make sure when choosing a pellet it is complete, meaning it contains vit D3 and every other vitamin your bird needs

Thanks,
Ariv
leonflix
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Re: Should I Feed My Budgie Zupreem?

Postby Pajarita » Tue Apr 07, 2020 9:44 am

Ahhh, but the thing is that not all sugars are the same! The sugar they add to pellets is sucrose and, although some fruits do have it (like pineapple and apricots, for example), it's always paired with fructose and unprocessed (anything listed as plain 'sugar' is processed), which is a much healthier sugar. But, aside from that, giving less fruits to make up for a pellet that has sugar in it is really not the best dietary strategy. Think about it... Fruits are part of a parrot's natural diet, pellets are not (processed, lab-made vitamins and minerals, too dry, too high in protein, animal-feed grade ingredients, no phytonutrients, SOY!, etc) so why reduce the part of their natural diet that we can give them to replace it with something that is completely unnatural and not even really healthy for them?
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
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