Does anyone use Harrison's bird food?

[Azure Hanyo]

I took Galileo to the vet for a well exam and he is slightly underweight and has a vitamin deficiency (a few different ones...don't remember all) and the vet recommended I switch him to Harrison's Bird Food. Has anyone had any experience with this? And how do I make the switch? I received a guideline packet on this, but I was just wondering about other people's methods.

[Kim S]

I thought Michaels way of switching Truman was a very good one. Cant remember in what topic he was talking about this. But he handfed the new pelets first so he took them as treats, getting to know the taste and texture first. After that he switched to the new pellets in one go. If you mix the pellets they will just fish out the old ones and leave the new ones (unless you are lucky and he prefers the new pellets).

[pfinarffle]

did your vet recommend one of the special harrison's formulations like the high protein one? some birds can be more finicky with foods than others. my parents' timneh grey would never eat pellets. he died fairly young from a likely infection secondary to poor nutrition. our senegal took to harrison's right away. i was shocked as he was getting the pellet equivalent of froot loops from zupreem and i was afraid i'd never be able to convert him. i wish i knew what it is about certain foods that draws birds to them! if your bird has trouble converting over a long period of time, as a back-up plan you could talk with your vet about another brand that would meet your bird's needs. i hear some birds love roudybush and that seems to be well balanced nutrionally (though our guy hated it!). i believe roudybush also comes in special formulations depending on the bird's health needs.

[ptuga72]

I feed Harrison's Lifetime Fine to my green cheek and to our foster conures. Actually the cherry-heads prefer it over the roudybush and zupreem that they were on . I can't give you much advice on how to switch, the conures are practically vacuum cleaners and ate them on the first go.

[Azure Hanyo]

did your vet recommend one of the special harrison's formulations like the high protein one?

Yes, but the exact kind escapes my memory. I have a bag of it in the fridge and have started him on it and am going to follow the method my vet suggested. (Offering it all day with 2 30-minute offerings of his regular food in the morning and evening.) We will see how he does.

Thanks everyone!

[TheNzJessie]

i was told to switch my budgie to harrisons pellet diet but i decided to keep him on seed fruit and veges

[Azure Hanyo]

I think I am going to up his pellet intake instead... That Harrison's stuff has a massive pricetag! O.o I am thinking his deficiencies were existing when I got him, as he is 8 years old, so I will see how it goes and weigh him every other day to see if it helps.

[Azure Hanyo]

So Galileo's bloodwork came a few days after I made the last post here... And he is FINE. the vet was yanking my chain to get me to buy that expensive food. Snarl. he was underweght slightly though, but I really chalk that up to stress because I weighed him and he has gained beautifully.

[a.susz]

that is excellent news... except for the nasty vet. sometimes thats why i hate vets, they just charge out the butt.

[Nathaniel]

You should yell at him. Not tell him off or anything, just run in to his office and yell(like a parrot ), then say "good day to you sir" and walkout leaving a muddy shoeprint coming in and going out.