Personally, having tried just about every pellet known in North America---I hate pellets. They're conning people into believing that they're really just convenient economical complete nutrition. The exception to this being the TOPS 'pellets' as they're really just like grain mash but dried and pressed---this is where I get my convenience factor but even then Jacko does not get dry pellets in a bowl. Most pellets are cheap grains/fillers with artificial vitamins. Why would low-grade animal-feed corn/wheat/soy dust and various isolates and proteins extracted in a lab plus gods know what else coated with synthetic vitamins be good as a complete diet?
For the record--- Jacko has tried and sampled over the years:
Tropican lifetime & high preformance granules (HAGEN)
I'm from Quebec so in HARI's backyard. These are my preferred best of the worst--and if you can't find TOPS or you're pressed for time and money--these offer reasonable nutrition for the price and one of the better fat ratios and ingredient lists out there.
Nutribird P15 tropical flavour (Versele-Laga)
UNGH do NOT get me started on this stuff---its rock hard and when wet makes a foul chemical-smelling sludge. Jacko wasn't crazy about this stuff and I ended up throwing out most of it, it was attempt to get Harrison High Potency-like nutrient profiles without the $$ I also don't like that it takes a ton of digging to find out the actual ingredients in the food not just an ambigious however many % cereal grains and seeds it says on the bag/website.
Pretty Bird African Special (Pretty Pets)
Not too bad on the macronutrient profile---but the ingredients are cheap (chock full of soy, corn and not much else) plus chock full of colorants and synthetics. But they try to mark it up because its supposed to be 'special african grey food' .
Calcium Max African Grey (Zoo-Max)
Another local company here in Quebec, this pellet is better than the Pretty Bird as it does include more ingredient sources--but again we're still dealing with colourants and synthetics. Pellets are bit hard too---but the company makes awesome locally-produced toys and gyms so I'mma give them a break even though they don't list the macronutrient ratios online.
Zupreem Fruitblend (Zupreem)
This food line (including the natural coloured ones) I find highly overrated. The fruitblend makes a terrible smelling sludge in water, turns your birds poop all sorts of frightening colours. Plus the fat content is terrible--Jacko had alot of flaking beak, feet and general itchiness. The food is primarily soy/corn/wheat based with all sorts of additives.
Roudybush Rice (Roudybush)
Not bad considering its intended purpose--not sure it has enough nutrition for long-term health if used alone despite what it claims. The pellets are pretty inoffensive, crunch easily and despite the synthetics I think does well. I wish however that they'd warn you better that the bird's poop turns and stays lime green on it. Seeing as its a specialized food its expensive though.
Lafaeber Parrot pellets (Lafaeber)
Huge mark-up I think----vet's office food for sure. Ingredients aren't amazing and Jacko refused flat out to eat these. I had a small sample bag and neither she and or Sully the tiel would eat them.
Kaytee Exact Rainbow Complete Food for Conures & Parrots (Kaytee)
This...I'm ashamed to admit I even bought. But small town pet store and running out of pellets is what it is. Needless to say, horrible ingredients, synthetics off the roof and Jacko wouldn't even eat it. Nevermind Kaytee's questionable activities ie bird mills.
Harrisons High Potency Coarse/Adult Lifetime Coarse/Pepper Adult Lifetime (Harrisons Pet Foods)
I used to be a believer in the cult of Harrisons lol, used to. I figured it was ok to spend $40 dollars on pellets for just my TAG (even though they're majority corn/peanuts/sunflower) because they were organic and the first whole-food ingredient pellets I found. Plus, the vet recommended them at first. Only to have her develop fatty blood, fast growing nails and bea and eat them like mad on the high-potency, then have her flaky, itchy and disinterested on the lifetime. I no longer support or recommend Harrisons personally, as they are scams in terms of promising awesome health and organics yet they use ingredients most known to be allergenic etc and not all of their ingredients are organic thus their advice to use 90% percent pellets and only organic produce is ridiculous and just a ploy for money seeing as their own product is NOT 100% organic. Save your money and feed your fids better people, seriously.
Totally Organics Pellets (Totally Organics)
This is my pellet of choice now, for those of us (like me) who do not have the know-how to implement a completely non-pellet diet as it is basically a grain and herb mix dried and pressed.
In its raw state out of the bag its pretty nutrient-sparse, not because its actually poor but because its not hard-pressed and crumbles easily. So the bird ends up having to eat a lot more to gain the same benefit---HOWEVER---this is easily remedied by making into birdie bread. After that it works well. It does smell funky and very 'earthy' but most birds give in and try it---especially baked into bread. As my vet told me, it is basically a natural multivitamin, and will be a complete diet if fed in conjunction with a variety of veggies etc. It's also much cheaper than most other organic foods and does not contain anything artificial. Some complain it lacks D3 but with it made into birdie bread (egg yolk contains d3) and UV lighting all is good.
Golden'obles (Goldenfeast)
I'd actually forgotten I've tried this one. Minus the soy and sugar I love that all the ingredients are whole and that there is even probiotics! It smells sorta sweet and Jacko (and my ex-tiel) ate it without complaint. However, given what I now know about soy I chose not to feed it, as well with all the excess sugars (honey, molasses etc) I found the birds more irritable and that the tiel's yeast issues flared up so I stopped feeding it. YMMV though. I just don't want soy or wheat etc in my bird's food---especially not all that excess sugar.
To those who quote no time, its very simple to take an hour or two--make your birdie bread and mash on the weekends, portion and freeze them. It takes me all of a minute to warm Jacko's birdie pellet-bread and serve it. It does not take long to educate yourself on the nutritional properties of food and the needs of parrots. To boot--it is not expensive---Fresh food costs me 20 dollars a month, and buying TOPS in bulk means it cost about $5/month.
A bag of pellets alone can cost you that.