Personal Pellet Story

[Melika]

I like having a pelleted diet to fall back on, but I know it isn't the perfect food. Sure, I know my bird can survive on it but he definitely does not thrive.
We have tried a few different kinds of pellets and Hane tended to prefer Roudybush to the other brands, I think because it's a little more moist. Anyway, while I was in school I had very little time to spend with him and on his diet. So he ended up almost all week only having pellets. As school was ending (about nine months later), his colour was faded and he had begun feather plucking and wing-flipping.

Wing-flipping is something I had read about years ago (related to toe-tapping) and is thought to be caused by an excess of vitamins especially when a parrot is eating a pelleted diet.

When I was working at the animal shelter years ago, I convinced my boss to begin feeding her caique fresh foods. He was already on Harrison's pellets (thought to be one of the best of the best) but still was thin and seemed faded. After a few months with daily fresh foods the vet happened to remark on how healthy he seemed. He had a vibrant colour and sheen, along with a healthier looking weight. From that experience, I knew my own Hane was faded from lack of fresh foods.

Pelleted food is boring. It's all the same. It all tastes the same, and if you don't like dyes in your food it all looks the same. It's dry. Add that to limited time with a human and you have a bored bird. Thus his plucking began. Seeds make a bird take time to open, give them something to manipulate with their beaks. Seeds provide fatty acids which help the skin and keep some weight on the bird. Hane would spend hours playing with his fresh foods in times past.

Did I mention that Hane had also lost weight and looked skinny?

He used to be so vibrant- look at him in my signature! Now he's dull and half bald. Skinny to boot. Not the picture of health he once was. But he was on pellets right? According to the pellet companies that's all he needs! To live, sure. But he can't thrive on that. Pellets are boring. Pellets are balanced? How do they know what balanced is? There is no magic food.

Now daily he is eating veggies and some fruits with a healthy scoop of seeds thrown on top and he chows down.

He still flicks his wings but less than before and still plucks, but his feathers are growing back in. Slowly. Very slowly. I know part of his plucking is from boredom, but I also know those hours spent over-preening in the past were spend playing with and eating his veggies and fruits, relishing them and finding all the best parts. He might never completely stop plucking- now it's a deeper behavioral issue. His colour, I fear, will take a little longer to improve after so long on basically a pellet only diet. He's even starting to put a bit of weight back on. His beak, at least, is already showing that vivid red he always had before.

It will be a long road to recovery. A huge price to pay for a year of what I consider nutritional neglect. You see, I knew better. All the research I've done over the years, the experiences I've seen with different parrots, I knew fresh foods were the most important thing. But I let other things get in the way and Hane has paid dearly for that.

I wrote this for those of you that think the seeds or the pellets your bird is eating is enough. Sure, pellets or seeds are easy and your bird might look okay but fresh foods will make all the difference. Perhaps I can see such a drastic difference only because of how healthy he was before compared to now. If he had always been on pellets, he probably would have always been this skinny and almost dusty looking he's so dull. His vibrant green has a slight (to my eye) yellow tinge to it. Almost olive in places. All this would have been "normal" if I had never seen how he could look on a diet full of fresh foods.

Feed fresh foods daily! Lots of veggies. A little bit of fruit. It's not really that difficult. But it sure makes a world of difference.

[xx_sheena_xx]

My birds are the oppisite to yours
Mine look horrible when on a mostly seed diet, hardly any color in them and they have no energy...
But on a pelleted diet they look terrific

[Melika]

My birds are the oppisite to yours
Mine look horrible when on a mostly seed diet, hardly any color in them and they have no energy...
But on a pelleted diet they look terrific

... It wasn't about pellet vs seed. It was about having fresh foods or not. For my bird, fresh foods are what was lacking. And our birds really look their best when they have a varied diet with fresh foods.

[xx_sheena_xx]

Sorry I thought you where critasizing pellets.
Yes, all birds will look better eating fresh food no matter if they eat pellets or seeds