Which feed is the best?

[Alyce Johnson]

My AV is very lenient about what I feed my macaw (lots of nuts being OK by him) but when it comes to amazons, he said he really feels they need to be on a pellet diet. So I shopped around quite a bit and found a few things they grudginly ate. Then they fed my cherry head conure on zupreme when he was hospitalized there at the vets' place, so I had to buy some. (i was trying to stay away from artificial colors just because it makes their poop stain so much worse)

So after I brought home a bag of zupreme and mixed it into everybody's food, guess what - they all *love it*! (I have a macaw, 4 conures and 3 amazons, plus 2 eastern rosellas.) So now we're on zupreem exclusively. They were not nearly so keen on Harrisons (and it's more expensive). I supplement with a bit of organic fruits, veggies, and sprouted organic seeds. Also some human food, since they insist.

My eldest amazon whom the vet said was "morbidly obese" is now in the proper weight range (without having restricted his foods at all) and he is *finally* beginning to molt, after who knows how many years of ragged feathers. He was on a purely seed diet for probably 24 years before we got him as a rehomed bird. He's looking even worse at the moment as he's got feathers falling out but I believe the zupreem will have him in fine feather here before very much longer.

I took a tiny nibble of it too - the other post is right - it smells a lot better than it tastes! But they truly do seem to love it, so that's all that matters to me. I'm not the one who has to eat it, after all. And it does give them nice breath, as a bonus. And I think my amazons smell less "musky" on it - although that may be their underlying metabolic issues improving. Anyway, for whatever reason, they do seem to have less "BO" than before - for which I am grateful!