pellets

[shellbeme]

I know about a large portion of the diet needing to be fresh goods, but when it comes to offering pellets what do you guys choose? My grey was eating harrisons high potency until I found out about the cholesterol. (forgive the spelling) he is now using adult lifetime, would that be good for an eclectus too? I ask because I noticed eclectus specifically mentioned under the harrisons that is made with pepper and I am not sure if it would make a difference.

[becca623]

Have you considered TOPS pellets? They are made differently than other pellets. They are the only pellets that ekkiechat recommends for eclectus. I used to feed them to Echo but I found he would steal the Zupreem pellets from my other birds' cages. He hasn't shown any allergies so far. I've had him 3 yrs. He turned 3 in July.

[Monica]

There is an argument that TOP's does not have Vit D in it.... Foundation Formula is another recommended one... and Roudybush has a Rice Diet.

For eclectus, idealy, the diet shouldn't take up much, if any, pellets.

[loyallyroyal]

a little bit of roudybush here

[failurebydesign]

I haven't been feeding pellets but I had a bunch of free sample pellets from companies like roudybush harrisons and similar and I just mixed them in with my seed mixture I made.

He gets maybe 4 pellets a day that way..

Not sure if I will buy more he seems to be doing great without pellets.

[chapala]

I think you're well off with the Harrison's Lifetime formula for your Grey. Glad to hear you also are feeding fresh foods. I'm certainly not a expert in Eclectus diets, but Harrison's does contain spirulina which hasn't proved good for the Ekkies.

The Gabriel Foundation has started feeding some Roudybush rice pellets to their Ekkies along with Shauna's Mash diet of fresh, whole foods (Feeding Feathers Yahoo forum). Their Ekkies are doing very well with that diet.

The problem with TOPS is that it does not contain Vit. D3, a necessary nutrient, so if your bird doesn't get outside in the sunshine year round, you may want to feed a pellet with D3.

[sodakat]

I am feeding Harrison's Lifetime. Recently switched from Harrison's High Potency due to blood cholesterol problems in LaFitte. If cholesterol remains high after a year on Lifetime, I will switch brands. I believe because I have breeding birds I need the consistency of a quality dry food that can be available at all times. Neither bird chooses pellets over the fresh foods that we provide in abundance, but they do eat the pellets. Their offspring also like the pellets. We feed all birds in three bowls; fresh, dry and pellets.