Pellets

[metinemre]

Can you suggest me a good brand of pellets that i can add to my birds diet?

I have
a pair of green singers
a pair of lavenders
a pair of starwberries
a pair of rccb

i feed them with seed mix, freeze dried insect mix, spray millet, apple once a week, greens twice a week and hard boiled eggs once a week.
they also have herb salad, crushed egg shells, cuttle bone available everyday.

Not breeding or planning breeding, just for a healthy diet.

[Leo519]

I feed mine LaFeber's for finches.
This is the only brand of pelleted food readily available in my area so it's the only kind I've ever tried and don't how it compares to other brands..
I used to offer it in a dish separate from their daily seed blend and most of them seemed to like it, though I've never observed my Gouldians eating it.
Now I just mix some in a special dish for them a few times a week with a blend of Miracle Meal, hemp and Niger seed, dried insect mix, commercial dried egg food, herb salad, and every couple of weeks I'll add a little powdered kelp to the mix.
They enjoy it and can pick out whatever they like/need

[Derk]

I also feed LaFeber's. My societies, zebras, and canary ate it almost immediately. It did not take long for my green singer to also eat it. I am not convinced my strawberries eat much of it so I still mix it in with their seeds. I just bought a BC CB, and some GB waxbills. I am mixing it in with their seeds. When I am fairly confident they are eating the granules, I separate it into a separate dish so I know for sure if it is being eaten. There are a lot of days when I replenish the granules for the soc/zebs and they go right into the dish even though they have fresh seed. My vet says in her experience this 'pellet' is the best accepted by finches.

[Sheather]

I offer the same brand and I find all of my stock will eat it but none do so preferentially except for the zebras when they were feeding chicks, beyond this it is largely ignored where seed is available with the exception of some nibbles here and there.

[lnlovesorange]

I also use the Lafaebers for finches (it is almost more like grains, than pellets) I was told it was good for fledges being weaned, as it is an easy food for them to eat. My 1st pair of Zebs NEVER touched the stuff, but the Weanies (zebras) seem to like it. Also Zupreem fruit pellets. Again, my first pair of zebras won't touch pellets (which is fine because they have a well balanced diet, btw sounds like yours do too, seed only is ok as long as they get othere things like greens, veggies, fruits, and egg you don't NEED pellets) I always thought I did because I read everywhere that they were better, and seed only finches die... but that's only if ALL they get is seed. Just making sure you're not making the same mistake I did... trying to switch my birds from seeds to pellets WAS NOT Working so i panicked... Anyway I'm off topic. When I smashed the Zupreem fruit pellets (X-Tra small) they would eat it on somthing as a powder, like sprinkled over egg food, (got that idea on this forum btw) but my gouldians came from a breeder, and she said that they LOVE the zupreem pellets she fed it to them in a separate treat cup. Anyways, good luck, and again as long as you give them a well balanced diet, not JUST seed, they don't actually need pellets. (I'm sure you're not as stupid as me ) but good luck!!!!

[gf3]

Zupreem fruit pellets for my finches (gouldians and blue caps). Make sure to take your time in the transition - I would say a month before no seeds in the cage. I do add seeds back once chicks are in the nest. I have not yet risked going only pellets at that time, but do plan on trying it in the future. Also, when on 100% pellets, I add nothing else to the diet and the birds do well.
Gene

[ibon_337]

You can use Zupreem and Kaytee Natural. Two of my favorite pellets to feed my birds are Harrisons and Roudybush. I stay away from the colored and too flavorful pellets.

[Derk]

Leo519@Sheather@lnlovesorange@gf3

Do you find the moms and dads eat less egg food when/once you feed the Lafebers or other pellets? I have my first clutch, and although the parents have eaten egg food in the past, they do not seem to be doing so now.?? That said babies crops are full and they seem to be growing just fine so I am not too worried. Just mostly curious. These are zebra parents.

[ac12]

I tried the Zupreen fruit pellets, but the pool of the zebras would color the perches and I could not determine health from looking at the poop, as the poop was all colored by the color in the pellets. So I switched to the Zupreem natural. But then Zupreem stopped making the Natural in Extra Small size.

I then switched to Lafebers for my gouldians, and zebras when I had zebras.

The Societies get the smallest Roudybush, which is still much larger than the Lafebers. I would like to move them to Lafebers, so I only need to have ONE barrel of pellets. Interestingly, the societies seem to "hull" the pellets, leaving small pellet particles in the food dish. This is one reason for wanting to use the smaller Lafeber pellets.

Breeding birds always have their usual pellets available and fresh egg food daily (3x a day with chicks), some are supplimented by Miracle Meal and/or a dish of seed mix (canary, red and white millet, and niger).

I did try using Roudybush High Energy Breeding Food (pellets), but that resulted in all dud eggs for 2 hens. So out of suspicion, I stopped using it. Next season, one of the hens produced fertile eggs, the other all duds.

[Lucille]

http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=33678

[cindy]

Zupreem does make a natural color, Roudybush mine will eat also. I do use prettybird on the finches and Roudybush on the javas and grasskeets at the moment. I have also had them accept the Zupreem fruit blends.