FINCHforum

i know a lot of you on this site use Rudeybush. I bought Zepreem. I admit I bought it becacuse of those wonderful colored pellets!!! It smells good too!!!! Now I am worried about the food coloring that makes them soooo apealing to my eyes. Should I be worried about this? Should I quit using it and get some Rudybush??
Leda

Leda, I had always used Roudybush for lovebirds, parrotlets and I grind it and add it to dried egg food for my finches. The lovebird I have now was wean onto Zupreem fruit flavored pellets by the original breeder. It is a very sweet tasting pellet. There is a bit more sugar in it to help make it appealing to the birds.

Once the bird is used to this taste/pellet it is extremely hard to wean him off of it and get it used to eating Roudybush. Trust me I've tried and I will continue to try to get Louey to change over to Roudybush.

My opinion if given the choice between the two chose Roudybush hands down. If Roudybush is not available Zupreme does make a natural no dyes, no sugar added to the pellets.

Just so you know the pretty little colors in the pellets pass through the birds system into it's droppings, it can stain. The staining also can also make it difficult to spot an illness by masking the true color of an ill bird's dropping if you are trying to pinpoint symptoms.

Leda
I started w the Zupreem Fruit Flavored pellets, cuz PetSmart did not carry the Natural...and I did not know any better at the time. As Cindy mentioned, their poop is colored by the dyes in the pellets, so thing tend to get stained. My perches were getting reddish stains. The green and yellow were less visible. But with the colored poop, forget watching the poop to see what is going on. The color makes is difficult to see color/shade related symptoms.

I have some birds that eat the natural and NOT (or less of) the fruit. I give my gouldians some, and they will eat it in addition to their seeds (probably for variety), but only the natural pellets. I think it is because the natural looks more like seeds. I just finished 2 bags of 2.25 pounds of the natural, and have 3 bags on order from the local PetFood Express. They are cheaper than PetSmart, and cheaper than mail order because of the savings on the shipping. I don't use enough, fast enough to get the 20 pound bags.

For some cages I give them a mix of fruit and natural, others only one or the other, based on what they eat or don't eat. But I am shifting to the Natural.

Like you, I find the fruit pellet is more pleasant to handle, because of the fruit smell.

Roudybush also just came out with a regular mixed with dried tropical fruit and veggies called California Blend. The pellets come in the s, m and L rods which might be ok for hookbills and hard for finches to manage.

If you choose to use it with finches you can grind the mixture up. I have some on order and will get it soon. I'll let you know if my Lovebird likes it.

I plan on grinding some to give to the finches.

I am glad to know that the coloring is natural in it. How I have been using it is by granding it up in a coffee grinder and sprinkling it on the egg food a couple of times a week. They must not be eating enough to color their droppins, because I havent seen any thing different. I still will pick up a bag of the Rudeybush, and see how they like that.

I take some pellets and grind it up in a small motar and pestle. Then I mix some of that into the egg mix along with corn meal to help dry out the egg mix. It also gives them a taste of the pellets...I hope.

The coffee grinder sounds like a LOT less work than my motar and pestle.

I do my dried out egg shells in the coffee grinder too!!!