Harrisons Super fine

[steve56616]

Does anyone use this complete food? I have read so many good things about it and I am trying to get my finches to eat it. The Bengalese do a bit but none of my Gouldians.
I'd love to get them eating it properly. Anyone had success?

[Lucille]

I'm not a fan of pellets. The first ingredient in most, no matter how expensive, is ground yellow corn, which means the manufacturer is making a mint on something that costs them very little.
I think birds love foraging and hulling their seed, and a well thought out seed selection with egg food and veggies on the side keeps them healthy..
I do have pellets I mix in but they are not well received, when the current tub is gone I probably won't buy more.

[steve56616]

Yes I have to agree but Harrisons is "Organic" and the main ingredient is Hulled Grey Millet, Ground Hull-less Barley, Ground Soya then Ground Yellow Corn. Followed by lots of other ingredients such as sunflower, peas, Lentils, Oats Sea kelp etc etc.
Reading about the seed diets and all the anti mould chemicals added plus the insecticides leads me to believe this would be a better diet overall.... thats if I can convert them obviously

[steve56616]

I'd like to make one more comment on my birds. The are very choosy and waste most of the seed mixture as they seem to only eat the large yellow millet and not a wide variety in the mix, hence my other thought of them having a more rounded balanced diet in the pellet

[debbie276]

Sounds like you would be feeding mostly millet, barley and soya then, with trace other ingredients.
Gouldians diet changes with the seasons and whether they are breeding, molting or resting. They will change which seeds they eat in the same seed mix depending on which mode they are in. So what they eat this month may change next month.
I also am not a fan of pellets and feel the birds, especially sees eaters which they are, enjoy the variety of seeds and the simulation of hulling them. When you feed pellets you will notice pellet dust/powder at the bottom of the dish from the birds trying to hull the pellet.
Seeds with hard boiled egg and other added vegetables on the side make a well balanced diet.

Good luck in whichever way you choose

[Lucille]

Do a search on 'organic', to me in many cases it is an advertising gimmick. In jurisdictions where there are actual legal requirements for using the word 'organic' in many cases you could drive a truck through the loopholes, they are so big.

Looked up the ingredients of Harrison's Superfine, and the ingredient list varies with the adjective, for instance the adult maintenance superfine:

*Ground Yellow Corn, *Ground Hull-less Barley, *Hulled Grey Millet, *Ground Soybeans, *Ground Shelled Peanuts, *Ground Shelled Sunflower Seeds, *Ground Lentils, *Ground Green Peas, *Ground Toasted Oat Groats, *Ground Alfalfa, *Ground Rice, *Chia Seed, Calcium Carbonate, Montmorillonite Clay, Vitamin E Supplement, Ground Dried Sea Kelp, Sea Salt, *Sunflower Oil, Natural Mixed Tocopherols, Lecithin, Rosemary Extract, *Algae Meal, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Dl-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Niacin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, D-Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Folic Acid, Zinc Sulfate, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Sodium Selenite, Calcium Carbonate, *Vegetable Oil.

[steve56616]

The one I have is the High potency superfine. I will continue to add it as a supplement then. I just wanted to know what others thought of it and now I do. And Yes Debbie, I do see fine powder at the bottom of the dish so maybe not as 'least wasteful' as the manufacture have you think

[wildbird]

I have tried it on English Sparrows and even some to my Javas and neither one seemed to like them. The Javas like Roudybush Nibbles which I provide a little bit of, but they have lots of seed choices also. I would never try to convert a seed eating bird to a pellet diet completely. Even the vet told me that finches need to have seed. That is what they naturally eat. I also give Harrison's Power Treats occasionally. They are very hard and have to be crushed (which isn't easy to do) for finches. The ingredients look good and the birds like them. There are some good food products for your Gouldians on the ladygouldianfinch.com website, and lots of information on Gouldians there too.

[Babs _Owner]

steve56616

My finches ignore the pellets completely

[lovezebs]

steve56616

My opinion is, that birds have surviced and flourished for hundreds of thousands of years without pellets, eating seeds, so I sincerely believe that that's the right diet for them.

I know that the manufacturers of pellet diets will try to brainwash people into believing that birds can't survive without pellets, but that's their business, so who can blame them?

I tried to buy some of the fruity pellets a while ago. My birds wanted nothing to do with them, and they smelled like artificial fruity candy.

All of my birds eat seeds, supplemented with wild grass seeds, eggs, vegetables, greens, fruit and crushed freeze dried mealworms. While breeding, many relish fresh mealworms as well.

If you really like the idea of pellets, I'd offer them on the side, as an option.

[Atbird]

steve56616

I feed pellets to my canaries and linnies as a supplement. I just keep it in a separate dish that I leave in the cage year round. I find they like to nibble at it now and again. The canaries do gobble it up during the molt, but leave it pretty untouched the rest of the year, so I think their getting something out of it. The linnies tend to like it before the breeding season. I feel it's like cuttlebone or vitamins, so that's why I offer it. As for your birds picking out the seeds they like....you are giving them too much . I've determined how much my birds eat a day by seeing how much seeds are left over and reducing the amount of seed until only a few seeds are left the next day. My birds eat all their seeds.

[Sojourner]

Birds eat seeds. They have for millions of years. Well, except for the ones that eat fish, or mice, or bugs ... you know what I mean.

My finches pick around the pellets in their mix. They eat the white millet, the canary grass seed, and the odd oat groat now and then.

They get egg food (dry, they won't eat it moistened) and fresh greens, fruits, and veggies.

They know what they need to eat. The ones that didn't, didn't live long enough to leave a lot of offspring so they died out over the past umpty-million years.

Pellets are not a better balanced diet, no matter how they hype them. They constitute an unchanging, unvarying, inflexible feeding regime, IMHO.

Show me the peer-reviewed research that proves these pelleted diets are better than offering a variety of fresh seed and veggies/fruits/greens.

*crickets*

I offer small amounts of varying types of seed every so often just in case they decide they want it, but it is very very clear that their main diet is going to be white millet, canarygrass seed, oat groats, egg food, and their greens, fruits, and veggies - because that is what they go for every time.

Your birds are telling you what they need to eat. Please listen to them.

[Sally]

I am one of those who tried an all-pellet diet at one time. I loved it--no hull mess, no wasted seeds, lots less work for me. Then one day in the bird room, I realized that my birds were quieter, less active than normal. The only thing I had changed was eliminating seed from their diet, giving them pellets instead.

I switched back to a seed diet, and the change was amazing. More active birds, lots more singing. When we keep birds in cages especially, we have taken away their ability to fly all over their natural territory, seeking out whatever food is available. Then when we give them pellets, we have taken away their natural way of eating, which is hulling seed (even insect-eating birds will eat some seed). Birds in nature will eat seeds, bugs, insects, plants, minerals, clay--lots of different materials.

When we offer them only a dish of pellets, we aren't meeting their natural instincts. Line the bottom of a cage with hay, and once they have gotten over their suspicion of it, watch how much time they spend on the bottom of the cage foraging through that hay. I have offered hulled millet to weanlings, thinking it would be easier for them to eat. To my amusement, those little babies would spend an inordinate amount of time trying to hull that already-hulled seed. Instinct is a powerful thing.

My opinion is that the more varied diet we can offer our birds, the better not only for their physical health, but their mental health. Pellets can serve as a supplement, but only that. JMO