Pellet diet

[pattiej]

I was thinking of buying a pellet food for my zebra finches, not to switch them over completely but just for extra nutrition. I was thinking of maybe wetting some pellets and making them soft and mushy and sneaking into the birdy egg bread that I feed them. What do think?? You think that will help them as far as nutrition? Just wondering, do any of you give pellets in addition to seeds to your birds? Do you give it dry or mix it into other moist food or what?

[cindy]

I offer seed and pellets. I used Zupreme, switched to Lafebers finch, it is really small so there isn't much waste. I am trying Roudybush Nibbles right now.

In the past I have always used Roudybush with my hookbills. My lovebird is on a pelleted diet.

[ac12]

Depends on the bird
If they were brought up on seeds, they may refuse to eat pellets.

I give most of my birds pellets, Zupreem, both the colored fruit flavored and natural. I am switching over to the natural, cuz the fruit flavored one results in colored poop. The colored poop stains the perches.
I give one of my breeding finches LaFebers finch pellets.

I decided to switch them to pellets cuz of a few things.
#1 is waste. They eat what they want to eat, and would not eat half the stuff in the seeds (dark seeds and pellets). So the seeds end up 2x more expensive. Also if you buy "fortified" seed mix, if they don't eat the pellets in the seed mix, you are throwing away the "fortification."
#2 is mess. The seed hulls get all over the place, on the floor several feet from the cages. Seed guards work only to a point.
#3 keep them eating. When they eat seeds, they leave seed hulls on top of the seeds. After a while the whole top layer is seed hulls. They do not dig thru the hulls to get to the fresh seeds, so they stop eating. With pellets there is no hull, they eat the whole pellet.

Converting seed eaters to eat pellets is a challenge, who will win, you or the bird? Some birds will easily switch over, some will refuse to eat pellets until you practically starve them, and the rest are in-between.

I used a technique that I read here
http://www.finchinfo.com/diet/introducing_new_foods.php

- The night before, I remove the seeds, leaving only pellets in their cage.
- - This way they only have pellets to eat when they wake up.
- In the morning, I wait before putting the seeds back.
- - First 1hr, then 2hrs, then 3hrs, then 4hrs. Every few days increasing the wait time. Usually they are eating pellets before the 4hr point.
- When I see that all the birds are eating pellets, then I stop putting the seeds back.
- However, I will give them seeds as a "treat" once a week or so.

After the pellet conversion. Most of the birds will eat both seeds and pellets, even when both are available. Others will eat only seeds, if given a choice.

Now, as to who gets seeds:
- Gouldians
- Societies who are fostering gouldian chicks.
- Parents/fosters who have chicks (hatchlings/nestlings/fledglings) to feed. Seeds are easier to regurgitate to the chicks than pellets.
- Fledglings get a dish of soaked seeds.

[cindy]

I just ground up some Roudybush and added it to the eggfood, they are all eating it. The owls eat just about anything I give them.

[ac12]

I picked up a small motar & pessel.
Now I know what I can use it for, grinding down pellets

[cindy]

I picked up a small Cuisinart processor (under $20) that only grinds or chops. It is great for chopping veggies and grinding pellets up to a powder. The ground up form seems to be what my guys like in eggfood and sprinkled on seeds.

[pattiej]

Thanks guys! I will go ahead then and look for a good pellet and grind it up and add it to the egg food.

[Sally]

I wasn't real happy when I had my birds on an all-pellet diet, so when I went back to seeds, I had all these bags of pellets in the freezer. I found that grinding them up and adding them to the eggfood made good use of them. I have also been getting Hagen's egg granules, which my birds would not eat. Ground them up and put them in the eggfood--all gone. Kind of like hiding veggies in your kid's food--as long as they don't know about it, they eat it!

[mickp]

once again I'll be the odd one out here, I find that feeding pellets is a waste of time. They dont find pellets in the wild, they find their own food and enough of it to be healthy. so why should we change that what gives us the right.
I believe that it is better to make available to the birds the things they wold find in their natural habitat and let them select from there.
the number one food on any seedeaters list is green seed, seed does not often get the chance to ripen in the wild as the birds prefer it green.
ahhh stuff it, I could go on for ages on this topic.
but to each their own. so I'll shut up for now

[CandoAviary]

I recycle my birdseed to a corner of the yard.... It is amazing when given the opportunity, the wild birds prefer the ripe seed and leftover pellets. Everything from cardinals, wrens, mockingbirds, jays, doves, etc. Line up on the fence waiting for me to get a certain distance away after dumping.... they act like they are at the best smorgasborg ....... so I think it is great that our caged birds can have green seed and ripe seed. Also pellets and everything else we spoil them with. .... though the wildbirds in my yard are pretty fat

[Ursula]

the number one food on any seedeaters list is green seed, seed does not often get the chance to ripen in the wild as the birds prefer it green.

When I still lived in Europe I had a couple canaries. Once a year (in early summer I think) my local pet store used to have "green millet" and my canaries just loved that stuff! It was not like millet spray but somehow looked like the ends of long grass with seeds. I have never seen it here anywhere...
You make a good point though! I wonder if I could grow some seeds like millet in pots and give it to the birds while it's still green. I've sprouted seeds before and also let them grow a few inches but I never tried to really grow plants out of them.
Has anybody of you ever done that?

[CandoAviary]

Millet is very easy to grow. I have a raised bed planter that I sow and also even where I dump my seed for the birds, it roots and grows.... If I can keep Hubby from mowing it while cutting grass, it too will produce spays of milk filled grenn seed.
I gues it depends on your climate, but here it grows great as long as you provide the water.

[Ursula]

Thanks, Candace!

I think it should grow well in Georgia too. I have to try that...

[cindy]

If you make birdie breads or baked treats add some ground pellets to the mix.