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Hi Karin!

Good to see you IF you like you can e-mail me privately. We're all different so what I do may not be what you want to do...and the only thing I believe we can really say about parrot nutrition is that we don't know yet.

I would add many more grains..and make sure they are WHOLE grains (not wheat bran or pearled barley etc). To choose from are amaranth, quinoa, spelt, wheat, kamut, oats, barley, millet.

Also the easier to digest legumes...mung, adzuki, pea and lentil. Choose at least 3 grains and a few legumes and mix them 2 parts grain to 1 part legume.

Those I prepare...by soaking overnight. The legumes I bring to a boil for 10 min. then simmer for 20 min.

To that I add a variety of fresh seasonal veggies and greens. Things to choose from may be....collards, dandelion greens, kale, bok choy, cabbage, carrots, squash, celery, dark leafy lettuce, broccoli etc Choose 2, 3 or more..

Then add some seasonal fruit...1, 2 or 3....such as persimmon, pomegranite, banana, apple, papaya, mango,melon etc

Approximately 30% grains, 15% legumes...so you have 45-50%....about 40-50% greens/veggies, some fruit.

Then I add green supplements which means powdered wheat or barley grass, or powdered alfalfa...often from capsules broken open. ....then a few drops of essential fatty acids such as flax or hemp seed oil. Some days unrefined red palm oil.

Some birds also have food allergies....and for those birds you can eliminate some foods for a period of time and if they improve or don't..reintroduce the foods to see if you see a reaction.

I don't feed pellets...bottom line. My guys also get some dry seed mix and nuts but most seed and grains and sprouted.

It sounds like a lot.....I know it did to me at first but in 1997 I didn't have a choice so the above is what I've been feeding and it takes me about 30 min. a day to feed and water 12 birds. (grains/legumes ready to go)

Shauna

Hi Karin:

You know at one time I used to feel guilty about feeding pellets until I realized that most of the people who made me feel guilty did not work so they had lots of time to prepare lots of different foods for their birds. I tried to do it all and found myself stressed out more times than not. Then I got breast cancer and life got a little more complicated but I didn't dump my birds just made my life simpler. Now my birds get Tropican pellets during the day, a dry mix in the evening and fruits and veggies when I'm eating them which is quite frequently and as long as well bird exams keep coming back perfect, I'm going to keep on doing what I'm doing.

Bev

Hi Karin:

Zazu started plucking about 3 years ago. The first year it was a little spot on her chest, it grew back. It was in August because I took her to the vet on September 8th. Everything was normal. Then in March she did it again but this time it was worse. Back to the vet twice that time. Cost me $1000. Again, all tests normal. There are periods when it almost grows back and then she starts again. I give her as many things as I can think of to shred. Puzzle toys in her cage and the new line of Birdy Einstein toys are good so she has to work for food through the day when I'm not there. The main thing is not to give her any attention for the behaviour as that will reinforce it. I just ignore it. It is difficult in the beginning but it gets easier.

And absolutely you should give as many different healthy things as you can. I'm just saying don't feel guilty if you feed pellets because the 95 or more % of avian vets who suggest pellets for our birds can't all be wrong.

Bev

Hi Karin,
I make the Manna Mash and freeze about 3 days worth in baggies. I also make birdie bread and freeze it. In the morning Annie gets a teaspoon of manna mash and 1/4 of her bread cut up all mixed together. In the evening she eats off my plate and when I put her in her cage at night she gets pellets and seed to hold her over if she gets hungry.
I work full time but I'm lucky enough to work 4 10 hour days. I'm off on Wednesdays so I make my mash and bread on Wednesdays or Saturdays. If I didn't have the day off though I'd give her pellets. All my fids get Zupreem. I've tried Harrisons but none of the fids liked it.
Gloria

Hi Karin,

I am coming in late to the scenario here, so pardon me if you've already answered this. Have you had any in-depth bloodwork done? Sometimes there's a slight imbalance that can cause irritation to the skin.

I'm sure you've already investigated these other medical possibilities, but many non-avian vets miss them:

* Aromatics in the environment, like perfume, hair spray, wood shavings, or bad air outside the house. Even tiny quantities can affect some birds
* Allergies (this bloodwork has to be sent off)
* Laundry detergent - it gets aerosolized as you wear the clothes
* Carpet sensitivities
* Imbalances in the blood chemistries

We see a lot of pluckers at the clinic where I'm a vet tech. Sometimes it's a quick fix, but most of the time, it's either the "easy" treatment plan of Prozac and an E-collar or a long and expensive journey to the truth. Most owners can't afford the thousands of dollars to find the real cause, or find it too late to stop the plucking once it's behavioral.

Many of our clients' birds pluck seasonally, which leads us to believe it's hormonal frustration in those cases. Nobody knows what to do about that.

Good luck.

The idea behind pellets is to take some sort of inexpensive mixture of grains and other foods, grind them together, and then add ingredients such as carotene, Retinal, methionine (or its alcohol or ketone analogue), lysine, vitamin D, and a large assortment of inorganic materials like traces of copper compounds, vanadium compounds, etc. to make a complete self contained diet.

Every manufacturer of these tends to tell people that they should just use their pellets. This warning seems primarily designed to sell more of the company's pellets!

The good thing about these things is that they will probably provide a complete diet for many birds, and most bird illness is caused by a poor diet!

There are bad things too:

1. Although all living animals require about the same nutrients, the proportions in which they are required varies from species to species. Pellets are for generic birds! Diets that would be fine for cockatiels might be very bad for other birds! Exact requirements are also not known for most avian species.

2. Some of the compounds placed in pellets seem to be absorbed well only in the presence of a natural matrix. The bird may not be able to utilise all the things added.

3. Some of the compounds added may be added as racemic mixtures of enantiomers. (Enantiomers are molecules that are different from their mirror images.) The "wrong" enantiomer may be very harmful. (Witness the thalidomide scandal about 45 years ago, one enantiomer made people go to sleep, the other caused pregnant women to have children with an ailiment called focamelia. {foca means seal in Spanish and other latin languages, because the children often had flippers instead of arms and legs.})

4. Some of the compounds added are known to be unstable over time. The pellets may be a complete diet when manufactured, but they may not stay that way long enough for the bird to have eaten them!

5. One must question the care made by pellet manufacturers to guarantee that the materials that they add are really pure. Also, a majority of plants contain toxins to defend against their being eaten. Are any foods with toxic components being employed here?

6. How sure are we that the manufacturers really knew for sure all the compounds required for life? Are we leaving out something????