upatsix.com - Your Source For Pet Bird Information

Hello All,

I work for a bird and small animal food company and was wondering if I can get your help? I am trying to help this company to produce better and healthier diets that consumers are looking for. I would like to find out what you look for in a diet for your birds. Any info you can give me will help such as:

1. What kind of bird do you have?
2. Do you feed pellets, seed, or both and brands
3. What protein and fat levels do you want
4. What influences you to buy your food: brand,color, texture, high or low amount of sunflower seeds, peanuts, oats, millet,etc...
5. Do you look for specific types of nuts, fruit, veggies, etc.

Also if anyone owns small animals such as rabbits, guinea pigs, etc.. I would love your opinion on what you look for in their foods.

Anything else you can think of would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you to everyone in advance! Thank you UPATSIX!!

Please reply here or PM me!!

Perhaps you'd earn more goodwill and responses if you posted to one subforum, such as "Bird Chatter", rather than spamming every section you can find.

It's spring, Petter. Breeders are too busy handfeeding all those chicks to sleep or think straight Bspahr, when you have some time again, you could use UAS' search to find lots of interesting diet discussions in the archives.

My own preferences, always "organic," are very much in line with the diets recommended by Yahoo's Feeding Feathers site and also discussed here:

http://www.holisticbirds.com/pages/foodpp1002.htm

Good luck, Paca

Hey guys, I am not looking for sarcasm. I don't look at all the discussions usually just the ones for birds that I own that's why I posted for all birds. If I offended you I am sorry. I am just trying to help people get better choices out there. If you are not interested in the discussion than why not ignore it! I have done tons of research on avian nutrition I just want to see what other people's opinions are. Thank you.

Are you already familiar with the link and site I told you about? Favorites of yours too maybe?

Paca

yes I am familiar with it.

Hi, I have 4 macaws. I feed pellets, seed (no sunflower seeds and no peanuts), fresh fruits and vegetables. I am looking for a pellet that does not contain any type of soy. I'm not having much luck. I hope this helps your cause. carolteacher

carolteacher wrote:Hi, I have 4 macaws. I feed pellets, seed (no sunflower seeds and no peanuts), fresh fruits and vegetables. I am looking for a pellet that does not contain any type of soy. I'm not having much luck. I hope this helps your cause. carolteacher

What about these brands? (the only ones I can find that don't contain some sort of soy)
TOP
Foundation Formula
Dr D's

bspahr@fuse.net wrote:Hello All,

I work for a bird and small animal food company and was wondering if I can get your help? I am trying to help this company to produce better and healthier diets that consumers are looking for. I would like to find out what you look for in a diet for your birds. Any info you can give me will help such as:

1. What kind of bird do you have?
2. Do you feed pellets, seed, or both and brands
3. What protein and fat levels do you want
4. What influences you to buy your food: brand,color, texture, high or low amount of sunflower seeds, peanuts, oats, millet,etc...
5. Do you look for specific types of nuts, fruit, veggies, etc.

Also if anyone owns small animals such as rabbits, guinea pigs, etc.. I would love your opinion on what you look for in their foods.

Anything else you can think of would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you to everyone in advance! Thank you UPATSIX!!

Please reply here or PM me!!

1. 8 Macaws (one is a Hyacinth), one Sun Conure, 3 finches.

Also 3 rabbits--1 French Lop, 2 Lionheads.

2 & 3. Neither. Nuts, fresh or frozen organic fruits and vegetables, non-suphurated dried fruits and veggies, carbs in the form of rice, beans, whole grain breads, cooked and raw squash, etc. Macaws have a higher need for fat and protein than many other parrots, and Hyacinths have a higher need for high saturated-fat and a lower need for protein than other macaws. Mine prefers mac nuts, brazil nuts, coconuts, banana chips and vegetables to anything else. He tends to ignore other foods that are offered to the other macaws and Sun Conure.

4. Quality and kind of ingredients. It must be human grade. If there is safflower in any mix, I refuse to purchase it. Nasty stuff, and it's just wasted on our birds, who hate it. Petey the Sun Conure gets an occasional peanut (roasted, unsalted) or raw sunflower seed as a bedtime treat.

5. See #2.

The buns get Timothy hay, Pfau brand pellets, the occasional bit of fruit or vegetable that won't give them the runs, and mineral blocks and fresh water are available at all times. They also get treat sticks that they can gnaw on, as rabbits' teeth grow forever. Sometimes the treat sticks are hard food "glued" together with dog knows what, and sometimes they are bits of wood.

MyFids,

Thanks for your reply. Do you happen to know if they contain safflower? Have you used any of these brands? If so which do your birds prefer? I really appreciate your response.

carolteacher

carolteacher wrote:MyFids,

Thanks for your reply. Do you happen to know if they contain safflower? Have you used any of these brands? If so which do your birds prefer? I really appreciate your response.

carolteacher

I bought a bag of TOP's, and *I* like it (no, I haven't tasted it, but I can pick out sometimes individual things that are in the pellets... where-as most other brands, such as Zupreem, Kaytee, etc it's all sandy stuff...).

I am currently buying Zupreem for the birds, and they've also had Mazuri. None seem to care for TOP... If I had the extra money to buy it, AND the birds liked it, I'd probably be feeding TOP to them instead (I like the fact that you can see pieces of food in it!).

Also, looking at the ingredients on each site, it doesn't appear as if any contain Safflower... TOP and FF (original formula) are pretty similar, while Dr D's I haven't really compared to the others... actually it's heard of less.... and I just looked at a thread (that's in the Avian Diet Discussion forum) and it mentions that Dr D's has soy in it... so that leaves TOP and FF (original formula) without Soy to my knowledge...