Who am I to change mother nature, Where are these Pellets to be found in the wild?
Mankind seems to think he/she has the right to cause Animals and Humans to live longer, WHY?
We offer our birds Pellets, Never as a staple, this has been proven over and over as un-healthy for birds, more and more Vets are changing there opinions of a all pellet diet.
We read and study what birds eat in the Wild, and do our best to duplicate that here in our home, Mankind created Pellets, they are not a NATURAL source of food for any bird.
What do birds eat in the wild, Seed,Fruits,Vegtables, Fresh Water.
What is the average life span of birds in the wild?
These life spans are controled by Mother Nature, Here in our Avairies and we the Keepers of our flock live by a saying "who are we to change what Mother has put in place?"
My personal opinion is "Mankind needs to stop making changes to the natural process", "he/she will cause the destruction of our world way before the time MOTHER has set".
We humans and animals that live longer by "Mankinds Intervention", are stealing from those lifes yet to come, if not, eliminating those lifes to come period.
By living longer we consume more of Mothers natural resources for a longer period of time, and by doing so...we steal from life yet to come.
This is why we don't offer our birds a staple diet of Pellets, we choose not to interfer with Mother and the path she has set for us to follow.

Kirby, Zoey and Cosmo eat the Paradise Ultimate Blend. They all get approx. 2 tablespoons of seed a day. Cosmo and Zoey sometimes get the seed mix from Bird Paradise and sometimes Volkman's. Kirby is currently getting Kaylor of Colorado. I also add pellets to their seed dish - I usually change the brand of pellets every month - but lately have just been giving Roudybush.

Skittles and the tiels - eat more seed than I like. They all 3 were on an all seed mix when we brought them home. Sydney was our 1st bird and I didn't know to her feed her any thing other than seed when we got her. I've been trying to switch them to a better diet - but all 3 are very stubborn! I feed them Volkman's and Kaylor of Colorado. We also leave the Ultimate Blend in Skittle's cage - but so far - she hasn't really eaten much of it. (these 3 are all also all currently flighted and fly around the house several times a day. I feel if they are going to be getting a diet that's a high % of seed - they have to have more exercise. Don't know if that really helps any or not. Cosmo just recently got his flights back in and has been flying some - Kirby and Zoey's flights haven't grown back in. Not sure whether everyone will stay flighted or not. Taking everything 1 day at a time!)

I feed all the birds fresh/cooked foods at least 2x a day. I try to offer 1x a day nothing but a mixture of fresh veggies/fruits. Then their "other" meal - cooked rice, beans, pasta, grains, birdy bread, veggies/fruits etc. Kirby and the conures dive into their fresh/cooked foods. The tiels and Skittles - pick at it - and some days they're better than others.

They all also get avicakes, nutriberries and mixed nuts as treats. I need to try sprouting again.

My tiels and IRN get seed and pellets (along with fruit and veggies); they like the pellets and they are their main staple. My little guys (budgies, canaries and finches) are offered seed and pellets (and fresh food), but honestly most of them don't like pellets. I have tried the "weaning" a few times and there are only a few who like both. So, I give them their choice. Some of my diet decisions are probably shortening my life too (although my diet has improved since I always have fresh fruit and veggies around for the fids).

Schroeder has the usual two bowls food / one bowl water setup in his cage, but more often than not I add a third plastic bowl of food to the bottom of his cage (he likes to snack down there)

One bowl always has a little bit of fruity Zupreem and alot of Harrisons high potency course (weaning him off the Zupreem has been suprisingly easy!)

The other one is more for treats/snacks, and sometimes I put a few nutriberries in there but usually it has "Omars Premium Blend" which was suggested by the store I got him from (also Omars of course).

To quote their website:
OMAR'S PREMIUM BLEND is a seed-based mix (no sunflower seeds) which contains a dazzling array of goodies for your parrot:

Safflower Seeds, Rolled Corn, Pumpkin Seeds, Buckwheat, Oat Groats, Peanuts, Zupreem Pellets, Hulled Almonds, Anise, Banana Chips, Carrots, Coconut Chips, Kibbled Corn, Pasta, Pistachio Nuts, Alaskan Peas, Pinenuts, Hulled Walnuts, Soybean Pellets, Papaya, Cinnamon Sticks, Dried Peppers and Millet Spray.

The third plastic dish is where I put fresh fruits or cooked foods, most often a mash of sweet potatoes, carrots and brocolli but sometimes apples or strawberries and snap peas.

Sounds like you do what I do Kate. Ollie doesn't get anything in her metal bowls that can't stay there for an entire day. All stuff that will spoil she eats off of her own mini plate or mini bowl on the bottom of the cage.

Exactly Camille, it's just so much easier that way!

My bird’s diet consists of:
Cooked mix containing:
Broken sugar beans, broken peas (rondo, maple, green, yellow), split peas (green and yellow), coarse maize grit, wheat, oats, sweet sorghum, lentils and mung beans (china peas). 1000g
Nutripro - aviary rusk 175g with spirulina, vitamin, minerals and very little calcium mixed in.
I mix cooked mix with nutripro and then take 1cup for the budgies to which I add 25g millet.
To the balance I add stripe sunflower 100g and give 1 cup mix to each pair of suns or irn. On top of this is added 250g chopped fresh fruit or veggies shared between all. Sometimes I give 6-8 peanuts (shelled) and 6-8 fruit parrot puffs to each pair about 2 times a week. On top of the food they may also find dried fruit or chilies or some nutty mix snack. I try to have the food more abundant in variety in summer to mimic nature, with less variety in the winter months. I have not had any success or much desire to feed a pellet based mix as my belief is as Arty describes, there are no pellets in nature. Pellets have also being linked to dehydration issues/ kidney function with long term use, irrespective of which manufacturer claims different. I see this as sales pitch only.
The budgies now love this mix although the fruit or veggies need to be grated as they don’t eat with feet. The budgies were converted from a seed diet.
The inside pets snack on a great deal more variety although I do limit the more junky stuff.
While I am feeding seeds / sunflower it forms a very tiny percentage of daily food. I don’t see this as a problem as all the birds get adequate exercise. Sometimes the seed is in sprouted form.
The second hand left over food gets given to the chickens so nothing goes to waste.

Me too...thats what I do.

I have through several years of trying different ideas - come upon this one that works for my birds.
My Tiels get a bowl of Higgins Tiel and Keet mixed 1 bag of Tiel to about 2 bags of Keet - total of 75 pounds of food (My mom gets some also for her Tiel and Keet)
They also get a bowl of Zupreem Tiel Fruit Blend, a treat cup for oat groats and one of Small fruit and veggie.
They do not eat much fruit and veggies except for some of them, but I still give it to them in the hopes they will. The few that do eat veggies are showing the others that it is pretty good.

For those that aren't aware - current studies show that Tiels and budgies do require seed in their diet.


For my Ringies - I have tried an all pellet diet to everything else in between.
What I have noticed recently is that they do better on a combination of different things which I have always done, but they do get some sunflower in their mix. I currently have Higgins Sunburst Delite Medium in one dish, Zupreem Fruit Blend in another dish and then they get fresh foods when they come out in the evenings. They also get Nutriberries, cooked mixes and Avicakes. I have found that they seem to keep their weight and heaviness better and their feathers also seem to be shinier. Indy has even gotten back to his old crazy self.

BTW - if you are using a safflower based mix versus sunflower - they are both oil seeds so they are pretty much the same.

Bella gets the Ultimate Blend and she also gets a good share of veggies and fruits. We're still learning favorites carrots, hot peppers, bananas are a new favorite food item, brocolli, and if I have anything cooked that's sharable she gets snap peas, peas, chicken, sweet potatoes, and well today she stole a steamed shrimp from my plate! And she ate quite a bit of it. I'm not to keen on shelfish for the sodium content along with other things but the monster enjoyed it.