Anyone who knows me knows that I am totally anti-sunflower seed. A siren is set to go off if one tries to sneak into my house.

I meet tons of people at the store. I cannot tell you how many people come in looking for help. Their 20-something-year-old bird has been diagnosed with fatty liver disease. Or their bird died of it. Each time, when I ask what type of diet their bird is/was on, I hear the same thing... "a seed mix with sunflower, safflower, pellets... you know, the parrot mix."

Once again, today, a woman came in. She just spent a small fortune at Red Bank Vet Hospital. Her Galah was diagnosed with an enlarged liver. He had to stay there for three weeks. They strongly recommended getting the bird off the seed diet. (She also fed some fruits and veggies). This bird is 27 years old; not even 1/2 his life expectancy. They connected it to the seed diet.

Now, I do not feed a total pellet diet. My diet is the Ultimate Blend which contains natural pellets, along with human grade dried fruits, veggies, nuts and herbs. My fids also get fresh foods daily, consisting of perhaps a cookable food (rice, beans, pasta, peas, papaya, veggies) or just plain fruit or veggies.

What do you feed your fids? If you feed a seed diet, why do you feel it is better than pellets? Here goes the debate!

Not gonna get much of a debate out of me.......No sunflower seeds here either. My guys get Roudybush pellets, nutriberries, avicakes, veggies, dried fruits, Bean cuisine, pastas, chicken, etc.......nuts for treats...more for Lu than Jeze.....

I just never bought a seed mixture with sunflower seed in it....really, I don't usually buy seed mixtures......been to the vet in the last 2 weeks and their bloodwork is fine.

My tiel gets mostly seed without sunflower. He'd been eating it for 8 years before I knew any better, and now its impossible to get him to eat anything else.

Ollie eats a pellet-based diet (zupreem), dried fruits, veggies, and nuts mix, 2 lafeber's nutriberries, 1 lafeber avi-cake, and then her fresh foods (birdiebread, beak appetit, pasta/bean mix, plain fresh veggies/fruits). She gets almonds and usually some of whatever we're having.

They all eat different stuff.

Doyle- Mostly fresh fruits and veggies, pasta, birdie bread. He gets a treat of the pellet/seed mix you describe. It was what he ate when he first came home and he loves the stuff! I am trying to switch him over to just pellets during the day when we are not home.

Danny- Apples and birdie bread. He loves pretty much all fruit but won't touch his veggies. So he eats veggies in a bird bread I make. Zupreem pellets during the day.

Prinny- Seed mix, birdie bread, broccoli. I cannot get her to try new things! I honestly thing she would starve herself rather than try something new.

Scarlett- Seed pellet mix w/no sunflowers. Apples and grapes so far. And she tried some birdie bread.

Pita always has Zupreem pellets, I mix the natural ones with the Harvest mix in one bowl & this in another bowl.



He loves that. I keep that in his sleep cage & on his playstand.

He also gets corn, oranges, apples, blueberries, peas, brocolli, pasta, peppers, ...etc etc etc.

No sunflower, no peanuts. I have a rotating pellet regimen consisting of Paradise Ultimate blend (except Benji who gets "Benji blend") for a couple months then Golden feast Golden'obles for a couple months. They used to love Roudybush but not so much anymore. Ok, thats the dry food bowl. They also have a veggie/bean mash (Mike's manna mash) all day. For treats its Volkman's 15 minute soak and serve. Sometimes I mix Volkman's Lovebird mix into Benji's food as well as the Eclectus mix into Zoey and Sophie's mix.
Every evening between 4 and 5 its SPROUT TIME!!! One thing I can NEVER be accused of is limiting my birds food supply!

As Cricket is only recently weaned and onto Millet at that, I'm having to learn him to eat the good eats!! Right now its Volkman's Parrotlet mix.

Sunflower seeds once in a while as a treat, but I have full flighted birds in an indoor aviary so plenty of exercise.

Crap, do you know if you hit the Ctl key three times fast you lose your post? LOL!

My guys get a base diet of Zupreem pellets available to them all the time. For a breakfast treat they get cut up bananas. For supper they get a "kitchen sink" mix of brown rice, bulgher wheat, beans, spinach, corn, and broccoli. I mix in either some pine nuts, or millet, or uncooked whole wheat pasta for some crunch. I always mix in some fresh shredded lettuce, and usually sprinkle in some ground cinnamon or ground chili powder. For treats while they are out of the cage they get diced apples or sometimes a little whole wheat toast crust without butter. Gosh do they love that! For treats in the cage they get birdie bread or perhaps a small ear of corn. Other than the millet, they get no seeds.

For the wild birds outside though, I feed black-oil sunflower seed. I think they can use it to help them survive the winter cold. Besides, let's face it, alongside our pampered fids, those wild birds are marathon athletes!

right here we go i do feed a seed based diet mostly because none of my fids like pellets apart from zuppy and hes not overly fond of them, they get about 1/4 of their det in seed the rest is in fresh fruit and veg and some cooked foods

when they were all at the vets a few weeks ago she said they are all in great health and the only problem she found in them was zuppy has dry skin on his head..

Pellets

Dried Fruits

Nuts

As a treat on their stands I give them various mixes. Sometimes I will buy one with sunflower or pumpkin seeds but these are not a daily part of their diets, only on occasion.

I will give fresh fruits and veggies but not all of them eat it. I also give cooked pasta and rice, potatoes mixed with either cinnamon or garlic. They love that and you can hear MMMMMM all through the house.

Not all of mine eat the fresh foods so that is why I am insistent that they get their pellets.