that's good to know they are working harder on getting more of the sufur-free fruits. they really seem to have really great mixes and i'd like to see more of them lacking the sulfites.

i'd be glad to have that site addy! i always love new stores thank you, karen!

totally! i wouldn't want to load my body down with dyes, so i wouldn't want to do it to my babies either!! i was going to get a bag each of zupreem and harrisons and do my best to wean.

i am REALLY happy about the same cage thing. it's going to make the transition a lot easier. of course, once her SS cage gets here i will have to do another transition. but at least she should be mostly settled in the house by then.

how many mac nuts do your hys get each day?

i've been eying those as well, i like the ingredients list. the "final" pellet decision will weigh a lot on what my vet tells me.

They get 5 - 6 a day. I give them the macs at night after they have eaten their other healthy foods.

sounds good, thank you! i will be so full of questions once ivy comes home. you guys are so great, i am so thankful to have you around

Cute is it like a prize of pudding after dinner?

There is a sure way to figure out if the dry fruit has been treated with sulfites, if it retains its color and it's soft and pliant to the touch, it has sulfites regardless of what the label and the manufacturere says. Fruit and veggies that are dried naturally look all discolored and brown and nasty and are dry and usually brittle to the touch.

The problem with labels is that manufacturers do not have to reveal on them anything that is not revealed to them on the manifest description of the product even if they know about it so, when they buy stuff from overseas, if the country of origin does not make the supplier list all ingredients, the manufacturer here in America doesn't have to either because, by law, he only needs to go by the original label. Ergo, when they order stuff from China, for example, it can have all kinds of nasty stuff added to it and it will not be on the label because Chinese law does not force them to do it and the chinese suppliers, knowing that we have this problem here in America, do not list the sulfites on purpose (and, most likely, because the buyers here in USA asked them not to).

And, I am sorry to say that the papaya that Goldenfeast uses is from China and it has sulfites in it even though they don't list it on the label. Linda Brink had this argument with them and, although they denied it at the beginning, they finally admitted to it when she insisted. Don't believe labels or anything a manufacturer will tell you. They want to sell the product and their job is to make it look as good as possible so, if they don't have to reveal the 'whole' truth to you, they won't. Even if what they don't tell you is not good for you... or your birds. It's a business, their motivation is profit, not your birds wellbeing.

Besides, dry fruit is not really good for birds and should only be used hydrated in a recipe or as a treat not offered very seldom. It concentrates sugar too much and does not provide enough water comsumption. One has to remember that birds eat only fresh vegetal material in the wild (which has a natural high water content) so nature did not 'program' them to drink a lot of water. But birds in captivity eat dry seeds and pellets and birdy bread and very, very little fresh produce (in comparison to wild birds) but their water consumption 'programming' is the same as their wild counterparts. That's why dehydration in birds, especially in large species, is so very commona and so dangerous.

That's great, Karen. I am stuck with Harrisons Coarse here. I wanted to introduce another pellet for variety, but so far TOP has proven a bust. I even ate it in front of my birds (not so bad) and acted like it was the most delicious food ever. They will take it from my had and drop it. It's so hard sometimes to get them to expand their minds (and stomachs) With TOP you are already getting a good food without the soy.